How to Make Your Maximum Bets Pay Off Well in Texas Holdem

One of the most important aspects to playing Texas Holdem is knowing when to bet and how to bet. On average, a player can win over 20 hands in a single setting of a Texas Holdem tournament, but still lose. For example; a single tournament that I play often sets out 5000 in poker chips for each player. The tournament sets the blinds, (or bets) at 25/50, meaning the small blind player has to pay 25 and the big blind is set at 50. The blinds are then doubled every fifteen minutes until the game has a 200/400 blind. After the 200/400 blind is dealt, the players then take a 15-minute break. During this time, I have noticed quite often that it is not the player that has won the most hands that usually comes back to play, it's always the players who have won the most. I have known players only win one hand and make their seat in the final round, yet the player who has won over 20 games lose out on being even being in the top twenty. The players who worked on getting the most out of a hand without getting beat are the ones who win so with this known fact, I decided to use this new method to come out with better odds of winning on the tournaments I play.

In the past, I would usually raise my bet to around 100 chips if I had a good hand. This would be around the beginning of the tournament. I started raising 250 instead, having fewer callers and pulling out more chips if I was lucky enough to increase my odds of winning on the flop, (the first three cards played on the board).

Also, you might think you have to play every hand at the beginning of the rounds. This does increase your chance of winning, but I also realized that if I just put some patience into my playing and folded half the time I had a bad hand, I came out ahead more often. The secret to playing Texas holdem is not winning a lot of hands; it's having the patience to wait on a good hand, sometimes waiting over an hour. A player with a chip stack equaling to 4000-4500 chips at the end of the rounds 200/400 has a better chance of winning than a player who has been playing every round, resulting in getting sucked out. This means having someone raise the bet on your call, forcing you to call or fold after you just placed your bet or call.

So, the next time you end up in a tournament, remember; patience is key. Let the bullies, (someone who over bets to run all opponents off the playing board), run into a player with a good hand. They are often the players who get caught in the "bait and trap" with another player anyways, so they won't last long. Work on this and you will be impressed on how long you actually last in the game, either by placing first, second, or third.