Texas Holdem Lesson on Hand Selection
It's great to win at Texas holdem poker. If we play properly and know how to build a pot for a big win at poker, the game can be so exciting as well as profitable. But winning at poker is determined in the beginning. It's hard to expect a profitable finish if we start poorly. We begin with a fundamental Texas holdem lesson.
It all starts with a starting hand. A starting hand is the two cards dealt us in the game. For instance, in the beginning of a game, after the small and the big blinds have placed their bets, the dealer deals two cards to each player. Then 3 cards are dealt on the table face-up. These are called the board cards. The first Texas holdem lesson is to see how we can form the highest possible hand using the two cards we hold (our "hand") and the 3 board cards.
What hand we hold at the start of the game - the initial or starting hand - often determines how we end up in the game. If we hold a poor starting hand and make no effort to improve it, we end up loser. Thus, the initial Texas holdem lesson is vital. Players who don't know hand selection strategies pre-flop (or before the flop) just play any hand and are marked out as poor or weak players who just contribute to the pot with their bets.
An important tip in this Texas holdem lesson is to always play premium hands initially. If we are dealt lower cards pre-flop, we can either fold or bluff our way to post flop play. After the flop, there's a good chance that the board cards can improve our hand. In order to get to this phase of the game, another important Texas holdem lesson is to know how to bluff. Bluffing should be coupled with hand-reading. Hand-reading is trying to guess as accurately as we can what hand a player holds.
When we see which player has a weak hand and who has a strong hand, we try to bluff in the hand, hoping to scare away weak players and not to be called or raised by a strong player. If we manage to survive to post flop play then we pass the critical Texas holdem lesson.
Hence, wise hand selection is a crucial Texas holdem lesson to learn. At pre-flop play it determines how we would fair at post flop. And post flop is when most bets get decisive.