TEXAS HOLD'EM FOR DUMMIES.

323 Pages·2022·7.331 MB·English

by  MARK HARLAN

Texas
Hold’em
2nd Edition
by Mark “The Red” Harlan
Texas Hold’em For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774,
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2022 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the
1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher.
Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions
Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201)
748-6011, fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making
Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not
associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: WHILE THE PUBLISHER AND
AUTHORS HAVE USED THEIR BEST EFFORTS IN PREPARING THIS WORK, THEY
MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY
OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM
ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY
MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES REPRESENTATIVES, WRITTEN SALES
MATERIALS OR PROMOTIONAL STATEMENTS FOR THIS WORK. THE FACT THAT AN
ORGANIZATION, WEBSITE, OR PRODUCT IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A
CITATION AND/OR POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT
MEAN THAT THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHORS ENDORSE THE INFORMATION OR
SERVICES THE ORGANIZATION, WEBSITE, OR PRODUCT MAY PROVIDE OR
RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE
UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY
NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR SITUATION. YOU SHOULD CONSULT WITH A SPECIALIST
WHERE APPROPRIATE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT WEBSITES
LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN
THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR
AUTHORS SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFIT OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL
DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL,
CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHER DAMAGES.
For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer
Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or
fax [phone]. For technical support, please visit https://hub.wiley.com/community/
support/dummies.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that
appears in print may not be available in electronic books.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022931191
ISBN: 978-1-119-87309-9 (pbk); 978-1-119-87310-5 (ebk); 978-1-119-87311-2 (ebk)
Contents at a Glance
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part 1: Everything’s Bigger in Texas:
Texas Hold’em Welcome to Texas Hold’em! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
CHAPTER 1: A Bird’s-Eye View of Texas Hold’em . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER 2: Ranking and Reading a Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
CHAPTER 3: Just Tell Me How to Play: Texas Hold’em Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Part 2: Texas Hold’em: Play by Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
CHAPTER 4: Beginning with Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
CHAPTER 5: Flopping ’Til You’re Dropping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
CHAPTER 6: Taking Your Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
CHAPTER 7: Dipping in the River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Part 3: Movin’ On to Higher Stakes:
Advanced Strategies of Hold’em . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
CHAPTER 8: Playing the Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
CHAPTER 9: Bluffing: When Everything Isn’t What It Appears to Be . . . . . . . . 127
CHAPTER 10: Maximizing Your Win: Check-Raising and Trapping . . . . . . . . . . . 143
CHAPTER 11: Camouflaging Your Play and Dodging Traps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
CHAPTER 12: Considering Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . 61
CHAPTER 13: Advancing Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Part 4: Casinos, Card Rooms, and the Internet:
Places to Play Hold’em . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
CHAPTER 14: There’s No Place Like Home: Playing in Private Games . . . . . . . 193
CHAPTER 15: Opting for the Internet: Online Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
CHAPTER 16: Harrah’s, Here I Come: Playing in Card Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
CHAPTER 17: Competing in Tournaments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .229
Part 5: The Part of Tens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
CHAPTER 18: Ten Differences between Online and Real-World Play . . . . . . . . 253
CHAPTER 19: (Almost) Ten Common Mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
CHAPTER 20: Ten Ways to Improve Your Home Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
CHAPTER 21: Ten Bad Beats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
CHAPTER 22: Ten Things You Can Do to Improve Your Hold’em Game . . . . . . 277
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Foolish Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Icons Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Beyond the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
PART 1: EVERYTHING’S BIGGER IN TEXAS:
WELCOME TO TEXAS HOLD’EM! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 1: A Bird’s-Eye View of Texas Hold’em . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Considering Why You Want to Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Working with Game Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The importance of position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Playing move by move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Moving Up a Notch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Gleaning your opponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Playing the roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Figuring in math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Places You Can Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Home games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Casinos and poker rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
CHAPTER 2: Ranking and Reading a Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Hand Rankings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
High card only — no pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
One pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Two pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Three-of-a-kind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Straight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Flush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Full house . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Four-of-a-kind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Straight flush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Royal flush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Reading a Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Straightforward hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Subtle hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Counterfeiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Table of Contents v
Paying a Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
The winner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Tie hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Just Tell Me How to Play: Texas
CHAPTER 3:
Hold’em Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
The Order of Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
The Dealer Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Dealing the Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
The hole cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
The flop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The river . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The showdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Posting Blinds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Betting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Spread-Limit Hold’em . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Limit Hold’em . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Pot-Limit Hold’em . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
No-Limit Hold’em . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The Importance of Your Bankroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Recommended bankroll sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Moving up and moving down in limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Poker Etiquette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Handling your cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Handling your chips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Playing in turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Tipping the dealer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Keeping an eye on the game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Watching your manners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
PART 2: TEXAS HOLD’EM: PLAY BY PLAY . . . . . . . . . . . 55
CHAPTER 4: Beginning with Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
The Importance of Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Early position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Middle position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Late position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
The hands you should play, by relative position
at a table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Considering the Players in a Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Keeping track of the number of players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Watching the types of players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
vi Texas Hold’em For Dummies
Hands You Should and Shouldn’t Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Probable winners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Quite possible losers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Borderline hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Using “Fold or Raise” to Make a Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
CHAPTER 5: Flopping ’Til You’re Dropping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Fitting or Folding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Great flops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Good flops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Very borderline flops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Downright dangerous flops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Just plain bad flops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Betting the Flop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Sizing up the table for a bet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Making the bet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Calling a Bet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Raising the Dough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Check-Raising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Getting a Free Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
The free card setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Defending against a free card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
CHAPTER 6: Taking Your Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Watching a Hand Fill Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
To check-raise or bet: That is the question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Made flushes: The notable exception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Watching for “hidden” improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Keeping Track of the Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Determining a hit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Comprehending the miss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
CHAPTER 7: Dipping in the River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Plotting Your Course During Final Betting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
All checking, no dancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Walking through the firestorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Betting in moderation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Deciding if you’re being bluffed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Showing a Hand . . . or Not? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Watching for Mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Table of Contents vii
PART 3: MOVIN’ ON TO HIGHER STAKES:
ADVANCED STRATEGIES OF HOLD’EM . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
CHAPTER 8: Playing the Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111
Classifying Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Aggressive versus passive players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Tight as an oyster or loose as a goose? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Combining your evaluations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Looking for Tells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Watching the right place at the right time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Who’s acting and who isn’t? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Watching other people’s hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Listening to what people say . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Involuntary reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Failing all else . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Zeroing In on Specifics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Figuring out the table in order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Looking at individuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Bluffing: When Everything Isn’t
CHAPTER 9:
What It Appears to Be . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
The Basics of Bluffing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Your turn not to tell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Don’t bluff people worse than you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Making your bluff count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
When to Bluff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131
Bluffing based on your image of “predictability” . . . . . . . . . 131
Looking at your hand from the outside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Bluffing in the right game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Who to Bluff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Preying on weak personalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Taking advantage of other situations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
The Semi-Bluff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
When to semi-bluff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Why semi-bluff? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
You’re Caught — Now What? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Maximizing Your Win: Check-Raising
CHAPTER 10:
and Trapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Mastering the Art of Check-Raising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Bluffing on a check-raise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Playing a good hand on a check-raise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
viii Texas Hold’em For Dummies