Key tricks for changing tactics in Texas Hold'em

Texas Hold'em is all about changing your plans quickly depending on the cards, your seat at the table and how your opponents are playing. Small adjustments can affect how the hand goes from start to finish, from the flop all the way to the river. By reading the situation correctly, each choice becomes smarter and fits better into the flow of the game.

The strength of the cards guides all decisions

How strong your starting cards are determines whether you should raise, call or fold before the flop. A pair of aces or kings with aces is strong early at the table, but weaker cards like king-queen in the same suit need good position to actually be worth playing. A good tip is to sort the starting cards by strength: the top ten like Ace-Ace, King-King or Ace-King are always raised, while cards like 8-7 in the same suit are shown late. If you have a medium card like ace-jack in the centre, raise to three times the big dark to check the opponents right away. In environments with sports and casino similar ideas are mixed, but in Hold'em you have to weigh the cards against how often the table raises before the flop, around 15-20 per cent of the time. Always change after the flop: if your top pair gets weak against two higher cards, fold to hard betting.

The importance of location at every step

Where you sit at the table changes everything from start to finish. Late in the game you can call with 40 per cent more cards than early, because you act last after the flop. Example: with 10-9 in the same suit in the cutoff, raise to 2.5 big blinds to steal the blinds, but early on during the gun you fold the same short 80 per cent of the time. On a flop with a good seat, bet 60 percent of the pot with half-bluffs as suits to build the pot or take it home outright. With no seat, as in the small blind, check-raise only with strong draws or sets, otherwise check-bet weak top pairs at two higher cards on the table. In fact, figures from millions of hands show that a good seat wins 25 per cent more pots by calling more cards and controlling the pace.

Read and change according to the opponents' game

How your opponents act determines how you should respond. A stingy player who raises pre-flop three per cent of the time often has strong cards, so just call the top five against them. One tip is to count the VPIP, i.e. how often they put money in the pot, over 20 hands: under 20 per cent is tight, over 35 per cent loose. Against a loose-passive who limps 25 percent of the cards, isolate by raising to four big blinds with aces with something in the same suit to exploit their weak eyesight. On hard re-raises from a player with a 12 percent re-raise rate, re-raise bluff with blocker cards such as ace-5 of the same suit late in the table to balance your cards. Example: on a rainbow flute With overpairs, bet half the pot against a big caller but check against a tough player who bets 70 per cent. Always change according to how often they check-raise on the flop, around eight per cent for stingy players.