Playing a Big Hand in Texas Holdem

Today’s poker strategy is about flopping a monster hand at the poker table. There are a few that just don’t show up at a poker table during hands of Texas Holdem. One of them is attractive women who think a beer belly is a sign of potency. The other is a monster hand. There is not much that any good poker strategy can do about the former, but poker players should learn what to do with the latter in order to make money on their big hands in Texas Holdem. Let me reinforce something that was stated in the first paragraph. Monster hands are rare, and most poker players who get them usually achieve them during the latter stages of a Texas Holdem hand. Flopping a big hand at the poker table is like catching Bigfoot eating a jackalope while aliens are trying to abduct him. In short, this won’t happen that often to most poker players. Well, at least not the ones whose poker strategy doesn’t include cards shoved up their sleeves. Poker players shouldn’t waste this gift from the Texas Holdem gods when it happens, and they should do their best to get paid off. Getting paid off on a big hand is sort of like dating. If you pull out your room key and drop your pants while still chatting the girl up on the bar, she is probably going to kick you someplace soft and painful then sprint from room. You need to start slow. The same holds true when at the poker table with your big Texas Holdem hand. Your poker strategy in the early goings will be to move slowly. You don’t want to scare off the other poker players. These are the suckers who will be throwing money into the pot. If they have left the hand, they can’t give you money. Position will determine a lot. If you are in an early position during the post flop round of betting, go in as cheaply as possible. If the few poker players betting before you have checked, follow their lead and let the late position poker players think you guys are weak and just hoping they will go easy on you. When they bet, call the bet…nothing more. If an early position poker player acting before you in this Texas Holdem hand bets, it means he thinks he has something, or he is going to aggressively bluff. Either way, you have found somebody who will flood the pot with money in an attempt to drive you out of the hand. When the turn rolls around, this would be a good time to pull out the check-raise at the poker table; especially if no scare cards came out on the turn. Checking will flush out the poker players who are willing to keep feeding the pot and the raise will force them to defend the money they have already put in the pot by establishing a cost for them to see the final card. While the check-raise is a poker strategy that inherently exudes strength, if you make the raise a modest one, you will appear to be trying to scare off your opponents, but still look non-committal to your hand. Ideally on the river you will check-raise again; going all-in on the “raise” portion of the move. This is a poker strategy to use only if you are mostly certain your opponent(s) acting after you will bet. It is a wasted move and loss of money if they just check and the last round ends with no bets going into the pot. If you think your opponents will check and just let the pot stand as is, go all-in and maybe they will bite. If you think your opponent(s) will bet behind you, go all-in on the raise part of the check-raise poker strategy. If they have gone that far, they will probably match your all-in gamble. That is the poker strategy for today.