How To Win At Texas Holdem Poker Every Time

Ever since the early days of Texas holdem poker, players have attempted to analyze and organize the 169 possible two card starting hands found in the game. One traditional way of doing so involves running thousands upon thousands of simulations in which a particular holdem hand is played out against nine random opponent hands. Play Good Cards and You Will Win. My #1 Texas Holdem tip is one of the very first lessons in poker. Meanwhile, a Texas Holdem poker cash game is played on a single table with 2 to 10 players. The goal is simple: win as many chips as you can, one pot at a time. You win a pot by having the best hand or by having all other players fold before the showdown. Basic Texas Holdem Poker Game Rules.

Poker chips, playing cards, and dice needed to play Texas Hold'em. (Courtesy of Javier Webar on Flickr. License: CC BY-NC).

Instructor(s)

Will Ma

MIT Course Number

15.S50

As Taught In

January IAP 2016

Level

Graduate

Welcome!

This is one of over 2,400 courses on OCW. Explore materials for this course in the pages linked along the left.

MIT OpenCourseWare is a free & open publication of material from thousands of MIT courses, covering the entire MIT curriculum.

No enrollment or registration. Freely browse and use OCW materials at your own pace. There's no signup, and no start or end dates.

Knowledge is your reward. Use OCW to guide your own life-long learning, or to teach others. We don't offer credit or certification for using OCW.

Made for sharing. Download files for later. Send to friends and colleagues. Modify, remix, and reuse (just remember to cite OCW as the source.)

Learn more at Get Started with MIT OpenCourseWare

Course Description

Course Features

Course Description

Offered during MIT's Independent Activites Period (IAP), this short course covers the poker concepts, math concepts, and general concepts needed to play the game of Texas Hold'em on a professional level.

IAP is a special 4-week term in January that provides members of the MIT community including students, faculty, staff, and alums with an opportunity to organize, sponsor and participate in a wide variety of activities and topics that are often outside of the regular MIT curriculum.

Faculty Advisor: Paul Mende

Other Versions

Other OCW Versions

OCW has published multiple versions of this subject.

Related Content

Course Collections

See related courses in the following collections:

Find Courses by Topic

Raising is what makes the game of Texas hold’em exciting. You should raise often, especially against weak opponents. You should also pay attention to how often your opponents raise.

How Do You Win At Texas Holdem Every Time

Any time an opponent raises before you act, it’s time to reconsider whether your hand is good enough to play. I’m a fan of the raise or fold guideline.

If your hand isn’t strong enough to re-raise the raiser, go ahead and give him credit for having a great hand and fold—unless you’re already involved in the pot. In that case, it’s okay to call asingle raise and see what the flop offers.

Winning Texas Holdem Strategy

Pay attention to position, too. Players who raise from early position usually have stronger hands than players who raise from late position.

Winning poker is aggressive poker, too. Players who win a lot of money at Texas hold’em don’t do it by calling a lot of hands down to the river.

If you have a big pair preflop, you should almost always raise. Big pairs play better against fewer opponents. The more people in the pot with you, the more likely it is that someone will drawout on you.

If you have more speculative hands preflop, try to get into the hand cheap with plenty of opponents. Then if you hit your hand, you can get paid off.

Top Texas Holdem Sites

You should also raise aggressively preflop from late position if you have any reasonable hand and little opposition. You want to give yourself a chance of winning the blinds.