Texas Holdem Strategy
Most of the people that write about the strategies of the game of Texas hold ‘em poker will recommend a tight-aggressive approach to playing Texas hold 'em. This strategy involves playing a few hands, which is known as ‘tight’, but betting and raising often against one’s opponents… this is known as ‘aggressive’. Although this strategy is usually recommended, there are some professional players that successfully employ other strategies as well. Nearly every author of a book about Texas hold ‘em strategy agree that where one is in the order of play, known as ‘position’, is a very important part of Texas hold 'em strategy, particularly in no-limit hold'em. Good and observant players who act later will have more information than players who act earlier in the game. The result of this is that players typically play fewer hands from early positions than later positions.
The basic idea of poker given by David Sklansky states that …”every time you play your hand the way you would if you could see your opponent's cards, you gain, and every time your opponent plays his cards differently from the way he would play them if he could see your cards, you gain.” This theory is the basis for many poker strategy topics. Examples of this would be bluffing and slow-playing. These are some examples of using deception to induce your opponents to play differently than they would if they could see your cards.
The relationship between the pot odds and the odds of winning is one of the most important ideas in poker strategy. Pot odds are the ratio of the size of the pot to the size of the bet required to stay in the pot. To have a good, or ‘positive’, expectation, a player's odds of winning has to be less than his pot odds.
By using deception against the other players, a poker player hopes to coax his or her opponent, or opponents, to act differently than they would if they could see his or her cards. Bluffing is a form of deception to induce opponents to fold superior hands, or hands that has a greater share of the 'pot equity' than the bluffer's hand. This is called 'bluffing with the best hand.' Against really good and observant opponents, it is a good idea for a player to bluff sometimes to coax an opponent, or opponents, to call his bets when he or she really does have a superior hand. If opponents notice that a player never bluffs, they will not call his bets unless they have very good hands.