Texas Hold’em, while very easy to learn, is one of the most complex card games in the world. This article will give you just a few simple Texas Holdem strategies to try and to help you navigate your way to becoming a winning Texas Hold’em player.

Playing poker presents you with two choices; you can play cash games or you can play tournaments. Cash games are essentially where you buy in for a sum and play until you either decide to leave, or run out of money. In tournaments you pay a set fee and everyone starts start with an allocated number of chips.

Your style of play should vary considerably when playing each game type, so below you’ll find a few simple approaches you can take when playing Texas Hold’em Tournaments or Cash Games.

Texas Hold’em Strategies – Tournament Tips

A great Texas Hold’em tip for tournament play is to learn how to change gears. What does this mean? Changing gears basically entails changing your style of play depending on the stage of the tournament. We can break a tournament into three stages; early stages, middle stages and late stages.

Early Stages

You should have two simple goals in the early stages of a tournament. Either double up or survive. If you can find a good spot to get all your chips in, then there is nothing wrong with putting them all into the middle. You must win pots if you want to win the tournament, and you can’t win pots by folding. With that being said, your other goal is survival. There is no need to gamble too much in the beginning of the tournament. You are looking for good spots and good spots only. The blinds are likely to be small compared to your chip stack, so there is no need to play sub-premium hands. Play only monster hands and look to get the best return.

Middle Stages

The middle stages of the tournament are where you need to start changing gears. It is usually in this stage of the tournament that you start to find yourself under blind pressure. It is because of this pressure that you should be looking to pick up as many uncontested pots as possible. Up your aggression level and start to steal as many pots as you can. If you are short stacked then your aim will be to get your chips in the middle so that you can enter the next phase, the late stage, with a good sized chip stack.

Late Stages

The late stages of a poker tournament are the most important, because it is here that all the big money is. The best Texas Hold em tip for the late stages of the tournament is to keep your eyes on the prize. While ideally you will be entering the late stages of the tournament with above average chips, sometimes this is not the case. Keep in mind that you are only interested in the top 3 places, as this is generally where all the money is. Your goal in the later stages is to eliminate players and to not be eliminated yourself. You must continue to change gears depending on your chip stack. If you are short stacked, then you must try and find a good spot to get all your chips into the middle. If you are average stack, then you should be on cruise control, picking your spots carefully. If you are lucky enough to be one of the chip leaders, then you should be playing very aggressively, putting pressure on the short stacked players whenever you can.

If you can change gears like this and vary your play depending on the stages of the tournament, you will find that these simple Holdem Tips will help you become a winning tournament player in no time at all.

Texas Holdem Tips – Cash Games

The main difference between online poker cash games and tournaments is that in cash games, the blinds never increase and you can come and go as you please. The best Texas Hold em tip for cash game play is to be patient. Because the blinds never increase, there is no need to change gears like there is in tournaments. What is important in cash games is hand and game selection.

Hand Selection

In cash games, you will never be under blind pressure, so it is important that you concentrate on playing only premium hands. There is no need to play sub-premium hands, and you can theoretically wait all day for a good hand, as the blinds generally represent such a small part of your stack size. When looking for hands to play, keep in mind that your position should play a large part of your hand selection. You want to play only ultra-premium hands from early position, and only look to vary your starting hands when you are in late position.

Game Selection

The other great Texas Holdem tip for cash game play is game selection. Because there are so many cash games online at 888’s Pacific Poker, you can really pick and chose the ones that suit you best. You should be looking first for games that fit your bankroll, and then you should be looking for games that have poorer players sitting at them. Your goal is to find games that you are not only comfortable at, but also where you feel you are the best player in the game.

If you use these simple Texas Holdem tips, you should see a huge increase in your results. If you are yet to get into the action, we recommend you download our free poker software and start off in Practice Play, where you can test these simple Hold’em tips and hone your skills. Then when you have developed enough confidence, you can make your first deposit and get in on the Money Play action. Who knows, maybe one day you will be teaching others your very own Texas Hold em tips.