Texas Holdem Strategy - No Limit

No-Limit holdem is game of general strategy, basic tactical skills useful in all forms of poker, and a game of intense psychology.

When you enter a No-Limit ring game, you need to know two things before you can really expect to roll in it: who are your opponents and how many hands go to a showdown.

Types of opponents

Generally, people speak of four types of players: tight-passive, tight-aggressive, loose-passive, loose-aggressive. The first modifier characterizes the number of hands the person plays while the second describes the player's betting style.

No-Limit holdem, loose-aggressive should be divided into two parts: action-seekers and solid players.

Tight-passives: These people do fine in a limit game, but they won't make much in a No-Limit game. The only way these people will win is when they pick off bluffs, otherwise they won't get the value out of their hands that they should. When against these players:

Bluff at the flop a lot. Put in a raise preflop and bet at the flop no matter what calls Fold when they represent a hand. If they bet a little, they're probably on a draw. So stick with your hand if you got something. If they bet a lot, they got something good.
Take advantage of your control. Don't go wild with your bluffs though. Fold preflop when you have nothing. But raise when you have a good hand and go for the kill at the flop. If you miss the kill, give up. But when you have something, milk him for everything it is worth.
Essentially, you can quickly tame these players into being calling/folding stations.

Loose-passives: They have to hope that people continually bluff into them because these people have they will call frequently with the second best hand. This is a recipe for disaster at No-Limit. You don't see too many of these bad players at No-Limit games because they lose so quickly and run to Limit games.

Maniac loose-aggressive: These guys will buy a fair share of pots, but then will get themselves trapped by another aggressive player and will lose their stacks in one or two hands. What separates these from good loose-aggressives is that they lack discipline. They love the action of No-Limit so much that they get themselves trapped too easily.

Strong loose-aggressive: These guys seem like they are horrible maniacs, but in reality, they are a very dangerous form of player. These guys will certainly lose a lot of money in pots, but they also will buy a lot of pots and will win huge ones. The way these types of players win is mainly by getting a good read on the opponent and then making a well-timed bet.

The main tactic against these players is to trap them in their own game. Try to avoid having the pot escalate too much preflop unless you have aces or kings, and try not to let them buy every pot. The way to beat these guys is to take them down at one big pot. Since these guys will play a lot of hands, especially short-handed, they'll often play hands that lend themselves to be second best hands.

Tight-aggressive: The tight-aggressive's main problems are that he may get chased out of a lot of flops early and that he may be too easily read.

Showdown Percentage

This is a critical concept in No-Limit. Since No-Limit lends itself to bluffing, one can make a lot of money simply by stealing pots. However, this strategy obviously fails if everyone shows you down to the river!

Before playing in a high-stakes game or start really getting hardcore into one, pay attention to the number of hands going to showdowns.

Types of hands to play

The types of hands you play in No-Limit differ than those in Limit. This is because of implied odds. Hands like KQ off suit go down in value because they cannot withstand much pressure. Even if you hit a K with this type of hand, you still may be losing to a set, two pair, AK, or may lose eventually to a draw.

Thus, with big cards, you generally want to take down the pot at the flop. The exception to this is if you think you have someone outkicked (say AK vs KJ with a K on the board), or if you hit the flop hard (like KK3 when you hold AK). In these cases, you generally want to extract money from your opponent bit by bit.

The types of hands that go up in value or ones that you can bet with confidence: pocket pairs and suited connectors (strong draws in general). Pocket pairs do well because they are sneaky and can often withhold pressure.

With pocket pairs, you can bet hard if you have a set or an overpair, which are hands that people generally don't expect. Suited connectors go up in value for several reasons. First, if the flop comes weird, you generally will be paid off.

You can take down pots and disguise your hand with semi-bluffing. If you hold 76 and the flop comes 45J. People will probably put you on a jack if you bet. They will then either fold or will probably call. Thus, you will either take down the pot at the flop or will be drawing to a hand that people don't expect. If the next two cards are 8 and A and youre opponent holds AJ, expect a huge reward.

How to bet

The concept is simple. You want extract as much money from people who have made hands but are probably losing to you, you want to punish draws, but at the same time you don't want to be trapping yourself.

Example: Suppose you have 99, flop is A89. You are pretty sure he doesn't have 10J.

You want to put in about pot size bets here. Reason being: He either has a straight draw or pair of aces. If he has a straight, you don't want him to draw on the cheap, and if he has pair of aces, he probably won't let go of them so take as much as you can.

Example: You hold KQ of spades, flop is A95, A5 are of spades.

Bet into this flop. But don't bet too much, just enough to make ppl fold if they don't have an ace but enough to maybe make an AQ just freeze up and call. A 1/3 size pot bet would be good. This way you draw relatively cheaply and can punish if you hit your flush.

Bluffing

This relates back to the showdown percentage. More showdowns means bluffing works less. If you are in a game with a lot of showdowns (typical of lower limits), cut down on bluffing and punish them when you have the boss hand.