How Do Texas Holdem Tournaments Work

1. How Do Texas Holdem Tournaments Work On Sunday
2. How Does Texas Holdem Poker Work
3. How Do Texas Holdem Tournaments Worksheet
4. How Do Texas Holdem Tournaments Work On The Internet

When you knock someone out you get there chip. At the end of tourney or when you get knocked out you cash in the bounty chips for money. Example 100+15+25bounty. 100 goes to prize pool,15 to house. How Texas Hold’em Poker Tournaments Work: A Basic Guide Basic Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament Rules. Texas Hold’em Poker Tournaments aren’t your typical friendly games. Types of Texas Hold’en Poker Tournament s. While you might think that Hold’Em is the same across the country, that.

Playing tournaments is currently the most common way people now experience poker. I have played in literally hundreds of thousands of them and will tell you exactly how they work.

How do poker tournaments work? Poker tournaments differ from cash games in that each player pays an entry fee then competes to win a portion of the prize pool. During the event, the blind levels increase steadily at regular intervals. A tournament officially ends once one player has all of the chips and is declared the winner.

Now, let’s break down every feature and phase of poker tournaments from beginning to end.

How Do Tournaments Differ from Cash Games?

In cash games, the chips represent actual money. So each chip won or lost goes into or comes from your actual bankroll. In tournaments, there is a set entry fee that is paid and, no matter what, that is the most money that you can lose during the event.

Tournament players compete to win a portion of the prize pool, which is made up of all the entry fees.

How Does a Poker Tournament Entry Fee Work?

Every poker tournament has a set entry fee that is the same for all players. The prize pool and the rake (the house fee) are both included in one fee.

Often, the details of the rake are disclosed plainly in how the fee is written.

• If the prize pool portion is $50 and the rake is $5, the entry fee will be disclosed as $50+$5.

10% rake is a fairly standard, however, some smaller live events have rake has high as 30%.

What Is the Difference Between a Freezeout, a Rebuy, and a Reentry tournament?

There are two typical ways that the entry fee of a tournament is structured:

1. Freezeouts – A freezeout means that each player can only buy in one time. Once a player runs out of poker chips, his or her tournament is over. This is the most common type of tournament.
2. Rebuys – A rebuy means that there is a specified period of time at the beginning of a tournament when players may buy more chips if their stack falls below a certain level or they bust out. The cost of the rebuy is usually the same as the entry fee, minus the rake.
3. Reentry Tournaments– A reentry tournament is the same as a rebuy except that a player must be eliminated before buying back in. They also do not get to keep their seat. Instead, it is treated as if it is an initial buy-in and the player is reseated at another table.

What Is an Add-On?

In rebuy events, there is usually a specific number of extra chips offered to players at the end of the rebuy period. This is known as an add-on which typically costs a full entry fee.

How Do Poker Tournaments Pay Out?

Every tournament has a set way that they divide up the prize pool. Almost all tournament payout structures are top heavy. In other words, the top few places usually receive the lion’s share of the prize pool.

What is a typical Payout Structure?

The majority of the field in any poker tournament do not win anything. The number of players who “cash” in an event will vary.

Poker rooms usually payout between 10% and 30% of the field in a multi-table tournament (MTT). For single table tournaments, 33% of the field will typically win money.

Here is a typical payout structure commonly used by poker rooms. It shows what the payouts will be depending on the number of entrants.

MTT Prize Structure Example

How to Read the Prize Structure Chart

The top row tells you how many entrants are in an event. The rows below show you what each place will pay based on the number of entrants.

For example, if a tournament had 22 entrants, then you’d use the “19-27” column. Looking down the column you will see that 5 people would be paid out between 9 and 40% of the prize pool.

When Is the Final Prize Pool Established?

• In freezeout tournaments, the final prize pool is established once the initial entry period ends. Sometimes entries are closed at the start of the first deal and sometimes there is a specified period of time when players may buy-in to the event.
• In Rebuys, the final prize pool is not known until the end of the rebuy and add-on period. The final prize pool will always be much higher than it was at the beginning of a rebuy tournament.

How Is the Winner Determined?

The winner of a poker tournament is determined when only one player has all the chips. The last phase before the end is when two players battle it out “heads-up“.

What are Guaranteed Tournaments (GTD)?

Guaranteed tournaments have a minimum prize pool pre-set before the event. What this means is that if there are not enough buy-ins to meet the guaranteed amount, there is something called an “overlay.” An overlay means that the event basically begins as if several people had already busted out.

However, poker rooms know exactly how many people tend to sign up for a particular tournament, so they offer guarantees based on the usual prize pool. Therefore, overlays are rare and a guaranteed is effectively just a gimmick used to attract more players.

Even so, knowing the guarantee of a particular tournament is a good tool for professional players to use when planning their playing schedule.

How Are Poker Tournaments Set Up?

Most poker tournaments are played on a 9 or 10 seat table. Only one deck is used if there is a dedicated dealer. If the event is a home game or pub poker tournament, there are often two alternating decks in play. Typically, the player in the big blind will shuffle during the hand.

How Is Seating Determined?

Before play can begin the players must be properly seated. There are three typical methods used to determine seating assignments in a poker tournament:

• Random draw is the most common form of seating found in live multi-table poker tournaments. When a player pays his or her buy-in, the seat assignment is randomly given to the player by the table and seat number.
• Player choice is common in casual pub poker tournaments. This allows family members and friends to sit together to enjoy the game.
• Drawing from the deck is how seating is often determined in a single table tournament. The playing cards are typically fanned out on the table and each player gets a card. The high card gets seat one, the next highest seat two, so on and so forth. Ties are usually broken by either redrawing or using bridge order. Spades>Hearts>Clubs>Diamonds.

How Players Are Re-Seated During Play

From time to time, the number of players on the remaining tables will become unbalanced. You may have 9 people on one table, 6 on another, so on and so forth.

It is the job of the tournament director to make sure that the number of players on every table are as close to equal as possible. Therefore, players must be occasionally moved in order to maintain that equilibrium.

Usually, the director will try to move players “in position”. For example, if a person was going to be in the Small Blind, they are moved to the same position on their new table. One thing that directors try to avoid is forcing someone to pay the blind on one table and then pay the blinds again immediately upon moving.

Even so, if more than 3 players are moved there will be a redraw at the new table to determine who has the button.

What Is the Structure in Tournaments?

The structure of tournaments will vary from event to event. Here are a few things that must be established in every event:

• The number of starting chips that each player will get.
• The blind level structure.
• How long each blind level lasts.
• Whether or not rebuys or re-entries will be allowed.
• Whether it is a sit and go event or has a set starting time.

Poker Chip Distribution (Starting Stacks)

This is an area where tournaments differ from other forms of poker. While cash games allow players to choose the buy-in they begin with, tournaments have one uniform starting stack size.

Average Starting Stack Size

The number of chips that poker players get at the beginning can vary wildly from event to event. For lower buy-ins and most pub poker type tournaments, the starting chips are usually in the 2,000 to 3,000 range.

Shallow Versus Deep-Stacked Tournaments

Typically, anything below 3,000 chips is considered shallow stacks and anything above 8,000 is usually considered deep-stacked. However, the effective size of the stack is relative to the size of the blinds and how fast they increase.

Poker Tournament Blind Levels

In poker tournaments the blind levels do not remain static. At set intervals, the levels increase.

This effectively decreases everyone stack size and forces the players to constantly try to increase their stacks. Otherwise, they might “blind out” and not have enough chips to even pay the blinds.

What Are the Typical Blind Levels?

The exact amounts of each blind level can vary quite a bit, but here is a common schedule:

Poker Tournament Speed

Every tournament has a set interval in which the blinds go up. This can range from every 3 minutes all the way up to every 2 hours. In fact, the biggest determining factor on how shallow starting stacks are is in how fast the blinds go up.

Also, hands played per hour has an impact on tournament speed. Live events play much slower than online tournaments. Therefore, the blind intervals have to be treated differently when figuring out speed.

Tournament Speed in Live Events

At most, you usually play about 30 hands per hour in a live tournament. This doesn’t give you much time to pick up premium hands if blinds are going up quickly. With that in mind, here is a commonly accepted breakdown of live tournament speed:

Tournament Speed in Online Events

Online, you can usually see between 60 and 90 hands per hour. This dramatically changes the calculations for tournament speed. Slow tournaments are blind levels of 30 minutes or longer while 15 minutes is average speed. Turbos are typically 5 minutes while hyper-turbos have 3 minute blinds.

Tournament Strategy Is Largely Affected by Speed of the Blinds

Ultimately, tournament speed is controlled by how big your starting stack is and how fast the blinds go up. One way to look at it is to figure out how fast you will blind out of the tournament if you never played a single hand. This “patience factor” is helpful in deciding both what hands to play and how to play them.

One of my favorite authors, Arnold Snyder, explains these calculations in his popular book titled Poker Tournament Formula (click to see Amazon listing). I highly recommend it if you want to improve your tournament speed play.

Poker Tournament Types

There are two basic types of poker tournaments:

1. Multi-Table Tournaments (MTT)
2. Single-Table Tournaments (STT)

When Does a Tournament Begin?

• Scheduled – Scheduled tournaments have a set starting time.
• Sit N Go – Sit N Go (SNG) tournaments only begin once a certain number of plays have registered and “sat down”. Most SNGs are single table events and are often associated with satellites. However, two-table up to 5-table events are common as well.

How Long Does a Poker Tournament Last?

No matter what format, all tournaments are designed to play out until there is a winner. Generally, the winner is determined when one person has won the heads-up match and has all the chips.

Ways Tournaments Can End Early

There are two ways that a tournament can end early:

1. A deal is struck between the remaining players who agree to a final table payout. Once the deal is made, the event is often over. However, occasionally the players will agree to play out the event for bragging rights or for an amount set aside from the prize pool.
2. The event is a satellite with a set number of seats. In that case, there is no point in continuing on once the number of players left equals the number of seats in the prize pool.

Tournament Format Variations

There are numerous variations and sub-variations of poker tournaments. I will cover the most common types that you need to know about. They are:

1. Bounty Tournaments
2. Spin N Go’s
3. Shootouts
4. Satellites
5. Double or Nothings

What Is a Bounty Tournament?

In bounty tournaments (sometimes called knockouts), a portion of the prize pool is set aside as a “bounty”. Whenever someone is knocked out, the person that won their chips is immediately awarded the bounty. The introduction of a bounty alters the optimal strategy and makes loose calls of all-ins more frequent.

What Is a Spin N Go?

First created on Pokerstars, a spin n go is a fast-paced three-person sit n go that features 3-minute blinds and a prize pool that varies from event to event. The prize pool is randomly selected as a multiplier of between 2 times to 3000 times the buy-in. Players start with 500 chips in a winner take all format.

What Is a Shootout Tournament?

Shootout tournaments are basically multiple sit n go’s played over multiple rounds. At the start, there are a pre-set number of tables with between 2 and 10 players each. In the first round, play continues until there is one winner on each table. In the next round, all of the winners start anew on a new table. The rounds continue until the final table is reached and an ultimate winner determined.

What Is a Satellite?

A satellite is usually a sit n go where the prize pool is an entry into a larger buy-in poker tournament. Buy-ins to each satellite determine how many “tickets” are awarded. Sometimes only the winner gets a ticket but often there are multiple seats to be won. Satellites can be an STT or an MTT.

What Is a Double or Nothing?

Sometimes called “double-ups”, a double or nothing tournament has a flat payout structure where half the field wins twice their buy-in amount. In another variation is called, called “triple-ups”, one-third of the field wins three times their buy-in.

What’s the Best Poker Beginner Strategy?

A variety of different poker styles have been successful over the years. Therefore, there is not a one size fits all strategy. Even so, I first recommend that you learn the basic rules and fundamentals and then read a book called “Harrington on Hold’em.”

“HoH” is about as basic as it gets for tournament strategy and is a great starting point for learning how to play tournament poker hands.

Once you have played a few hundred tournaments and have a better grasp on them, I suggest that you move on to a more aggressive strategy which is laid out in “Poker Tournament Formula“, which I mentioned earlier.

Do You Recommend an Online Poker Site to Practice On?

To give yourself the best chance of success as a new player, I recommend choosing a poker site that is not too big yet not too small, that caters more to newer or recreational players.

• For players in the United States, I recommend Ignition Poker, which has anonymous games. This keeps pros from tracking your play over the long-term and taking advantage of your weaknesses.
• For players outside the United States, that cannot play on Ignition, I recommend Bodog. Bodog shares it’s player pool with Ignition and also has anonymous games.
• If you cannot play on either of the sites mentioned above, try PartyPoker or 888 Poker.

I recommend avoiding Pokerstars as a new player. They have the toughest games in the world which make it very hard to win for a newer players.

Final Thoughts

I hope you’ve enjoyed this crash course on how poker tournaments work. If there is something I failed to mention or a question that was unanswered, please let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading and now go win that tournament!

Related Questions

Who can play in a poker tournament? In general, unless it is a close event anyone that has the entry fee may play in a poker tournament. This is what makes the World Series of Poker so intriguing. Unlike other sports, you can compete against the best players in the world without having to qualify in some way.

When can you call clock in poker? Anyone may call clock on another player at any time during a poker tournament. However, this is usually only done in rare cases when a player is taking an inordinate amount of time to act. Once clock is called, a floorperson comes to the table and gives the challenged player one minute to complete his or her action. If the clock runs out before the “on the clock” player acts, the hand is declared dead and is folded.

What is ROI? ROI is an acronym that stands for “Return On Investment.” ROI is measured as a percentage based on how much money a poker player wins once buy-ins are subtracted from their winnings. To figure out your ROI, divide your net profit by your investment and times it by 100. For example, let’s say you win $15,000 in poker tournaments and paid $12,000 in buy-ins. Your net profit is $3,000. So, $3,000/$15,000= 0.2. When you times .2 times 100, you get 20%. Therefore, your ROI is 20%.

Up until the 2000s, seven card stud was the dominant form of poker throughout many parts of the world. But this changed during the poker boom of the mid 2000s, when Texas holdem became the preferred game for every major tournament.

Thanks to this popularity, millions of people now play Texas holdem on a daily basis. And no matter whether you’re just playing with friends or grinding in online casino cash games, the goal is always to win money.

But how do you win if you’re a beginner and / or not very good at poker?

Find out in this comprehensive guide, where we take you from the basics to the techniques that’ll help you beat Texas holdem.

The Basics of Winning at Texas Holdem Poker

Texas holdem is often described as taking 5 minutes to learn and a lifetime to master. This is even truer today with strategy being so readily available, giving more players the opportunity to become experts.

Nevertheless, everybody has to start somewhere with the game, and that somewhere should not immediately be real money poker tables.

If you’re new to the game or just looking for a solid strategy base, here are the basic concepts that you should know.

Table Position

One of the most overlooked concepts among poker beginners is table position, meaning you act after opponents.

Position is measured by where you sit in relation to the big blind. The dealer button is the latest position, while the small blind is the earliest.

The reason why position is so important is because it allows you to gain more information based on your opponents’ decisions. Additionally, having position on most or all of your opponents helps you control the pot size and better read your opponents’ hand strength.

On a 9 seat table, here’s how table position looks:

Early Position

Small blind, big blind, seat to the big blind’s left. You generally want to play strong hands from these spots because you don’t have as much information.

Middle Position

The next three seats. Middle position gives you an idea of what a few players are doing. But you still want to be cautious about what hands you play in this area.

Late Position

Dealer button, best, and the two seats to its right. Late position gives you a good opportunity to steal blinds, small pots, and judge opponents’ hand strength on later streets.

While it’s entirely possible to win from any position on the table, the majority of your Texas holdem winnings will come from late position, while most losses will come from early position.

Limit the Number of Hands You Play

The single biggest Texas holdem mistake bar none is playing too many hands.

Many new players think that they can play a wide range of hands on speculation. But the truth is that most of the 169 possible starting hands are complete garbage.

Before we continue, here’s a look at the top 10 starting Texas holdem hands:

These are premium hands that are playable in many situations, regardless of your table position.

As you can see, popular hands like A Q, K J, and 9 9 are not on this list. Yet many players treat these cards like they’re premium hands, playing them in any situation.

The majority of beginners also have trouble understanding how their hand strength relates to position.

If you have QQ through A A, table position won’t be a factor because these are premium hands. But when you play hands like K J, Q J, 8 8, and A T from early position, you can be put into a difficult situation if somebody raises.

Another mistake that players make is overvaluing speculative hands like suited connectors, or consecutive cards of the same suit, i.e. 6d 7d. While there are certainly times where these hands are valuable, you’ll be better off folding these cards the vast majority of the time.

In fact, you should be folding 80 to 85% of your hands until you develop a better understanding of poker. As you gain more experience, you’ll develop a better idea on when to play certain hands based on opponents, table position, and previous bets.

Reading Opponents

Reading Texas holdem opponents is less about identifying a nervous ticks than it is about paying attention.

When you first come onto a table with new opponents, you have no information about what range of hands they like to play or the type of bets they make in specific situations. The best that you can do in these situations is pay attention and take mental notes.

The good news is that if you’re folding 80 to 85% of the time like we suggested before, you’ll have plenty of hands to observe opponents. You can then use this information when you’re faced with difficult decisions against the same opponents whom you’ve been watching.

You’ll find no shortage of things to look for when observing other players. But key factors to look for include what range of hands they play in each position, when they bet, the size of their raises / re raises, and how often they bluff.

As you play more Texas holdem, you’ll eventually begin seeing patterns in less skilled opponents that you can exploit.

Limit Your Bluffing, Look for the Right Opportunities

Aside from playing too many hands, another mistake that new players make is bluffing too often. We can blame Hollywood for this, but the key is that you understand the reality behind bluffing.

Before we continue, the main types of bluff include: small bluffs, semi bluffs, and naked bluffs.

Small Bluff

Small bluffs are bets that are normally made in late position to steal blinds and small pots. The idea is to keep your bet low so that you risk very little to earn a small profit.

The flop is Js Jh 4c, and everybody checks to you on the dealer button.

Either somebody has a jack in this situation and they’re slow playing it, or nobody has a jack and they don’t like the board.

Odds are that it’s the latter, and you can steal this pot with a small bet that represents strength.

Semi Bluff

A semi bluff is a bet / raise where you don’t have a made hand, but you could possibly still win the pot later.

You raise pre flop with Ac Kc and draw two callers. The flop is dealt 10c 2h 8c.

The first player checks, and the second makes a two thirds, pot sized bet. You make a pot sized raise in late position in hopes of pushing them out of the hand.

Assuming they have any pair, then they currently have you beat. But the fact that you can still win with your over cards or flush draw makes this a semi bluff.

Naked Bluff

The naked bluff, a.k.a. stone cold bluff, is the type that you see in poker movies, where somebody goes all in with 2 7 off suit and forces a fold.

These are the worst possible bluffs because they leave you totally exposed and out your money if the opponent calls.

You raise with 8s 7s in late position to steal blinds, but the small blind calls. You then see a flop of Kc 4d 2c.

The opponent makes a two thirds pot sized bet to open, and you come back with a 1.5x pot sized raise.

You have absolutely nothing in this situation because both your flush and straight draws were killed on the flop. Your only hope is that the opponent doesn’t have kings, or another made hand, and folds.

Naked bluffs can be useful in the right situations, for the right player. But you need to have experience and good reads on opponents before you can turn these plays into long term profits.

A good rule of thumb is to completely avoid naked bluffs until you’re adept at small bluffs, semi bluffs, and reading opponents.

Understand Basic Poker Math

Poker is often miscast as a game where you need to make great reads and incredible bluffs to win. While these aspects can help you gain an edge, it’s far more important that you understand the math behind playing certain hands rather than when to bluff with 3 9 off suit.

Below are the most important Texas holdem math concepts in the order that you should learn them.

Counting Outs

The best place to begin is with counting your outs, or the number of cards needed to make your desired hand.

You have an open ended straight draw, meaning there are four cards on either end that will complete your straight, giving you 8 total outs.

In order to calculate your outs, you need to know how to read the board, which shouldn’t be hard as long as you understand poker hand rankings.

Also note that you can’t count outs that will give your opponent / s a better hand.

You have an open ended straight draw, but two diamonds on the flop. Anybody with two diamonds in their starting hand will form a flush if another one lands on the turn or river.

That said, you can’t count the two diamonds that will complete your straight on either end, thus reducing your outs to 6.

Pot Odds

Pot odds help you decide when to make a tough call based on the amount of money in the pot compared to how much you must contribute to see the next card / showdown.

$20 is in the pot and your opponent bets $10, making the total pot $30. You now need to call $10 to play for the $30 pot, making your pot odds 30 to 10 or 3 to 1.

This alone doesn’t tell you anything, which is why you must figure out your chances of getting the card you need to win the hand.

An easy way to do this is by taking your outs, then multiplying this number by 4, which puts your chances of winning the hand into a percentage.

You have a flush draw, which gives you 9 outs to make your flush. Multiplying this by 4, you have a 36% chance of making your hand, or a ratio of 64 to 36.

The final step is to compare your ratio of winning the hand 64 to 36 to your 3 to 1 pot odds.

Since it’s hard comparing 64 to 36 to 3 to 1, let’s simplify 64 to 36 by dividing 64 by 36, making the ratio roughly 1.8 to 1.

Now, you can compare your 3 to 1 pot odds to 1.8 to 1 hand odds.

The idea is that you want to call if your pot odds are higher than your hand odds. Since they’re higher, you would make the call in this instance.

Implied Odds

Once you’re adept with pot odds, you can start factoring in implied odds, which take into account whether calls are worth making based on future betting action.

The goal of implied odds is to determine if your opponent will pay you off after your drawing hand is completed. In essence, implied odds can make what appears to be a non-profitable call based on pot odds turn into a profitable call.

The only problem with implied odds is that they don’t have a clean mathematical formula like pot odds. Instead, you’re estimating based on the board and an opponent’s previous betting patterns if they will pay you off.

You work your pot odds out to 3 to 1, and your odds of winning a hand to 3 to 2. Based on pot odds alone, you shouldn’t make this call.

But let’s also say that you hold 8s 9c on a board of Jh 10h 3s, and your opponent bets into the pot. Based on their previous betting patterns, you feel that the opponent will pay you off if you make the straight.

Based on the slim ratio that you’re already facing with 3 to 1 pot odds versus 3 to 2 hand odds, any future raise from the opponent will make this play worth calling.

Reverse Implied Odds

Continuing on the example above, you also have to consider that your opponent could have a flush draw based on the board. And if they hit this flush, you’ll lose regardless of whether you complete the straight.

This is where you should consider reverse implied odds, or the amount of money that you stand to lose based on an opponent making their hand.

Just like implied odds, this concept doesn’t have a clean mathematical formula that you can base your decision on.

But the basic idea is that you don’t want to call without pot odds if an opponent / s can form a better hand than you based on the board.

Essentially, reverse implied odds call on your to forget implied odd when opponents are drawing for a better hand.

Texas Holdem Tournaments vs Cash Games

In order to win in both Texas holdem cash games and tournaments, you need to understand that there are crucial strategy differences between the two. Here’s a closer look at the strategy nuances that you’ll see when moving from cash games to tournaments.

Texas Holdem Cash Game Strategy

One notable aspect about cash games is that you theoretically have unlimited chances to win. If you go all in and bust out, you can buy back in and continue playing.

This allows you to be more aggressive with your chips and play the odds to a T. Furthermore, you’ll find that it’s always correct to chase draws when you estimate good pot odds and implied odds.

Even if you fail to make your hand, which happens the majority of the time, you’re still making smart positive expected value +EV plays.

Another notable factor about tourneys is that you should always be playing with a full stack size. This allows you to get maximum benefit out of any +EV situations where you need to make large raises / re raises or go all in.

Any time that your chip stack is less than the max buy in, you should get more chips to build it to the max.

Texas Holdem Tournament Strategy

Chips gain more value in poker tournaments because, outside of rebuy events, you can’t replace them. This means that you need to be more conservative with your chips in certain spots.

How Do Texas Holdem Tournaments Work On Sunday

You’re getting 4.2 to 1 pot odds and have a 4 to 1 chance to hit your drawing hand. In a cash game, the correct decision would be to call; in a tournament, this thin value isn’t worth the risk to your stack size.

Aside from representing your tournament life, your chip stack size also plays a role in the overall strength of your bets, raises, and bluffs. The larger your stack, the better you can intimidate smaller stacks that are fighting for their tournament lives.

On the reverse side, having a smaller stack forces you to be more aggressive in situations that you might not otherwise be.

Specifically, when your chip stack falls below 10 big blinds, you need to look for any chance you can to steal blinds and / or double up. Oftentimes, these won’t be your favorite time to go all in, but you can’t afford to let the blinds wither your chip stack to nothing.

Quality of Tournament Players vs. Cash Players

One more thing worth noting is that you’ll generally face weaker players in Texas holdem tournaments.

For starters, Texas Holdem is one of the simplest poker variations to learn, making it popular among beginners and recreational players.

Another element is that players can only lose as much as their tournament buy in. This is more comforting than cash games, where there’s no limit on the amount of money that you can lose.

Online Texas Holdem vs Live Texas Holdem

Another big division in Texas holdem strategy comes between the live and online format. That being said, let’s look at what you need to be aware of when transitioning between the two.

Hands Per Hour

The rate of hands that you play in online poker versus live poker isn’t even close.

At a standard online Texas holdem table, you’ll play anywhere from 60 80 hands per hour HPH on average. If you multi table, you could easily play hundreds of HPH.

Contrast this to live poker, where, even with an experienced dealer, you’ll only play 20 to 30 HPH.

This is both good and bad as far as online poker goes. On one side, you gain more experience through internet poker since you’ll see more hands. On the other hand, you stand to lose more money if you’re not very good.

How Does Texas Holdem Poker Work

Assuming you do become great at poker, the online version will provide you with a better hourly rate. You can also get over downswings quicker since you’ll be playing more HPH.

Online Poker Forces You into Quick Decisions

Internet poker sites feature timers that force you into quick decisions.

This is good from the perspective that other players can’t stall when thinking about decisions. But it’s also bad when you’re trying to improve and can’t make snap decisions.

If you start playing bad due to the faster pace, this can lead to tilt, or the mental state where you make bad decisions because you’re no longer in the optimal poker mind state.

This makes being aware of yourself and your mind state one of the most important factors in online poker success.

Live Texas Holdem Offers Physical Tells

The number of tells that you can gather from nervous facial expressions is overrated in live poker. But the fact is that you can gain physical information from live poker players through their facial expressions, hand movements, posture, and talkativeness.

When playing internet poker, the only tell that you have is your opponents’ betting patterns and range of playable hands.

This is still enough to gain crucial information that can help you win. But it also cuts out one weapon since you can’t physically observe how your opponents react in certain situations.

Texas Holdem Bankroll Management

Far too many beginning poker players jump into tournaments or cash games with only a few buy ins to their name.

We get it: the prospect of winning money through poker is exciting when you set your mind to it. But due to the variance / downswings of poker, you won’t last very long without a sizable number of buy ins.

Below, you can see what to plan for in terms of bankroll management.

What Stakes Should You Play?

The first step to poker bankroll management is figuring out how much money you can afford to play with. Look at your finances and bills, then come to a determination on a comfortable amount that you can put towards poker.

The next step is figuring out what stakes you should be playing based on this amount.

A good guideline for cash games is to never play stakes where you have to risk more than 5% of your bankroll at once. If you have $500 set aside, then you should never play a cash game where the max buy in is over $25.

Tournaments are different because there’s more variance involved due to only 10 15% of the field making money. This is why it’s good to play stakes where you can cover at least 100 buy ins.

If you want to play tourneys with $10 + $1 buy ins, you should have a bankroll of $1,100 or more.

Deal with Variance

Expanding on the previous topic, having a solid bankroll helps you survive downswings and variance that might otherwise wipe out your funds.

Given that poker has elements of chance, you’ll go through periods where nothing seems to go right no matter how well you’re playing. Bad beats, poor card runs, and tilt will all wreak havoc on your bankroll at some point.

Pulling out of these downswings not only requires patience and skill, but also enough money to cover the losses.

Focus on More Than Money

How Do Texas Holdem Tournaments Worksheet

The primary reason why people play Texas holdem is to make profits. But if you’re only focusing on how much you win and lose each session, then you’ll do far more of the latter.

Instead, you should focus on goals that will improve your long term skills so that you can make money.

Examples of non monetary goals include:

• Playing x number of hands per month
• Studying poker strategy for x number of hours each week
• Playing sessions for x number of hours
• Spending x number of hours analyzing your own play

Drop Down in Stakes

What should you do when you can’t pull out of a rut and are questioning your poker skills?

The best answer is to drop down in stakes for two reasons: 1) you’ll facer weaker competition, and 2) you’ll be risking less money per buy in.

Nobody wants to work their way up to a certain level, only to have to drop down because they’re not playing well. But sometimes this is the best remedy when nothing else is going right.

Poker Tools to Help You Beat Texas Holdem

What we’ve covered so far only scratches the surface of how you can become a better Texas holdem player.

The best tip we can give you is to never stop in your quest to keep improving because there’s always something to learn. Here’s a closer look at some tools that’ll boost your poker skills.

Texas Holdem Articles

Since the mid 2000s, thousands of poker articles have sprang up on the internet covering every Texas holdem topic imaginable.

You can either visit major poker sites and browse through their strategy section or just perform simple Google searches to find the exact topics that you’re looking for.

Texas Holdem Books

Books were once the dominant way to learn poker strategy. After all, the internet didn’t exist and players had no way to quickly access Texas holdem information.

Poker books aren’t as popular as they once were, but you can still find a great deal of information through both ebooks and hardcover works.

One of the best things about Texas holdem books is that they allow you to dive deep into the mindset of pros and how they play their hands.

Coaching

You can hire professionals to teach you poker either in person or online. Regarding the latter, coaches can use screen sharing software to see how you play internet poker and offer suggestions over the course of your play.

How Do Texas Holdem Tournaments Work On The Internet

This is perhaps the quickest way to improve if you find a good coach. But the downside is that you have to pay a high hourly rate to hire the best coaches.

Forums

Since the Poker Boom, forums have become populated with both Texas holdem tips and discussion groups.

This has archived a great deal of poker strategy information that you can use to improve your play. You can even pose your own questions, although forums are becoming a less popular today thanks to the spread of social media.

Poker Software

Third party companies sell software that you can use at poker sites to gain advanced statistics on opponents.

The most popular type of software is a Heads Up Display HUD, which offers numbers and percentages on players’ tendencies.

Some HUDs can even offer you statistics on players whom you’ve never even seen. For this reason, many online poker sites have banned HUDs to give recreational players who don’t use software a fighting chance.

Training Videos

For Texas holdem players on a budget, the best value in poker strategy is training videos.

These videos feature mostly skilled pros explaining different strategy concepts while playing online poker.

This not only gives you more insight into how pros think, but it’s also cheaper than coaching. Many sites allow you to access thousands of training videos for a $30 monthly subscription fee.

Conclusion

One final thought on becoming a better poker pro is to constantly think about and analyze your play.

This is made easier through the use of online hand histories. But when you don’t have access to these, then at least replay difficult situations in your head and try to come up with solutions on how to work through these problems.

You can also pose specific hand questions / problems on forums or ask coaches.

Additionally, you should spend at least one hour studying strategy for every 3 to 4 hours you spend playing. This might not sound like fun, but the improvement that you see in your play will be well worth it.

And once again, there’s no cap on the amount of time that you can spend improving as a player. If you truly want to become a profitable player, then keep fine tuning your strategy and working your way up the stakes.