Texas Holdem – Your Best Poker Game

US players are welcome

In order to maximize your profit, you should determine which poker variant fits best to your play and why. Since your success in poker games means that you have a better skill level in certain aspects, your goal is to know the reason for your success in order to steadily increase, then maximize your profit and improve your advantage over other players. Different poker variants and various betting structures involve different playing skill and strategic aspects – that’s why it is extremely important to determine at which game you do your best.

The only sure way to determine where you excel over your opponents is to keep track of your playing activity and compare your winnings in different poker variants and at different limits. You can write everything down in a diary, or use built-in poker room statistics (if available), or use some third party software that would automatically retrieve all necessary data from your poker window and then suggest a poker game, where your do better than in other poker variants you play.

Nevertheless, there are certain aspects necessary for successful play in certain poker variants. A winning poker player should have both personal and technical advantage over his opponents. Personal advantages include varying your playing style, mastering evaluation and bluffing. Technical advantages include your math skills and ability to quickly calculate your pot odds, implied odds, etc.

The following is a brief list of key skills and qualities essential for different poker variants. The list is sorted by games.

Longhand Limit Texas Holdem

Successful longhand Limit Texas Holdem play requires good technical skills and especially understanding hand values as well as patience and discipline. Since usually most hands see the showdown, evaluating skills are very important, because it is much harder to bluff and at the same time, pot odds are often making a river fold very risky.

Shorthand Limit Texas Holdem

Successful shorthand Limit Texas Holdem play requires advanced evaluation skills as well as decent technical skills. In shorthand Limit Texas Holdem games there is more bluffing, so your goal is to exactly know when to switch your play from moderate to very aggressive and vice versa. Generally, in a shorthand Limit Texas Holdem game, more fancy moves can be made rather than in a longhand Limit Texas Holdem game. Hence, your opponent reading skills are extremely valuable. However, as it is still Limit Texas Holdem, your technical skills are important as well.

No-Limit Texas Holdem

Successful No-Limit Texas Holdem play also requires both player-reading and technical skills. While technical skills (such as strategic analysis and mathematical calculation of odds) will help you understand optimal sizes of bets and calls, player reading skills will help you correctly treat your hand and suggest appropriate strategy. Generally, a winning No-Limit Texas Holdem play lends itself to how players utilize aggressive betting. For example, consider stealing more pots, if your opponents are loose and meek, but fold doubtlessly, when you face stern resistance towards bluffing. Trap loose players – generally you should be able to wipe loose opponents out within one hand.

Pot-Limit Omaha Holdem

Pot-Limit Omaha Holdem is especially popular among winning No-Limit Texas Holdem players, because all major skills required for successful NL Texas Holdem play are applicable in Pot-Limit Omaha Holdem. However, the nature of Pot-Limit Omaha Holdem implies high variance and therefore the players should have more gamble in them than those playing NL Texas Holdem. Your goal is to be able to tolerate impressively large swings and at the same time avoid tilt.

Conclusion

If you’re a patient and rather tight player and you understand the pot odds concept well, then you should prefer Limit Texas Holdem over other poker variants, but if your psychology and player-reading skills prevail over tech skills, then you’ll generally do better in shorthand no-limit and pot-limit poker variants.

Also recommended:

1. How to select a suitable Texas Holdem game
2. Introduction to Advanced No-Limit Texas Holdem
3. Texas Holdem’s place in poker Game Selection
4. Introduction to Omaha
5. A prove of being Texas Holdem a game of skill costs $1m