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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