This page will be dedicated to teaching you strategy when you are at a limit table game of texas hold em. First, we will begin with limit. When at a limit table, your goal is to play as little pots as possible and win the biggest pot you can. In order to be successful in this, you must play good hands. When I say good, I mean like top quality, such as AA, KK, AK, QQ, JJ, AQ, AJ, etc. You do not want to play any marginal hands; the key is to have patience and wait for a good hand, then bring out the rake.

As soon as you pick up a great hand, you will have to push the other players raise button. By this, I mean you must raise pre flop and push out all the marginal hands. It is the most painful thing to be pushed out of a pot by a marginal hand that hit the flop. So the key here is to raise preflop; raise about 2-4 times the big blind depending upon the hand you have. I recommend that if you have a better hand such as AA, don't raise too large because you do want action. On the other hand, if you have a hand that is great, but isn't a guarenteed hit, like AJ, you must push people out of the hand.

Now that you have pushed people out of the hand, it is time for the flop. The flop is the most crucial part of the hand; here is where you will set the tone for the rest of the hand. There are so many possibilities on the flop, so this may sound like I'm rambling. Here goes nothing. First of all, if you hit the flop that's great, but it doesn't mean you are going to win the hand. Our first scenario will be if you hit the flop.

If you hit the flop, you're in good shape, but there is a lot to look out for. There can be a flush draw, straight draw, or trips possiblity on the flop, in which they can beat you by the end of the hand. Here is where we will break the hand off into different branches. Say you hit top pair, two pair, or a solid pair and there is a flush or straight draw on the flop; this is where you must go fishing for a hint, or just take it down. The safest thing to do is to push hard and to take the pot down immediately, however, another approach may result in a bank load of chips by the end of the hand. If you look for a hint, you will make a small bet and see if they call or raise. If they call, they most likely have a draw and you will have to push them out on the turn; if they raise, they think they have you beat and it is up to you to decide whether you think you have them or you don't. Most likely you do if you hit top pair with a solid hand; top pair is good in a lot of hands. I know all of that is difficult to take in, but with experience, you won't even have to think about it.

Now we must move onto the more difficult of the two main possibilities. If you didn't hit the flop, you now must decide whether your hand is good enough to continue. This depends upon many factors. It depends on how many people are in the hand, your position in the hand, the amount of chips the other players have, how much the bet is, and the hand you have of course. The more people in the hand, the less chance you have to win the hand. If the other players have more chips than you, then you are at risk of putting all your chips in the pot, which isn't good thing if you don't have the best hand. If the bet is small, then maybe you can call, if it's too large, maybe it's not worth the risk; this is where the next possibility comes in, what is your hand? Your hand must have some sort of pairing or draw, and by draw, I don't mean draw to top pair. If your hand has a good enough draw (a draw that if completed, will beat all the other players in the hand), you may be able to call a reletively small to large bet. This is where your judgement comes in.

Lesson 5

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Emil Erhart & Walt Impellicceiri
2006