1. Welcome

In this article

• Your position at the table has an effect on the strength of your cards
• Always know how to play: The Starting Hands Chart

Welcome to encyclopedia of poker beginners course for Fixed Limit. Our goal is to give you a comprehensive crash course that introduces you to the currently best and most advanced beginner strategy for Fixed Limit Texas Hold'em. Afterwards, you will be able to pass the quiz, and can clearly dominate the tables to which you will take your $50+$100 starting balance.

Even the top players among our members, who now play on the same level as the best pros of the world, stood on the same spot you are currently at. They internalized what you will learn now, and are the living proof that this strategy works.

Even if you don't have the ambition to push the limits, if poker is only a fun hobby for you, the laid out foundation will guarantee that you know how to win at the poker table. To know what you are doing is fun. Winning is fun.

So let's get started. This article deals with the strategy for the first betting round. You found a good table, bought in and are finally part of the action. Your two hole cards appear in front of you, and now you have to ask yourself if your hand is good or bad, and what to actually do with it.

This is what you will learn in the following article. Your position at the table influences your playing style, and based on this, you will learn which cards to play in the first betting round.

The next chapter is about the topic positions at the poker table. Simply click on the "Next page" button above or below this text window.

2. What is your position at the table?

THE EARLIER YOUR POSITION, THE BETTER CARDS YOU NEED

Position is in fact only another way of representing how many players will still act behind you. From a logical point of view this is important, because the more players there are behind you, the higher the probability that one of them has a better hand.

Therefore: The more opponents act behind you, so the earlier your position is, the better your own hand has to be.

Starting from the dealer, you count the seats counter-clockwise

To determine your own position, you start at the current dealer (Button) and count the seats between you and him counter-clockwise. Take a look at the following chart:

THE FOUR GROUPS OF POSITION

As you probably already noticed, there are four different groups of position:

• 2 late positions
  The dealer himself and the player to his right represent the late position.
• 3 middle positions
  The following three players are the middle position.
• 3 early positions
  Subsequently, the next three are in early position as they always have to act early in each betting round.
• 2 blind positions
  The two players who paid the blinds make up their own group. The player next to the dealer is the small blind, followed by the big blind.

WHEN PLAYERS LEAVE THE TABLE

What if a player leaves the table? When this happens, the first early position simply drops out. Thus there are only two early positions instead of three. If another player leaves the table, only one early position remains.

K

King

Q

Queen

J

Jack

T

>

Ten

9

Nine

An s behind the cards signifies suited and means that both cards are of the same suit. For example AQs means Ace Queen of the same suit. An o signifies offsuited and means that the cards are from different suits.

THE FIRST COLUMN: WHAT HAVE YOUR OPPONENTS DONE?

In the first column you see every possible answer to the question what your opponents have done so far. Of course you play differently if e.g. there has been a raise, as this usually represents strong hands.

SECOND TO SIXTH COLUMN: YOUR ACTION ACCORDING TO YOUR POSITION

Your position now tells you which column to check. If you are in early position, you look at the second column. If you are in the big blind, you look at the last colulmn.

MORE THAN ONE RAISE IN FRONT OF YOU

An easy to handle special case arises if more than one raise took place in front of you. The SHC only shows you what to do if there has been one raise, as the inclusion of cases with multiple raises would only bloat it unnecessarily.

If more than one raise happens in front of you, you muck all your hands except those of the very strong ones, like AA, KK, QQ, AKs and AKo. With these you raise even further, as they are top hands and you want to inflict maximum pressure.

4. What to do if somebody raises after you?

The SHC covers almost every possible game situation, except one: You joined the pot and there's a raise after you. These special cases will be treated now.

THERE HAS BEEN EXACTLY ONE RAISE AFTER YOU

If there has been only one raise, you call it with any hand you joined the pot with in any case. If your hand belongs to the very strong hands group, so AA, KK, QQ, AKs or AKo, you raise even further.

MORE THAN ONE RAISE AFTER YOU

With more than one raise, you have to act more carefully as this represents a lot of strength. Therefore you only call with hands from the strong hands group, so JJ, TT, 99, AQs, AQo and AJs.

If your hand belongs to the very strong hands group, like AA, KK, QQ, AKs or AKo, you will raise even further as mentioned previously, as your hand is strong enough to build up massive pressure.

5. Conclusion

Congratulations. With this article you already learned a major part of the fixed limit strategy. You now know that your playing style depends on your position, and the starting hands chart tells you which cards to play. Last but not least you know how to react accordingly if players raise after you.

In the next article Evaluate your hand on the flop you learn how to continue after the first three community cards have been put down on the board. In the following articles you will learn how to play these card combinations in the most profitable way.

Source: texas poker strategy zip download from emule
Author: www.pokerstrategy.com