Advanced Texas Holdem Rules

This page is not so much about advanced Texas Holdem Rules as it is about strategy. We assume you have a good grasp of the basic Texas Holdem Rules. If not, now is a good time to bone up.

When playing Texas Holdem Limit Poker the ace and a low kicker that is suited is one of the most misplayed poker hands. However, it is a much better No Limit Texas Hold'em hand due to the potential to break another hand when you hit a flush. Most players will go in with this hand although it's usually dominated, and you a flush is rarely hit.

Conventional wisdom with this hand is to either play it for a multiway pot for the flush draw or two pair or trips, or to be aggressive and make it heads up. However, when playing it heads up, make a play for the blinds, like a button raise. Do not be a sucker and re-raise and isolate someone with this hand because it's likely they hold a better hand.

Ace-ten, ace-jack, ace-queen and ace-king are stronger Texas Holdem poker hands. While not at the top of the rank, they can be well utilized. Consider raising and re-raising in order to get less competition by getting other players to fold.

If you played one of these poker hands and a ace-six-ace comes on the flop, you should raise. However, if you do, you are letting everyone know that you may have an ace. Experienced players will fold their poker hands and you lose your very strong hand of triple aces. Consider calling or checking to make other players forget you may have an ace.

Normally, players like to jam the pot with ace-ace or king-king, but consider playing these Texas Holdem poker hands a tad differently against experienced players. Usually, re-raise with ding-king because you want to charge someone for looking for an ace. But consider calling with ace-ace unless there are several runners and you want to keep more from entering the pot.

On the other hand, if you are in late position or the blinds and there is a raise to you, you should call. Since it will likely be heads up between you and the raiser, you will generally have at least an advantage of about 80 percent. You can call the flop bet and raise him on the turn. If there is something scary on the board, you should consider raising on the flop to shut out any backdoor draw. This method will make more money than if you just hit them hard on the preflop.

In a tight game, people tend to get shakey at a re-raise prelop since that means queen-queen or better. Consider a re-raise with a decent hand prelfop if you think that will increase your chances of a flop bluff. When playing with the same people for a while, you should adapt your ace-ace strategy and play the hard preflop so your re-raise will in fact get added respect.