- Texas Holdem Strategy Guide
- Online Texas Holdem Strategy
- Texas Holdem Strategy Chart
- Limit Texas Holdem Strategy
Welcome to Low Limit Holdem! Welcome to Low Limit Holdem Strategy and Tactics. Our focus is on practical strategy on sitting and winning in very loose low limit holdem poker games. You've come to the right place. We now have some great articles on playing in Low Limit No Limit Texas Holdem. Visit Articles and Essays section to learn more. Limit Texas Holdem Strategy Limit Hold’em: Every Bet Counts In Limit Hold'em, it's crucial to understand the importance of a single bet, and how the bet affects you and your long-term results.
Table Of Contents
Introduction
Six-plus hold’em (also known as short-deck hold 'em) is a new variation of traditional Texas hold’em that mostly follows the same rules albeit with a significant difference — the use of a smaller 36-card deck rather than the full 52-card deck. Most first heard of the game after it was introduced among the mix in the high-stakes cash games in Macau.
The 36-card deck is created by removing the 2xs, 3xs, 4xs, and 5xs from the deck (16 cards). That leaves the 6xs up through the Kxs as well as the Axs. As in regular hold’em, the aces still count as high or low when making straights, which means the lowest possible straight becomes Ax9x8x7x6x (think of the ace as essentially replacing the missing 5x).
Other than that, six-plus hold’em is played similarly to regular hold’em with two hole cards, five community cards, and four streets of betting — preflop, flop, turn, and river. However, there are some other differences in rules often used in six-plus hold’em which you should know about before playing.
Six-Plus Hold’em Variation — Hand Rankings
Six-plus hold’em can be played according to the exact same rules as regular Texas Hold’em. The betting can be fixed-limit or no-limit (although most often the game is played no-limit), and the same hand rankings can be used as follows:
- High card (lowest)
- One pair
- Two pair
- Three of a kind
- Straight
- Flush
- Full house
- Four of a kind
- Straight flush
- Royal flush (highest)
However, six-plus hold’em more often is played employing a different hand ranking system. Here are the alternate hand rankings for six-plus hold’em (note the differences in bold):
- High card (lowest)
- One pair
- Two pair
- Straight
- Three of a kind
- Full house
- Flush
- Four of a kind
- Straight flush
- Royal flush (highest)
As you can see, following these alternate hand rankings three of a kind actually beats a straight (instead of vice-versa), and a flush beats a full house (instead of vice-versa). These changes were introduced because of the because the removal of cards from the standard deck alter the probabilities of making certain hands. For example, with only nine suited cards (instead of 13), a flush is harder to make in six-plus hold’em than in regular hold’em.
Six-Plus Hold’em Variation — The Deal (Fifth Street)
One other popular variation often introduced in six-plus hold’em has to do with the way the river is dealt.
The game can be played according to the same procedure followed in regular hold’em, with the community cards coming in the same way — flop (three cards), turn (one card), and river (one card) — and betting rounds after each street.
More often, though, instead of a river card being dealt to complete a five-card board, players are each dealt a third hole card instead. Players then make their five-card poker hands by using exactly two of their three hole cards and three of the four community cards. The building of hands resembles the procedure followed in Omaha where players must use two of their four hole cards plus three board cards to make a five-card poker hand.
Some Strategic Considerations
As you might imagine, the removal of low cards and use of the 36-card deck makes it more likely to make higher value hands, a change that tends to introduce more action.
That also means players should adjust their thinking about relative hand values from what they are used to in regular hold’em. For instance, the smaller deck makes it easier to make two-pair hands, which means a hand like top pair-top kicker is no longer as strong in six-plus hold’em as it is in regular hold’em. Straights and full houses are also easier to make in six-plus hold’em than in the regular version of the game (a reason for the alternate hand rankings).
The odds of hitting certain draws change, too, in six-plus hold’em. Just to highlight one example, filling an open-ended straight draw becomes more likely in six-plus hold’em, because while you’re still looking for the same eight outs there are fewer total cards in the deck, thus increasing the percentage you’ll make your straight.
The smaller deck also affects the likelihood of being dealt certain hands. For example, you’re more than twice as likely to get pocket aces in six-plus hold’em than you are in regular hold’em!
Finally, players being dealt a third hole card instead of there being a fifth community card obviously affects hand values as well, making it even more likely that players improve their hands — yet another factor that has to be taken into account when calculating odds and considering your final-round betting strategy.
Conclusion
six-plus hold’em introduces several exciting twists to traditional Texas hold’em, creating an action-filled alternative that many players are finding especially enjoyable to play. Furthermore, the changes from regular hold’em aren’t terribly complicated, making it easy to new players to learn and play right away.
If I were teaching a new player to play no-limit hold’em, and my goal were to get this player up to a professional level of play, how would I do it? What would my lessons look like?
Let’s say I had only three months to do it. With most people, I will admit, it would be a tall order. The learning curve is steep these days, and I don’t think everyone could make it from zero to pro in that short a time.
I’d have to make compromises. I couldn’t try to cover every possible situation. I’d have to find the important bits and skip the rest.
I’d also have to tailor the lessons a bit to a specific type of game. The most important skills in some game types are not as important in others. With this in mind, here are what I think my top five lessons would be for a new player trying to beat the $2-$5 no-limit hold’em games in Las Vegas.
Lesson No. 1. Don’t limp into pots ever. And don’t call preflop three-bets unless you are trapping with an ultra-premium hand.
Limping into pots, calling the preflop raise, and then check/folding the flop when you miss is an enormous leak. It’s also one that nearly every player who hasn’t been specifically coached out of it exhibits.
In my opinion, most players would see an immediate improvement in their winrates if they simply refused to limp in with any hand, especially if they chose to instead fold most of these hands.
For most players, refusing ever to limp means playing much tighter, particularly from out of position. Until you’re already an established pro player, tighter is better.
Lesson No. 2. Don’t pay off big turn and river bets.
This lesson might be different in some types of games, but in the Las Vegas $2-$5 games, it’s easily a candidate for the single most important piece of advice. Do not pay anyone off. When someone makes a big turn or river bet or raise, your one pair hand (or whatever other hand you’re thinking about calling with) is a bluff-catcher. That means, in the great majority of cases, your opponent won’t be trying to make a value bet with a worse hand. Either you’re beat or your opponent is bluffing. And players in these $2-$5 games do not bluff often enough to make calling worthwhile.
So you don’t pay off. I know it can be frustrating to feel like you’re getting muscled out of a huge pot, but the fact is, most players in these games do very little muscling. They try to make hands, and then they bet the hands they make. A big bet usually means a big hand. You don’t need to call to find out for certain.
Lesson No. 3. Your opponents will limp into pots, call raises, and check/fold flops. Take advantage of this weakness by raising lots of hands with position, betting the flop, and often also betting the turn.
It’s a simple play, but it’s one that generates a very consistent profit in these games. Players play too loosely preflop, are too willing to call preflop raises after limping in, and are too willing to check/fold the flop or turn if they miss. With many players, you can ignore your cards and raise the limps, bet nearly all flops, and bet most turn cards as well.
Texas Holdem Strategy Guide
Say two typical players limp in a $2-$5 game. You raise to $25 on the button. Both limpers call.
The flop comes 10 8 2. They check, and you bet $50. One player calls.
The turn is the 5. Your opponent checks, you bet $120, and he folds.
In this scenario, and in many like it, it doesn’t matter what you have. Your opponents are beating themselves by playing call/call/fold so often. All you have to do is put the bets out there and let your opponents run repeatedly into the brick wall.
Yes, there is some nuance to this, and some boards are better bets than others. But against many opponents at the $2-$5 level, most flops, turns, and even rivers are good bets. Keep betting until your opponents prove to you that they won’t beat themselves by folding too much.
Lesson No. 4. With value hands, don’t try to blow opponents out of pots. Instead, play most value hands with the goal of keeping a player in through the river.
Value hands — hands like top pair, two pair, or any other hand you think is a favorite to be best — lose their value when all your opponents fold. If you win without a showdown, you might as well have been holding 7-2. (See Lesson No. 3.) With your value hands, you generally want opponents to get to the river.
Online Texas Holdem Strategy
Most players like to see showdowns if they feel like they can see them without losing too much money. No one likes to fold and think, “What if I was good?” If your opponents get to the river, often it’s an easy sell to get them to call a final value bet (as long as you don’t make it too big).
Calling these value bets is one of the biggest mistakes that $2-$5 players make. (See Lesson No. 2.) Allow your opponents to make this mistake.
Texas Holdem Strategy Chart
Most players try to end hands early when they feel like they have the best hand. “Don’t want to get drawn out on,” they think. But this is backward thinking. End hands early with strong bets when you have nothing but a weak draw. Allow hands to reach showdown when you actually have something to show down! (Makes sense when I put it that way, doesn’t it?)
If I have top pair, I’d much rather get called for $30, $50, and $80 on flop, turn, and river than get called for $30 and then blow my opponent out of the hand with a $100 bet on the turn. The chance to win $160 with the hand instead of $30 outweighs the risk that I’ll get outdrawn.
Limit Texas Holdem Strategy
Lesson No. 5. Think every hand about what strategies your opponents are using and how they’re thinking, and (almost) ignore the two cards in your hand.
I’ll put it bluntly. Most $2-$5 players beat themselves. They tend to play strategies that are extremely transparent, overly simplistic, and inflexible. You can beat some of these players simply by betting every time it’s your action (See Lesson No. 3.) You can beat other of these players simply by waiting for hands that beat top pair/no kicker and then making value bets. (See Lesson No. 4.)
Your job as a poker player is to identify the strategy each opponent is using and deploy a counter strategy. In many cases, the two cards in your hand become irrelevant. My experience is that the players that are always thinking about their hands never figure it out. It’s the players who are thinking on the next level that do. ♠
Ed’s newest book, Playing The Player: Moving Beyond ABC Poker To Dominate Your Opponents, is on sale at notedpokerauthority.com. Find Ed on Facebook at facebook.com/edmillerauthor and on Twitter @EdMillerPoker.