I remember well my introduction to Texas Hold’em at the Memorial Union on the campus of the University of Wisconsin (UW). I was a poor (OK, broke!) undergraduate student at UW then, with nothing to lose (literally). Amazingly enough, the game was played right in the middle of the Student Union, infamous for its relaxed mores. For some reason, the powers that be didn’t think students should be playing poker there,
but because we used some old Austrian coins as chips, instead of the usual red, white, and blue plastic chips that were the standard for the time, none of the authorities seemed to notice what we were playing. The game of choice offered additional camouflage: we were playing Texas Hold’em instead of the much more easily recognized Seven-Card Stud.
I fancied myself a great poker player at the time, and when I heard about the game, I hurried down to play. Of course, I wasn’t even a good player then, because I’d had very little experience. It seems that everyone overrates himself when it comes to
playing poker!
The players were quite an eclectic mix: taxi drivers, students, professors, lawyers, and even a prominent psychiatrist.
When I sat down and bought in for $2 O, I was warmly welcomed by the group, because every game needs some new blood (and fresh cash) once in a while. I quickly learned that I had a lot to learn about Texas Hold’em. I had a great time, but my $20 didn’t last long, and it was all I could afford to risk. Although I didn’t
know much about poker yet, I at least had the good sense not to risk more than I could afford to lose, or borrow money I’d have trouble paying back.
Still, I thought I was gaining a feel for the game and its nuances, and, with so much money flying around down there, I thought I might one day begin paying my tuition with my poker profits. So I struck up an acquaintance with the best player in
the game and set out to learn how to play Texas Hold’em the right way.
My new acquaintance, Tuli Haromy, ended up becoming my best friend for the next eight years. He was also the best player and banker for the game. (The banker is responsible for passing out chips, cashing checks, judging how much he can lend
various players, and making sure that everyone is paid at the end of the night.) That made sense, because the best player has a vested interest in making sure the other players have access to cash to play with (and lose to him). It turned out that Tuli was
originally from Las Vegas, which explains why we were playing Hold’em in Madison, Wisconsin, in the first place. Without someone with Tuli’s Las Vegas background, the chances of finding a hold’em game in Madison in the early 1980s would have
been slim to none!
Tuli had a basic theory about Hold’em: “Tight is right."
"Tight" means that you drop out of most hands before the flop. It was good advice. After studying the game with Tuli’s tutoring and playing with the group for about three months, I found that I’d surpassed Tuli and become the best player in the game. After
all, I had no job and no money, which meant that I had a lot of time on my hands and a strong motivation to learn the game.
The amount of money I was winning each week was pretty good, too. In fact, from my modest perspective, the money was phenomenal. After about 18 months, I’d put more than $20,000 in the bank, and I paid off all my student loans! The bigger poker
game on campus included mostly successful faculty and staff members, doctors, and lawyers. The money combined with the fact that my ego felt great competing with and beating successful PhDs, ]D s, and doctors twenty years older than I was, caused me to devote a lot more time and energy to learning Texas Hold’em.
While I was crushing the games in Madison, I began developing my own basic theory of Texas Hold’em. I had taken Tuli’s theory and moved on: super tight was better than tight. In other words, playing even fewer hands than Tuli had suggested was the
way to go. Another skill I had developed was an ability to read my opponents (to analyse how strong or weak their hands were, from subtle clues of behaviour). Reading players, though, is a more advanced concept, so for now let’s just take a look at my theory: "Super tight is right." To make "super tight" something that you can sink your teeth into, I’ll begin by identifying my top ten hands for Hold’em the 10 strongest Hold’em hands out there. I’ll then teach you how t0 play those top ten hands before the flop, on the flop, on fourth street, and, finally, on the river—in other words, on all four rounds of betting. I’ll teach you how to use well-timed raises on the flop to gain information that will help you judge, in the final rounds; whether or not your opponents have you beat.
I’ll show you how to make good use of that information when you’re on Fourth Street. Finally, I’ll show you that folding your hand on the river is usually not a good idea, because of the amount of money that’s already in the pot by then.
Before we get into analysing tactics in actual hands, I’ll also introduce certain "animal types " that describe many of the people you will be playing against. Through examples, I’ll show you when to raise, reraise, call, or fold your hand, depending on
what types of “animals" your opponents seem to be, and thus what their tendencies are likely to be. If you can truly absorb all the information I’ll be offering in
this chapter, and act on it under game conditions, you will already be capable of beating most small-limit Texas Hold’em players all over the world! I will now teach you how to play limit Texas Hold’em—a variation of Texas Hold’em in which the size
of the bet in each round is pre-set. This is the most popular game in the world today.
Preflop Limit Hold’em: Lessons for Beginners, Top Ten Hands Only
To begin with, I recommend playing only the top ten hands and folding on all others. The top ten are, in order of relative promise: A-A, K-K, Q-Q, A-K, ]-J, 10-10, 9-9, 8-8, A-Q, and finally 7-7. Experience has shown me that these are the strongest starting hands in limit Hold’em. This beginning “strategy for survival" is designed to keep you in the game while you learn the more subtle techniques that are necessary to beat tougher games, or to extract more money from weak games. And in some games using just this strategy will make you a winner. With this patient strategy alone, and really not much else in the way of poker instruction, I was able to crush the games in Madison. What happens is that when you consistently play only the top ten hands, your opponents will begin to fear your bets and raises because
they’ll see that you’re always playing something powerful. This fear gives you some leeway to make a few different plays later on, when you’ve absorbed the intermediate and more advanced advice I’ll be giving you later. In other words, the "top ten
hands" strategy teaches the right fundamentals. You will need these fundamentals when you do add some intermediate and advanced strategy to your arsenal, because playing super tight alone just won’t get the pots in these tougher games: the good
hands don’t come along often enough, and perhaps even more important, you risk becoming a bit too predictable.
"Top Ten" Hands
I. A-A
2. K-K
3. Q-Q
4. A-K
5. J-J
6. IO-I O
7. 9-9
8. 8-8
9. A·Q
10. 7-7
When you break limit Hold’em down to its basic elements, good game theory suggests that you wait for big starting hands before you get involved in a hand, because the blinds are relatively small compared with the size of the pots, unless you’re playing in a very tight game (which is rare at low stakes). It may seem a bit boring to play only these top ten hands; after all, most of you play poker just to have a good time and socialize—that is, for entertainment. Fair enough, but if you want to win the money, then you need to show some patience and entertain yourself in another way. And, anyway, how entertaining is it to play all the hands and lose most of them?
In general, I recommend playing the top ten hands regardless of your position in the betting order or the number of bets it will cost you to get involved in the hand. Always raise with these hands, no matter what it costs you to get involved. Of course, if
you have a lot of evidence to suggest that your 7-7 is beaten (perhaps the tightest player in the game has just re-re-reraised the hand, making it, as we say, "four bets to go"), then you might do well to fold the hand. But in general, playing these hands aggressively is a good way to play Hold’em.
I know that you’re probably thinking right "Is it really that easy? All I have to do is play Phil’s top ten hands?" The answer is basically yes, at least as far as your starting requirements (your first two cards) are concerned! Yes, because it will be
easy for you to play before the flop (on the first round of betting) when all you have to remember is to play only the top ten. (Playing after the flop is much more complicated, I’m afraid; but don’t worry, we’ll cover that as well.)
In what follows I’ll be giving you a number of examples of hands that will help you understand the best courses of action for a beginning player to take. But before I give you these examples, it’s time to introduce those “animals" I promised you. I can-
not go much further in teaching you how to play poker without characterizing some of the personality types that you will inevitably face as you play Texas Hold’em, because no matter how much you may want to think of Hold’em as a card game
played by people, in many respects it is even more valid to think of it as a game about people that happens to be played with cards. This becomes more and more true as the stakes get higher and the games get tougher.
Phil’s Animal Types
These are the five animals: the mouse, lion, jac/cal, elephant, and eagle. I have created these animals because they seem to be the most common types out there right now The mouse is like your old aunt Edna, a conservative type who probably wouldn’t even approve of your reading this book.
The mouse—like you—plays only the top ten hands but hates to invest any money with a hand as weak as 7-7 or 8-8. The mouse hardly ever raises someone else’s bet; but when he does raise, look out, because he has the goods!
The lion is a tough competitor who plays fairly tight poker but doesn’t limit himself to the top ten hands. He bluffs with might not ever play with him, because he’s one of the top 100 poker players in the world. You’ll find the eagle wherever highstakes poker is played. He flies around high in the sky and swoops down to eat other animals’ chips when he’s hungry!
You’ll find the eagles competing every year at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), nying to win world championships and the money and prestige that come with winning them—if not in the tournaments, then perhaps in the big-money side games the WSOP always generates. Learning how to play like an eagle is a lofty and worthwhile goal, but it is beyond the scope of this book. (In fact, if you’re able to absorb everything in this book, then perhaps I’ll see you sitting across the table from me soon.)
Now that we’ve pondered the personalities of most of the animals (players) that you’ll be playing against, it’s time to move forward with some examples of how to play the top ten hands to perfection. (As we proceed, you’ll see the value of recognizing
these personality types.) Again, the basic premise in playing the top ten hands is this; always raise or reraise with these hands before the flop, no matter what the action has been before it’s your turn to act. (While I lay out these examples, I’ll begin to
weave into the equations some ways to play the hands somewhat differently, depending on which animals you’re playing against.)
