|
Longhand Limit Texas Hold'em Strategy
This section will give you the basic strategy at winning at
longhand Limit Hold'em (8 or more players). This section is intended for the
beginner, so he or she can win at the lower limits ($2-4 or less).
Starting Hands/Preflop:
This is where most beginners make mistakes. Simply, they
play too many hands. What beginners fail to recognize is that longhand Limit
Hold'em is a game of patience. As sad as it sounds, you literally can just wait
to be dealt the quality hands, and just win with those.
So what are the good hands? David Sklansky, a poker expert,
groups hands into 8 categories. I'm going to simplify his method a little bit
for you. The main difference between my ratings and his ratings is that I don't
give preference to suited cards. The only reason I do this is because beginners
tend to play suited cards too much. Being suited is nice, but it's just a bonus,
it doesn't change the actual value of the cards that much.
- AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK
These are the best hands, bar none. You should raise or
re-raise with them preflop. If you hold AA, you especially want to jam as much
money into the pot as possible.
- TT, 99, AQ, QK
These are good hands, but they aren't amazing. You
generally need help from the board. Almost always in low limit, you will need to
hit a set with TT or 99 to win.
- 88, AJ, AT, KJ, JQ, 10J, TQ
These are good hands. However, be careful playing AJ, AT,
KJ as these hands are vulnerable to losing to a higher kicker (i.e. if an ace is
on the board, but someone else has AK, you would lose because he has a higher
'kicker').
- Ax suited (x means any small card), Kx suited (x
should be 7 or higher preferably) 77, 66, 109, 98, 87, 76 (only play the
connecting cards if they are suited and you can play hands with a one card
gap- like T8 as well)
These hands are OK, but generally don't win. They need a
lot of help from the board.
- small pocket pairs (i.e. 55, 44, 33, 22)
Category I hands should almost always be played. The only
exception if if you hold AK or say JJ and you are positive that someone has KK
or AA by the way they are raising (in other words, the person is a very tight
player but is acting like a maniac preflop). These hands in general should be
raised from any position and you want to get a lot of money in preflop. However,
remember, for AK you need to hit an ace or a king. So do not get in a raising
war with one person because that person likely has a pocket pair already.
Category II hands should generally be played. These hands
do best with less people, so you should raise to knock people out. Do not jam
the pot though (i.e. re-raise) because these hands have little value before you
see the board. Do not call 3 bets cold with these hands (if you raise, then
someone re-raises, call, but do not call if someone raised, then re-raised, and
then it's your turn.) The reason you do not call 3 bets cold is because you
clearly do not have an advantage going into the flop. The one thing to remember
in Limit Hold'em is you want to have an advantage going into the flop. Go ahead
and call one raise in late position, unless the raiser was in early position and
is a very good player (he probably has you beat with a category I hand).
Category III: Treat these hands with caution. They are
easily beat by category I or II hands, so these hands are best played with fewer
people in the pot who do not hold category I or II hands. In other words, raise
to knock people out, but do not call a raise. 88 is different, as it plays well
in a large, multi-way pots as well as smaller pots. So go ahead and call a raise
with this hand, but do not call a re-raise cold because someone probably has a
category I hand.
Category IV/V: these hands are very different. You want a
large, multi-way pot. The reason being is that these hands miss the flop most
often. However, sometimes these hands are amazing (i.e. if you hit a straight,
flush, or trips). Therefore, you want to be paid of big when you actually hit
something with these hands, which is why you want a lot of people in the pot.
Example: you hold 67, the board is A58, you call a bet on flop, 9 comes on turn
and then you jam the pot. Thus, you want to commit as few chips preflop with
these hands as possible while hoping that many people go into the flop. Thus, if
you are the dealer, and one guy is in with a raise, fold. However, if you are
the big blind, and 5 people have called a raise, go ahead and call and see the
flop.
Flop Play
Once you hit the flop, you will be in one of four
situations: 1. You will be winning but have a beatable hand. You will have top
pair, top kicker for example or an over pair (i.e. QQ and the board is JT5). You
want to jam the pot and knock people out. Thus, you want someone to bet to you
and then to raise if you are in early position. If you are in late position and
no one has bet, you must bet to knock people out. 2. You will have a boss hand.
More than likely, you will have three of a kind or maybe even a full house on
the flop. There is no reason to knock people out because you will probably win
(unless you have trips and there's a flush draw out there, then you need to make
them pay). In these situations, it's generally best to wait until the turn to
really jam the pot, but jam the pot on the flop if you think a scary draw is out
there that will beat you. 3. You will have the second best hand. If you follow
my preflop strategy, this is unlikely, but it could happen. An example is if you
have AQ and KQ4 is on the board. In this case, treat the hand as a drawing hand
or simply fold, unless you really believe that you may have the best hand at the
moment (this is unlikely in a larger, multi-way pot because someone is bound to
have the K). 4. You will have a drawing hand. An example is if you have two
spades in the whole and there are two on the board. For these hands, you must
use outs/pot odds. There is a detailed explanation of this in the shorthand
section under 'flop tips.' 5. You will have nothing. An example would be if you
have 66 and flop is AK7. You clearly are beat, just fold at the first bet. This
is the basic way to win at limit, longhand. There really aren't that many tricky
situations you will encounter. Just remember, the larger the number of people,
the higher the likelihood that someone has the boss hand that is out there on
the board, so be careful of that. Don't get attached to AK if AQQ is on the
board because someone probably has the queen.
|
