Reading your opponents for the most part comes down to identifying what poker style they play with. Knowing what poker styles you are playing against will help you become a winning poker player because you can make adjustments in your play.

LAGs (loose aggressive) play many hands, very aggressively. Extreme LAGS are maniacs. They rely on luck and tend to have very big swings – they will occasionally have big wins, but more often have big losses. Their undisciplined play will tend to confuse you, which adds to their success when they’re running hot.

LAPs (loose passive) play many hands, very weakly (few raises, many calls) I call these players lambs (calling stations). This is by far the worst player. They see almost every pot and almost every street and almost never maximize a win (unless someone else is doing the betting for them). They could have the nuts and may very well check/call (which can be a bit confusing, but at least it’s not as costly as losing to a LAG!)

TAGs (tight aggressive) play few hands, but play them very aggressively (ideal style) players who can play this style well, tend to do very well – they typically maximize their wins and control their losses.

TAPs (tight passive) play few hands, but play them very weakly (lots of calling and folding) – also known as rocks, they tend to be winners, but fail to maximize their wins, but do minimize their losses. They will get very little action because they are so rarely involved in a hand that any one with half a clue will get out of their way. Watch out for the check raise from these guys.

So what poker style should you integrate into your game? This is a hard question to answer. I think it comes down to your natural style and whatever you are comfortable playing. Whatever style you are playing, you never want to become too predictable because the good players will pickup on it and you will get owned.

I like to play against LAGs when I am sitting to their left. If you are playing solid poker and have patience, you will always get them in a spot where you have a premium hand and they have overplayed a pair, and you will get all their chips.

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No limit Texas Holdem is the most popular form of poker and is the game which made poker mainstream, with the World Poker Tour tournaments with millions of dollars in prize money broadcast on the telle.

While it can be tempting to just shove all your chips into the pot or in the case of online poker clicking on the all in button, you want to do so with a certain degree of judgment, and this is where No Limit Holdem strategy plays a part.

The number one goal in No Limit Holdem games is to double up by winning your opponents stack. The best way to win someone else stack is to move all in when you are confident that you have the best hand. But you want to move all in with a certain degree of deceptiveness. You do this by concealing the strength of your hand.

Set mining is very profitable because when you hit a set if there are no flushes or straights on the board, you can be pretty confident that you have the best hand. So if your opponent overplays top pair and top kicker, if you put in a re-raise they will most likely go all in and you should win the hand the majority of the time.

When getting involved in a hand in No Limit Holdem, you should always consider how deep your opponent's stack is. This will help you determine whether or not you should get involved in hand with medium strength hands, such as low and middle pockets. If you are in late position and there has been a raise and two callers, if you have 4-4 if the players already in the pot have deep stacks, then calling the raise would be a good idea because if you hit your set on the flop, you will more then likely win their stack. However, if they have relatively short stacks, then calling a raise with a mediocre hand is not a very good strategy because even if you do make a good hand, you probably won't get paid off in a big way.

Now let's talk about good starting hands. A-K is still generally a good starting hand however it's not usually a good idea to risk your entire stack pre flop with A-K. Most of the time you will be up against something like Q-Q so you are in a coin flip situation and you don't have the best of it. If you are a good poker player you should be more confident playing post flop where you can be surer whether or not you are ahead. No Limit Holdem is all about post flop play, not going all in pre flop.

Hands like A-Q and K-Q are good starting hands to make an open raise or call a raised pot, and hands like A-J off suit and K-J off suit are good hands to make an open raise however you probably don't want to call an raised pot with them. This is because other players involved in the hand have already shown strength and hands like this can often get you in kicker trouble because your opponents could have hands like A-Q or K-Q. So even if you do hit your top pair you can potentially lose your entire stack due to a worse kicker.
One of the biggest mistakes I see beginners make is overplaying their A-x or A rag hands. When playing in 6-max ring games, sure you want to be aggressive and open with a raise with any A hands, however you don't want to get involved in big pots when you don't have a good kicker because more often then not you will lose a big pot. You have to realize that with A hands, if the A hits the board, you will more then likely only win a small pot because your opponent will be scared off. And in the instances where you get action, the kicker comes into play, so if you have a hand like A-5 its no good.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Recognize what is the best possible hand

Evaluating your hand strength against your opponents is the single most important factor in Texas Holdem. When you know you have the best hand you want to make use of value bets, and when you know your hand is beat, even if you may have a strong hand you want to know when you are beat. When someone is holding the best possible hand is referred to as the nuts. And the nuts can change with every street. For example, let's say you have A10h and the flop comes 5,6,8 all hearts so you flop the nut flush. If the turn comes 7h and you make a bet and face a re-raise, you have to consider your opponent may have the 4h or 9h, which would make a straight flush.

When you have the nuts you should make nice size bets, usually about 2/3 of the pot so if your opponent has a drawing hand they need to pay to see another card. Where you can run into trouble is when you try and slow play a good hand and you have your opponent sucking out on you because they gave them free cards or they got to see additional cards too cheaply. By paying close attention to the board texture and recognizing when you have the best possible hand, you can avoid making costly mistakes.

Importance of position

Position is a huge thing in Texas Holdem. When you have position on the other players it means you are on the button and you get to act last. Acting last in a hand is a huge advantage because you get to evaluate the strength of the other hands before it is your time to act. For example, in a 6-max ring game if everyone limps into the pot with a raise, you have the knowledge that most likely every player wants to see the flop cheap and have pretty mediocre starting hands. You can consider a raise to try and win a small pot. What starting hands you play has a lot to do with position. When in early position you need to open with a raise with a much narrower range of hands then what you would do in late position. This is because you don't have the chance to evaluate the strength of the other hands so you could face a re-raise and be forced to fold your hand if your hand isn't very strong.

Don't overestimate suited starting hands

When you have two cards of the same suit it improves your hand, but the mistake many beginners tend to make is they overplay their suited hands. A flush is a very strong hand but the probability of getting a flush is quite low. I like to play suited connectors and suited high cards. But a hand like 24 suited is not a very good starting hand and you should probably just throw it away pre flop.
High cards are much better starting cards than low cards

The rank of cards is basically what Texas Holdem is all about. If you have QQ this is a very good starting hand but if a K or A hits on the flop, you are probably beat. You should play high cards much more aggressively then low cards, because if you hit top pair, you most likely have the best hand. For example, if you have KJ, and your opponent has 67, and both of you hit a pair on the flop, you have the better hand because you have the high cards.

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