Texas Hold'em Poker - Strategy

Most poker authors recommend a tight-aggressive approach to playing Texas hold 'em. This strategy involves playing relatively few hands (tight), but betting and raising often with those that one does play (aggressive). Although this strategy is often recommended, some professional players successfully employ other strategies as well.

Almost all authors agree that where a player sits in the order of play (known as position) is an important element of Texas hold 'em strategy, particularly in no-limit hold'em. Players who act later have more information than players who act earlier. As a result, players typically play fewer hands from early positions than later positions.

Because of the game's level of complexity, it has received some attention from academics. One attempt to develop a quantitative model of the game as an isolated complex system has had some success, although the full consequences for optimal strategies remain to be explored. In addition, a group at the University of Alberta is developing a poker playing program utilizing techniques in game theory and artificial intelligence.

Starting Hands
While most poker authors focus on playing primarily premium starting hands, some authors claim that the importance of starting hands is overstated...

Cash Games
Prior to the invention of poker tournaments, poker games were played with real money where players bet actual currency (or chips which represented currency)...

Tournaments
Texas hold 'em is often commonly associated with poker tournaments largely because it is played as the main event in many of the famous tournaments, including the World Series of Poker's Main Event, and is the most common tournament overall...

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