Texas Holdem Poker Tournament Strategy – Starting Hands
Posted in Poker on July 7th, 2010 by: adminChoosing your starting hands is very important in any variant and phase of poker. Your choice very much determines the course of the game of you. A typical game of poker can be divided into 3 phases, the start (pre-flop), middle (after the flop) and the ending (late betting).
When you start with the game, the situation on the table and the odds are not known. Thus, most of the players will play tight in early positions and always fold. Other player will play loose and play bad starting hands because they don’t have to bet much. Positioning is one of the most important things to remember when decide how to bet your starting hand.
Don’t be distracted by that and just wait for such players to be phased out. As each hand progresses, you should develop a mental checklist. Rule number 1, don’t be too predictable. If you only play good starting hands, your friends know how to avoid losing to you and their will be no winning poker party for you.
After the flop occurs, you will have a much better idea about what is happening in both your hand and about the intents of other players still involved in the hand.
How to play your starting hand
Forget about what’s in your hand for a second. You should get a general feel for who the people are at your table, as this can directly affect the situations spelled out below. Playing at a table with more than 5 tight players and you should have a good chance to steal some cheap blinds.
When your poker tournament first starts, you should being playing tight. Many people play too tight early, but more often then not, early gambling often leads to an early exit.
In case, if you decide to play loose, you can continue doing that only till the flop, because after that you will have to play tight otherwise you will loose all the chances of making a score. Don’t be over excited about the blinds being low, because that does not make much of a difference in the long term.
You may suppose that if the blinds are weak cards, the can be over powered with your not-so-strong cards before the flop. This way you will see your chances of hitting the jackpot.
However, this is more of a risky strategy as it can cost you much of your chips. People new to the game are more into such things, but if you want long-term gains, you should hold the leashes tight at the start.
Prefer to play tight and play only the strong hands if you have to. Don’t prefer playing weak hands just to try your luck because this will not only cost you money but also make your intentions and position more obvious to your opponents.
Playing your good starting hand after the flop
As the game approaches the middle part, you should start to think more in the term of your budget. You should consider the size of your chip stack to make your decision about the poker starting hand. In case you don’t have much money to bet through the game, go ahead and take a few risks. But if you are ample on cash then keep sitting tight and let the others do the entertainment.
Continue to steal the blinds to get your leads. But even in this part of the game prefer playing the good cards. This is especially applicable if you have enough cash. All of the strategies I am telling you here are keeping the long-term gains in mind, as that are what really matters.
In the ending part of the game, things get very clear and the players who were playing tight start to make their loosening up decisions. This is the part where you should start taking the risks to get the chips in.
If you have been playing tight till now, this is your chance to steal all the blinds you can. As the later part of the game progresses, players get in a hurry to get over with things and push all in.
Though this strategy can work a few times, but this is not the best way to do it. This can be preference if you are low on chips. In that case, you don’t have much to loose but a lot to win.
But if you are still good on your stack, you should not go all in and save you stuff for the absolute last round where you can take the bigger risk for the pot.
Here is another great articles in case you would like to find out more strategies about texas holdem starting hands.
Though it has little to do with actual online poker (the kind where people go up against other people in an online environment offered by the house), video poker is one of the casino games in which – provided he’s well informed – a player can actually secure positive long term expected value. 

Texas Holdem Poker game comes in many different types. To enjoy the most you must first know that which game is best suited for you. It is not that easy to find it, you have to do certain hard things to find the best game for you. 