Basic No Limit Holdem Strategy

Entire books can be written on basic no limit strategy but if you'd like to get off to a quick start, this brief introduction should be just right for you. Every winning poker player plays the game a bit differently but if you watch them play long enough, you'll notice the winners all share a few basic qualities.

1. Tight-Aggressive Preflop

Tight preflop play is the most important fundamental skill new poker players should learn. The decisions you make before the flop affect the rest of the hand so if you don't play tight before the flop, your poker game will suffer in all areas.

Good, tight poker players typically only play the top 20 to 25% of the hands they are dealt. Folding 75 to 80% of your poker hands doesn't sound like fun but that's how you get ahead in poker. Most random poker hands are junk anyways; they won't get you anywhere.

What you want to play are hands that are capable of winning large pots. Sure, any two cards can potentially win a pot but random hands won't win pots often enough to make it worth paying a single cent to see the flop. Strong starting hands win more than their fair share of pots and therefore end up being profitable hands.

Of the hands you do play, you should play them aggressively. When you are dealt a strong hand such as AK or QQ or whatever, you should come in with a raise. These hands are more likely to win than the random hands your opponents have so you should raise to get money in the pot.

You won't win every pot with these strong hands but they do win more often than all the other random hands out there. By getting more money in the pot, you'll take home more money in the long run. It's like charging your opponents an admission fee to enter the pot and try their luck against your superior starting hands. If they want to play, make them pay.

2. Tight-Aggressive Postflop Play

Tight-aggressive postflop play basically means making more bets and raises after the flop and fewer checks and calls. The idea is that if your hand isn't strong enough to raise, it's definitely not strong enough to call. If your hand isn't strong enough to make a raise, you should probably fold it.

The tight-aggressive poker style keeps you out of trouble by folding your weak hands and raising with your strong hands. That is the point of poker after all, isn't it? Fold your weak hands and get money in the pot with your strong hands. It's so obvious but the vast majority of poker players don't get it right.

3. Don't Chase Draws Against The Odds

Chasing draws is another major source of losses for new poker players. Weak poker players lose all kinds of money by calling with weak hands and hoping to improve to something better.

Strong poker players know better than that. They only call when the cost is small and the pot is large. They are familiar with the concept of pot odds and know when to chase and when not to chase.

In addition to that, strong poker players know better than to chase weak draws. If there's a potentially stronger hand already out there or the board has made an even better hand possible, chasing to a weak draw is only asking for trouble.  Test this basic aggresive no limit game strategy at a real money online poker site at limits and stakes you are comfortable managing with proven bankroll rules to see how much it improves your game.