Tip #3 Stay Calm and Dont Drink Its easy to say but to be a good poker player, especially Texas Holdem which can get very intense, you need to stay calm and focused at all times. A good poker player is calculating, only when you have been playing for years should you rely on you intuition. There are many considerations to make when playing every hand and you need to keep a cool clear head to avoid making mistakes. At times other players will irritate you. In fact many players will annoy you intentionally in order to get you worked up and agitated in to a state where youll make more mistakes. Its part of their tactics. In order to resist such underhanded strategy some Texas Holdem poker players use stress relief techniques developed to help office workers and high-powered business men. Look in your library for books on stress relief techniques. Some poker players even use forms of meditation to help maintain a cool and calm state. If you are seriously want to learn to play Texas Holdem and to play to win then the best advice is to stay clear of alcohol while playing. It impairs judgement and makes you more emotional. Two things that can be fatal to poker player. Tip #4 Watch The Other Players. A common mistake that many Texas Holdem beginners make is to not pay enough attention to what the other poker players are doing. When you are trying to decide what you are going to do with your hand, calculating your outs and odds, its all too easy forget about the other players. A good Texas Holdem poker player always keeps at least one eye on the other players. Two of the most important times to watch the other poker players are when they make their opening bets and when the flop goes down. The opening bet is important because it gives an indication of what their starting hand is. If they make a big raise before the flop and then check or bet small after the flop goes down it is an indication they had a big starting hand but missed the flop. If they bet strongly after the flop when they had not done so before the flop then it could be they had a low hand and hit the flop, perhaps a straight or flush draw. So you see it is important not only to keep an eye on the other players but also to remember how they bet. When the flop is dealt many top class Texas Holdem poker players watch the other players not the cards. Plenty of poker players, even good ones, have tells. Little facial expressions or habits that can be a give away to what theyre thinking. Often it its as subtle as a momentary squint or a brief twitch of an eyelid, blink and youll miss it. If a player has put a big raise on a starting hand and completely misses the flop it can be very hard for him to keep a poker face. Tip #5 Get Caught Bluffing. Bluffing in Texas Holdem Poker, if you dont know already, is where you play as if you are holding a better hand than you really have. When bluffing the aim is usually to encourage the other players to fold because they think you have a winning hand that beats theirs. Generally you dont want your bluff to be called, but on occasions it can be quite useful to be caught out. The problem with bluffing is that while its nice if you win a few hands with rubbish cards if you are too successful in your bluffing it can mean that your opponents fold whenever you bet. This is useful if you dont have a very playable hand. On the other hand, if you have a decent hand and want to see some action on it then its no good if everyone just folds. Therefore, if you get caught bluffing once or twice in a poker game other players are more likely to consider you are bluffing when, in fact, you hold a very good hand indeed. One good way to play this is to bluff in such a way as you get caught out and then, when you have a decent hand, play it in a similar way to the hand you were bluffing on. Be careful not to overact when you are trying to be caught bluffing otherwise the other poker players may catch on to your game. |
