Poker Strategy: No Limit Hold’em
What are the two most powerful words in poker? I’m all-in.
You can win or lose entire stacks in a single hand of No Limit Hold’em, and this excitement accounts for much of the popularity of the game. It’s not just a contest of having the best hand when all the chips go in the middle though. Well before that point, you should have created a plan for every street of the hand and formulated – in advance – your responses to every action your opponent takes. This isn’t magic but rather a science, and we’ll show you how to do it right. The articles below cover starting hand selection, the advantages of being aggressive, the stack-to-pot ratio, preflop three-betting, and the other concepts that you must master before you can truly become a proficient practitioner of NLHE. Once you achieve a certain level of skill, you’ll find yourself with numerous opportunities to practice it because No Limit Texas Hold’em is currently the most commonly spread form of poker in the world.
Featured No Limit Hold’em Articles
ISF – Forming Ranges
Something I like to do, and what I always advocate people who seek poker help from me, is to break down the elements of poker so we can understand concepts behind them and further apply them. I feel like most of the problems with people stuck at low and midstakes is...
Continuation Betting in NL Hold’em
An easily digestible explanation of continuation betting in No Limit Texam Hold’em. This article demonstrates which hands are ideal for c-bets, which aren’t and how, when and against whom a c-bet should be used to maximize winnings. It also explains how much you should bet in certain situations.
Nine Noobie Myths About Microstakes NLHE
I feel like tons of the noobies in the BC have serious misconceptions about microstakes poker. Here are a few I've seen lately. 1. The micros are just too fishy to be beat for any decent win rate. 2. The micros are too hard to be beat since UIGEA. 3. The FTR regs at...
Blind Stealing 101
A few people have been posting stats threads lately and I've seen a trend that really needs to be addressed. Most of the people I've seen stats on are not stealing blinds nearly enough, and aren't defending their blinds nearly enough. I've decided to type up something...
ISF Theorem
Amazingly, when I was high yesterday from some horrible weed, I came to a breakthrough thought in my poker game. I called sauce up and explained to him what I just realized and he had no idea why it was so amazing. It took me awhile, but then I realized that the...
Most Recent No Limit Hold’em Articles
Spenda’s 5 Biggest Leaks of a Losing NL Player – Leak 2
#2 Poor Table and Seat Selection Table Selection Table selection is an extremely important and overlooked aspect of playing winning poker. There's an age-old adage: “How would the world's 10th best player fare if he only played with the 9 players who were better than...
Back to Basics (Part 5): Poker Reads Made Simple
Avoid distractions and get better at making solid, fundamental reads with the fifth installment in the Back to Basics series.
Pre-flop Strategy – Starting Hand Rankings: Group 6
There are still some good hands yet to be played, but you must be careful! We are running pretty thin at this point. Here are my Group 6 hands: Group 6: KT QT JT A7s K9s Q9s T9s J9s A5s A6s A4s A3s A2s Again, this group is a clear departure from Sklansky and the...
How, Why and When to Double Barrel in No-Limit Hold’em
In this week’s column, we look at tons of different ideas that govern how, when and why to double barrel on the turn in no-limit hold’em games.
Can You Trust Online Poker?
Let’s face it, poker is played by humans for money and sometimes very substantial sums of money. This is the case be it live or online. Unfortunately, my understanding of human nature tells me that there are too many people out there who will stop at nothing to...
Turn No-Limit Hold’em Problems Into Value
One of the main mental issues that keeps winning players from really crushing the games is the lack of correct mindset when running into problems.
The Mathless Approach to Poker
Every post in the spoonitnow strategy series has been leading up to this moment. While there is obviously going to be some math involved when it comes to basic things like pot odds, a lot of people are under the impression that things like balance and exploitation...
Bluff or Check? Missing the Flop in NLHE (Part 2): Flop Texture
Knowing when to bluff on the flop is determined by a large number of factors, and here we’re going to take a look at how flop texture fits into all of that.
Renton’s Small Stakes NLHE Ring Strategy: Postflop I
Addendum to Preflop adaptations that must occur Dealing with reraises- When you get reraised from position from a typical player, it sucks, and you’ll have to fold most hands if the reraise is substantial, such as AJ/AQ/KQ and weaker cards than that. Oftentimes it is...
Half-Stack Appraoch to NLHE
General Approach: Buy-in for 50bb. Re-load when you drop below 40bb. At 75bb re-evaluate table conditions. If you don't like your seat or table, nit it up until your blinds hit, then leave. Tend to leave if you drop 100bb at a table. Advantages to a less than 100bb...
A Beginner’s Guide to Adjusting for Multiway Pots
In this week’s article, we cover a number of adjustments to make in multiway pots along with the math that proves these are the right adjustments.
NLHE Foundations #04: Putting Opponents on Pre-Flop Ranges (Part 1)
Introduction This is part four in the NLHE Foundations Series. I've designed this series to give players a clear path from the beginner to intermediate levels in no-limit hold'em. There's a lot more to this series than these posts because there's private content and...
Looking More Into Implied Odds
Learning implied odds on a deep level is something virtually no microstakes or small stakes players do, and it can drastically help your game.
Poker Hand Strategy | Poker Starting Hands with Deep Stacks
Deciding what range of hole cards you’re going to play depends largely on your stack size. If your stack equals 60BB or less, you should aim to hit big pairs. If it’s between 60BB-150BB, you can play suited connectors and gappers. Above 150BB, you can play cards with flush or straight potential.
Typical Players in Small Stakes NLHE
There are many players in the online poker community who use some sort of tracking software. I have never been one to go with the masses and while others have been knocking themselves out using PokerTracker or Hold’em manager, I have and will always continue to use...
