How To Make Money Playing Texas Holdem
- Can You Make Money Playing Texas Holdem
- How To Make Money Texas Holdem
- How To Make Money Playing Texas Holdemold Em
- How To Make Money Playing Texas Holdem
Texas Holdem is one of the few games you can play in a casino where you have a legitimate chance to be a long-term winner. Instead of fighting the house edge like when you play blackjack, craps, or roulette, in Texas Holdem, you pay a fee called rake to the house.
This means that all you need to do to show a profit is play better than the other players at the table. And you don’t even need to play better than all of them.
Here’s a list of 7 ways to win more money at Texas Holdem. Each one will help you by itself, but if you can learn to use all of them together, you’ll be well on your way to playing winning Texas Holdem.
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1 – Play Fewer Hands
The biggest leak in most Texas Holdem player’s game is they play too many hands.
Poker can be boring if you have a bad run of starting hands and fold hand after hand. But winning is better than losing and if you need to be bored to win it’s a small price to pay.
Too many poker players are action junkies and feel they have to play every other hand in order to create action. But the best players understand that if they enter the pot with a better hand on average than their opponents that they have a better chance to win.
The only way to know how many hands you play is to track it. Most players don’t have any idea of how many hands they play. So start keeping track of how many hands you play, including from the blinds.
It depends on the limits where you play, but many games have 35 to 40% of the players in each hand.
Most Texas Holdem players lose in the long run. When you combine this knowledge with the fact that most players play 35 to 40% of their hands, you can see why playing fewer hands is a good idea.
Winning Texas Holdem poker players play fewer hands on average than their opponents. This makes their average starting hand better than their opponents. Mathematically, if you start a hand with a better hand than your opponent you’re going to win more often than they win.
Can You Make Money Playing Texas Holdem
It depends on the competition and the limit, but a good number to shoot for is around 20%. In some games, you might need to play 15%, and in some, you might be able to play 25%.
I’ve already mentioned that the place to start is by tracking your play. You need to track how many hands you play, roughly how many your opponents play, and your results.
In most games, your goal should be to play fewer hands than your opponents. You may find yourself in a tight game occasionally where you need to play a few more hands, but these are rare.
Start playing fewer hands and you’ll start seeing an immediate improvement in your results.
2 – Play Against Bad Players
On the surface, this technique seems like common sense, but the truth is that only a small percentage of Texas Holdem players try to locate and play only against bad players.
If you only use one technique on this page, this is the most important one. If you simply play against bad Holdem players, you’ll immediately start winning more.
To illustrate this simple technique in another way, consider two different situations.
In the first situation, you’re playing a game of Texas Holdem against eight people who’ve never played before. They barely know the rules and all play poorly.
In the second situation, you’re playing against the eight best players in the world.
When you’re in the first situation, it’s easy to win. But it’s almost impossible in the second situation.
It might seem simple, but no one looks for the worst players. Most players jump at the first available seat and never think about the competition.
You should also realize that the casino or poker room isn’t the only place to play Texas Holdem. You can recruit players to a private game or look for opportunities to join a private game filled with bad players.
3 – Always Pay Attention
It’s easy to lose focus on the game, especially when you aren’t involved in the hand.
But if you always pay attention, you can learn how your opponents play and see the mistakes they make. You can use this information in future hand to maximize your wins and minimize your losses.
If you can determine which players chase long shot draws and won’t fold on the river you can manipulate situations to be more profitable.
As you track your play as I suggested in the first section, watch your opponents and figure out which one played too many hands. This will help you put them on a range of hands when you’re in a hand against them.
You also have a better chance to catch dealer mistakes and see if anyone is trying to cheat. This is particularly important in private games because there’s always a chance that one or more players are cheating by themselves or working together.
4 – Use Pot Odds
Pot odds are one of the things that sound scary about Texas Holdem. Many players are scared or resistant of math, so they don’t think they can learn how to compute and use pot odds.
But it’s easy to learn about pot odds, and once you do, it helps you figure out which hands to continue with and which hand needs to be folded.
The first thing you need to learn is about odds and how they’re computed and used in Texas Holdem.
The game uses a standard 52 card deck, so it makes it easy to figure out the odds of certain things happening.
Here’s an example:If you have the ace of hearts, king of hearts, jack or hearts, and ten of hearts you know that the deck has only one card, the queen of hearts, which can complete a royal flush. If you’ve only seen the four cards you have the deck has 48 cards in it, and one of them is the queen of hearts.
This means that one out of 48 times from a shuffled deck you’ll get the queen of hearts for your next card.
Of course when you play Texas Holdem you get to see your hole cards and the cards that have been placed on the board in the community cards.
So let’s say your hole cards are the ace and king of hearts and the flop was the jack of hearts, ten of hearts and the six of diamonds. The turn was the two of clubs.
Now you know the value of six cards; your hole cards and the four community cards. This means the chances of the queen of hearts landing on the river are one out of 46 cards. In other words, if you played this exact same situation 46 times, one of those times you’ll get the queen of hearts on average.
How To Make Money Texas Holdem
This specific example doesn’t come up often in Texas Holdem, but it illustrates how you need to start looking at things when you play.
To continue with this example, you also know if any of the other three queens hits on the river you’ll have an ace-high straight. And you also know that if one of the other eight hearts lands on the river, you’ll have an ace high flush.
This means that you have 13 cards, the queen of hearts, any other queen, or any other heart, that will give you a winning or strong hand.
Realize that if the six of hearts or two of hearts hits on the river, it completes your flush, but it also pairs the board. Any time the board pairs there’s a chance someone has a full house, which beats your flush.
So now the chances of you improving on the river are 13 out of 46. These are the odds that you’re going to hit a card you need. It also means that 13 cards help you and 33 cards probably don’t.
You might have a small chance to win if the river is an ace, king, jack, or ten, but most of the time this won’t improve your hand enough to win.
You can use the same type of calculation to determine your chances to improve at any point in the hand.
Where this ties into pot odd is when you need to determine whether or not you should call a bet to see the rest of the hand. If the amount you need to call compared to the amount in the pot versus the odds of hitting your hand you should call. If it isn’t you should fold.
This is what pot odds mean.
Here’s an example:Continuing with the previous example, you have 13 cards which you think will win the hand and 33 that probably won’t. The pot has $500 in it and your opponent bets $200. Should you call or fold?
The pot now has $700 in it, and you have to call $200. You need to compare this as a ratio against the ratio of your chances to win.
This is easy to do. Divide the number of cards that don’t help you by the number of cards that do. 33 divided by 13 is 2.54. Then divide the amount in the pot by the amount you need to call. 700 divided by 22 is 3.5.
If the pot ratio is higher than the chance of hitting your hand you should call. If it’s lower, you should fold.
In this case, the pot ration is 3.5, and the ratio of hitting your hand is 2.54, so a call is profitable in the long run.
You can see why this works by running the exact same situation 46 times. To make the call 46 times, your total investment is $9,200. The 33 times you don’t improve your hand you lose your money. But the 13 times that you improve you get back your $200 call and the $700 pot, for a total of $11,700.
$11,700 minus $9,200 is a profit of $2,500.
If you divide this by the 46 times you get an average or expected profit of $54.35 per hand. This means that every time you play this exact situation a call is worth $54.35.
It takes a little while to get used to determining pot odds on the fly, but the good news is you don’t have to determine them exactly to get a good idea of the correct play. You can also memorize common pot odd situations to help you play faster.
Here’s a table with odds for common situations.
Outs and example | On turn | On river | Turn and river combined |
---|---|---|---|
15 outs. Four to a flush and open end straight draw | 2.13 to 1 | 2.07 to 1 | .85 to 1 |
9 outs. Four to a flush draw | 4.22 to 1 | 4.11 to 1 | 1.86 to 1 |
8 outs. Open end straight draw | 4.88 to 1 | 4.75 to 1 | 2.17 to 1 |
4 outs. Inside straight draw | 10.75 to 1 | 10.5 to 1 | 5.06 to 1 |
3 outs. Hitting top pair | 14.67 to 1 | 14.33 to 1 | 7 to 1 |
5 – Use Positive Expectation and Expected Value
In the last section, I discussed pot odds and how to use them. In part of that I showed you how to determine how much a situation was worth per hand, or time you played it.
If you want to be a winning Texas Holdem player you need to find and create as many situations that have a positive expectation or positive expected value and avoid negative expectation situations.
At the heart of this is learning about pot odds, but not every situation at the Holdem table comes down to pot odds. But they all have either a negative or positive expectation.
Expectation starts with your starting hand. The reason you want to play fewer hands is that when you start with a better hand than your opponent you win more often than you lose. This is a positive expectation.
Here’s a list of example hands that have positive expectation:
Your starting hand | Your opponent’s starting hand |
A A | K K |
A Q | A J |
A 10 | K Q |
9 9 | 5 5 |
A K suited | A K |
10 9 | 9 8 |
It’s not always easy to determine if a situation has a positive or negative expectation, but as you gain experience and learn more about your opponents, you get better at figuring it out.
Expectation is a long-term situation, and in the short term, anything can happen. In the example, in the last section you win on average over $54 each time you play, but you still lose 33 out of 46 times.
If you enter the pot with20% of your hands and are playing against an opponent, who enters the pot with 35% of their hands over time you’re going to win more hands against them than they win. But sometimes they’ll still have a better starting hand than you.
6 – Use Your Position
Poor Texas Holdem players ignore their position relative to the dealer button and winning players are always aware of their position.
You should play most of your hands from late position and only your strongest starting hands from early position.
From late position, your opponents are forced to act before you, so you have more information when you have to play. The extra information even if it’s just the fact that they checked is valuable and helps you make better decisions.
When you play weak hands out of position, it costs you money in the long run. In other words, playing weak hands out of position is a negative expectation play.
I mentioned that the most important technique on this page was playing against bad players and using it alone will improve your results. Understanding and using position is the second most important tip on this page, yet it’s ignored by most players.
Don’t make the mistake of ignoring your position. Watch what the losing players do and then don’t do the same thing. They play too many hands, ignore position, and don’t try to play against bad players.
7 – Play Lower Limits
Would you rather win $30 per hour or $10 per hour?
The answer is $30 an hour, yet many decent Texas Holdem players are too proud or stubborn to let themselves win more. They think that just because they can beat a certain limit that they can’t play at a lower limit, even if it means they can win more.
This doesn’t make sense when you read it or think about it, but this is exactly what you do when you don’t consider how much you’re winning at your current limit and compare it to what you can win at a lower limit.
Here’s an example:If you play 20 / 40 limit Texas Holdem and win $10 an hour you’re beating the game. But if you can win $20 an hour playing 10 / 20 you should play 10 / 20.
Track your play and your results and find the most profitable limit for your game. The lower limits usually have worse players, so it’s often more profitable to step down a limit.
Conclusion
Winning Texas Holdem is simple. Play fewer hands, play against bad opponents, use position, use pot odds, and use expectation and you’ll quickly start winning. The 7 ways to win more money at Texas Holdem on this page are all you need to be a winning player
Table Of Contents
Looking for ways to play free poker games and win real money with no deposit needed? You are not alone.
This article doesn't list all the poker games where you can win real money out there.
Instead, it focuses on the top ways to get free poker money and play exciting online games at the best poker sites.
In other words, it gives you the chance to play on the best free poker sites to win real money.
Let's get to it.
PokerStars Free Money
With PokerStars being a synonym of 'online poker,' it's not surprising that lots of players are on a constant lookout for free PokerStars money.
PokerStars is the largest online poker site in the world and offers an incredible amount of games. These include popular variants like Texas Hold'em and PLO, as well as more nice games like those included in the Dealer's Choice poker list.
There are multiple ways to get PokerStars free money and play real money games on this website with no deposit required.
How To Make Money Playing Texas Holdemold Em
Free £20 in PokerStars Money
As a new player your path to free money on PokerStars is very easy. The website offers a good number of no deposit bonuses on signup giving you a good free bankroll to finance your games.
Most players are eligible for a free £20 bonus (a deposit of £10 is required) that includes £10 in tournament tickets and £10 in free money to play any games you like.
To access the bonus you need to use the bonus code 'TWENTY' when you make your first deposit.
PokerStars features also different free money offers for US players depending on whether you are in the states of New Jersey or Pennsylvania.
Use the button below to verify what free PokerStars money bonus is available for you.
Bonuses aside, the best way to get a free poker bankroll on PokerStars is to use the site's freeroll.
Freerolls are poker tournaments with no entry fee where a number of players win prizes like free money or entry tickets to real money events.
As usual, PokerStars is where you can expect to find the richest freerolls to play online. To find more info on the free games on this website, continue reading or click here.
How to Build a Free Poker Bankroll
The free money to play on PokerStars isn't the only way to build a free poker bankroll and play to win real money with no deposit needed.
In the part that follows, we examine some other options to play free poker for real money using the no deposit bonuses available at the top sites.
GGPoker No Deposit Bonus
If there's one thing we learned in 2020, is that GGPoker has big plans for the future. Not only they managed to take the World Series of Poker online, but they also came into the market with a spectacular and feature-rich poker client.
The best part? They really want you to try it. That's why they are ready to give away a $30 free poker bankroll to all new players that register on the site.
GGPoker's no deposit bonus comes as a collection of tournament tickets, so you can explore some of the different games that make this new poker site quite unique.
In the free $30 bonus pack, you'll find:
- 1x $15 ticket to enter the 20 Seats Satellite to the GGMasters
- 2x $5 Spin & Gold tickets
- 5x $1 Spin & Gold tickets
If you aren't familiar with this site, here's a comprehensive guide to Spin and Gold poker games.
The $30 free poker bankroll is available only to new players who register on GGPoker via PokerNews.
To secure the offer you need to click on the button below and use the bonus code 'POKERNEWS' when you create your account.
888Poker No Deposit Bonus
In case you prefer to 'play it safe' and you are not ready to try a new poker operator, 888poker is the perfect fallback option.
This huge poker site is home to some of the finest poker action on the internet, with impressive numbers in terms of events, players online at the same time, and money to be won at the tables.
888poker runs a great number of tournament series, with second-to-none cash prizes on tap almost on a daily basis.
To help you get started, 888poker gives you a 'good luck' welcome package with everything you need to start with a £20 poker bankroll and win real money with no deposit required.
The bonus to play poker for real money and no deposit at 888poker includes:
- £2 in free money to play cash games
- 30x £1 tournament tickets
This is a great option to play poker and win real money for free without passing through endless freeroll tournaments.
It's worth being noted that this is only one of the promotions available at 888poker, as this site is famous for its lavish bonuses.
To activate the offer and claim you free £20 poker bankroll, click the button and follow the instructions that follow. The bonus will be yours right away.
Poker Freerolls for Real Money
Because we all have to start somewhere, right?
Freeroll poker tournaments are the ultimate way to play poker and win real money with no deposit required, and all the top poker sites give you plenty to choose from.
In this last part of our guide to playing real money poker without a deposit, we are going to examine the best offers to play free poker for real money.
PokerStars Freerolls
PokerStars offers freerolls in all of its poker games, including Texas Hold’em, Omaha and Seven-Card Stud, running multiple times a day, every day.
These free poker tournaments feature real money prizes ranging from a few bucks to a lot more.
New players who opened an account on the site after March 27, 2020 can join the daily Welcome Freerolls and play poker to win a share of $1,000 for free.
Popular free poker tournaments on PokerStars include also the free-to-play Start-Up Freeroll events. These tournaments run every Wednesday and Sunday at 1 p.m. 13:00 ET and feature an added prize pool of $250 each time.
>> See the freerolls on PokerStars
GGPoker Freerolls
GGPoker's determination to chase PokerStars and challenge the largest poker site in the world in every bit of their activities is reflected in the GG's freeroll schedule as well.
During these months, GGPoker launched a new initiative called the StayHome Freeroll, a series of $100 free poker tournaments running…every hour, every day!
While we understand the purpose of the #stayhome campaign, as poker players looking for value, we'd love these $100 free poker tournaments regardless.
Keep in mind that you can play one $100 freeroll a day, so you need to be smart to pick the right one for you.
If you play to have fun and you like to challenge lots of players, go for the ones starting at the peak hours and fight your battle.
But if you only want to play poker to win real money for free, you might want to set your alarm to the early hours and get to the tables when most other players are asleep.
>> See the freerolls on GGPoker
partypoker Freerolls
partypoker is one of those sites that tend to fly off the radar quite easily - and every time this happens to you, you make a very big mistake.
Part of GVC Holding, a group that is to gambling what Coca Cola is to…well, anything else, partypoker is a superb poker site, especially for those who are just getting started with the game.
Once on the site, you'll find plenty of free poker tournaments with lots of real money prizes up for grabs.
Partypoker is really good at catering poker games for beginners and new players alike, so the field tends to be softer than on other poker sites.
If you are interested in free poker tournaments, this page on the partypoker website publishes a full list of their scheduled events.
But those are not all the freerolls you'll find on the site. partypoker runs numerous free events for their poker community on social.
The special free poker games for real money are often password-protected, so you'll need to keep an eye on PokerNews and their social channels to get the latest partypoker freeroll passwords.
>> See the freerolls on partypoker
Unibet Freerolls
Unibet Poker offers freeroll tournaments hourly with ticket and cash prizes each day.
How To Make Money Playing Texas Holdem
Some do require a condition to meet, whether an achievement or invitation, to enter. Unibet's £10 free poker bankroll doesn’t require a deposit and the site has a variety of others, like the Double Trouble, the €500 Welcome Freeroll, the Open Bounty Freeroll, the €25 Gtd. Bounty Hold’em Freeroll and more.
If you want to play free poker for money and you want a daily option to get yourself accustomed to the style of play, try it out now at Unibet.
>> See the freerolls on Unibet Poker
Bet365 Freerolls
bet365 Poker also has some free-to-enter poker tournaments with their listings updating every 60 seconds for those who are really invested in their poker games and know that online poker can make them some real money.
Current tournaments running at bet365 at the time of publication include €25 and €50 Gtd Freerolls and a special 'Mission' tournament.
>> See the freerolls on Bet365 Poker
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