Texas Hold'em Poker Strategy: Win the Most Money, Not the Most Games

Most good poker players know that the object of Texas Hold'em Poker is to win the most money and not the most hands. Some lesser players think that winning the most hands is the strategy which will win them the most money. These misguided players are the ones you want to get on your table. In a cash game, it is not too hard to find players like this since you can observe them from a little distance before you choose the table you want play on. A modest tip to the Poker Room Manager can usually get you to the table you want to play on. It is well worth the investment.

Money Management

In order to win the most money you have to learn how to maximize the amount of money you will take in on a probable winning hand. Conversely, to win the most money in the long run you have to minimize the amount of money you can lose on a probable losing hand. This is called the Minimax Theory of money management. It applies not only to poker but to any gambling game or in fact any business venture.

Scenario 1

Your first two cards are a medium or higher pair or another first tier hand such as AK, AQ, or AJ, A10, KQ suited. These are the best cards you can expect on the first two cards dealt to you. Therefore, at this stage you have a probable winning hand and should bet, even if someone raised before you. The object is to keep your hand the probable winner. With these starting cards you do not want a lot of callers.

Why is that? Well even if your first two cards are Aces, if 8 people call you, you are not the favorite to win over a large field. There may be other pairs which set up (become 3 of a kind) on the flop. There may be any two cards become two pair, a straight or flush draw as well. Therefore, you don't want a lot of people staying in for this to happen. The answer is to make a nice large bet or re-raise to keep the number of drawers to a maximum of one or two. Make it as expensive as possible to push people out before the flop. I do not recommend slow playing Aces (see my article: Texas Hold'em Poker - How To Play Pocket Aces).

Subsequent play should be based on the flop. If three to a suit flops or 3 to a straight and you do not have a draw to either, remember your pair may now be drawing to a made flush or straight. On a strong bet or especially a large re-raise consider folding your pair, which is no longer the probable winner.

Scenario 2

Your first two cards are J,10 suited (called suited connectors). This is not a probable winning hand yet it is a great drawing hand if you can see the flop cheaply enough and have some luck. The best way to play a hand like this is to keep the betting to a minimum and keep in as many players as possible.

At first this may not seem like the most intelligent strategy but consider this. If you are lucky on the flop, you may get two or even three cards to a flush or straight (hopefully open ended). Your stature has just risen from probable loser to probable winner. Even if you have four to a flush, you still have almost a 50% chance of hitting one on the turn or river cards. This is where it is good to have a lot of players. If the betting is moderate, the rewards are still great because of the number of bettors. Every once in a while you may hit your flush but someone else hits a nut flush. However with moderate betting you will not lose as much as if you were betting a re-raising wildly.

Generally it is never great strategy to try to eliminate players if you are going for a draw hand.

Scenario 3

You have nothing on your first two cards so you try to bluff the other players out by making a very big bet to steal the blinds.

Don't do this! You are risking a maximum amount of money to win a very small pot. Some TV commentators praise people who do this. However, maybe that is why they are commentators and not players.