• Texas Holdem Betting Strategy Chart
• No Limit Texas Holdem Betting Strategy
• Texas Holdem Poker Betting Strategy
• Betting Strategy In Texas Holdem
• Betting Strategy For Texas Holdem

We hope that our recommendations and guide concerning the strategy for Casino Texas Hold'em will help you to achieve the best results. However do not start playing with real bets. First, you should master the ways to make right decisions at all stages of the table game and avoid mistakes. Playable Texas Hold’em Hands. Texas Hold’em is a game of strategy, like any poker game, but where you’re sitting in relation to the action becomes part of your strategy when playing Hold’em. If you bet early, you generally need better cards than you do if you’re one of the blinds. Strategy Link: If effective stacks are 100bb and you've got a hand you want to get all-in with on the river, you should bet close to the full size of the pot on the flop and turn due to progressive bet sizing and pot growth. When to make small bets. The vast majority of the time it isn't a good idea to bet small (half the pot or smaller).

Casinos are always looking for new games to offer bored gamblers. Over the last decade or 2, these games are more commonly related to poker than anything else. But games like these—including Scientific Gaming’s Ultimate Texas Holdem—are more akin to blackjack than to poker. In fact, dealing Ultimate Texas Holdem is considered dealing a novelty casino game. The College of Southern Nevada covers how to deal Ultimate Texas Holdem in their blackjack class.

What’s the big difference between Ultimate Texas Holdem (and games like it) and “real” poker games? The main difference is who you’re competing with. In a so-called real poker game, you’re competing with the other players at the table. If you win money, you’re winning it from them. If you lose money, you’re losing it to your competitors at the table.

This isn’t a value judgment. It’s perfectly all right to play house-banked casino games. Gamblers do it every day. I’m pointing out the distinction because it’s important to know what you’re getting into when you play a casino game.

With that as a premise—understanding in detail what you’re getting into when you’re playing a casino game—I offer you this post: “The Definitive Guide to Ultimate Texas Holdem.” The idea is to share everything you would ever need or want to know about Ultimate Texas Holdem. Luckily, it’s not that complicated a game. There’s no need to write an entire book about it, like you would do with blackjack or poker.

Ultimate Texas Holdem is a card game where you play heads-up against a casino dealer. Other players at the table are also playing heads-up against the dealer. It features a progressive jackpot, among other payouts.

You start by making 2 equal-sized bets:

• The Ante Bet
• The Blind Bet

At most casinos, the minimum bet is either $5 or $10. The maximum bet is usually between $50 an $500.

You also have 2 optional bets you can make:

• The Trips Bonus Bet
• The Progressive Bet

You start by getting 2 hole cards from the dealer—these are 2 cards that are dealt to you face-down, just like in regular Texas holdem.

When you get those cards, you can choose from the following actions:

• Check
• Bet 3X the Ante (A “Play” Bet.)
• Bet 4X the Ante (Also a “Play” Bet.)

After you’ve made your decision, the dealer reveals 3 face-up cards—the “flop.” (This is also how regular Texas holdem works.)

If you checked when you got your hole cards, you have the option now to place a bet of 2X the Ante (another example of a “Play Bet.”) After that decision is made, the dealer turns over 2 more face-up cards—the turn and the river, in Texas holdem terms. Note that the action here is different than in traditional Texas holdem. Normally you’d have a turn, followed by a betting round, then the river, followed by another betting round.

Once you’ve made your decision, the dealer reveals her hole cards and announces the final hand. If your hand beats the dealer’s hand (using the standard poker hand rankings), you win even money on your Ante bets and the Play bets. On the other hand, if the dealer’s hand beats yours, you lose your Ante, Blind, and Play Bets. If you tie, then these bets are all treated as a “push.” (A push is when your original bet is returned to you, but without any winnings. You have neither a net win nor a net loss.)

The Blind Bet is handled differently. It pays off if you win AND if you have a straight or better. If you have less than a straight but still beat the dealer, the Blind Bet is treated as a push. The Blind Bet is paid off based on a pay table. The better your hand, the more it pays off. (It’s like video poker in this respect.)

Casinos generally use a shuffling machine called an “i-Deal single deck specialty shuffler.” That’s because this game was created by Shufflemaster, which is now a division of Scientific Games. Shufflemaster’s reason for existence is to sell shuffling machines to casinos, so creating new cards is something they do in service to this goal.

The Blind Bet and the Trips Bonus Bet have 2 different pay tables.

Here’s a common pay table for the Blind Bet:

Texas Holdem Betting Strategy Chart

Keep in mind that the Blind Bet pays off regardless of whether the dealer qualifies. Also, notice that 3 of a kind doesn’t pay off for the Blind Bet, which is an interesting quirk of the game. The pay tables can vary—the casino gets to choose from multiple options. For example, some casinos pay off 40 to 1 instead of 50 to 1 for a straight flush. This changes the house edge for the game, of course.

Here’s a common pay table for the Trips Bonus Bet:

Here are a couple of facts to keep in mind about the Trips Bonus Bet:

• Your hand doesn’t have to win. It pays off regardless of whether you or the dealer wins.
• It wins even if you don’t have to use your hole cards. You can just play the board (the flop, turn, and river.)
• It wins even if you fold.

How the Progressive Bet and Jackpot Works

The progressive bet in Ultimate Texas Holdem is also an optional side bet. At most casinos, this bet is a flat $1 bet. But at some casinos, the Progressive Bet is $5. You can win 1 of 2 progressive jackpots in this game—the smaller jackpot, or the larger jackpot. To win the smaller progressive jackpot, you must use at least 1 of your hole cards. The smaller progressive pays off for hands that are a full house or better.

To win the bigger progressive jackpot—which is 100% of the jackpot—you must use both your hole cards and the flop to form a royal flush. If you hit the royal flush on the turn or the river, you don’t win the bigger progressive. You can also win a percentage of the full big progressive jackpot

Casinos also feature something called an “Envy Bonus.” This is a bonus paid to any player at the table when one of the other players wins the progressive jackpot.

Casino games where you make decisions usually have a house edge that varies based on how well you make those decisions. In other words, your strategy matters. There’s always a mathematically correct play in every situation. In Ultimate Texas Holdem, your strategy is limited to whether you make Play Bets during the various stages of the game. For me, this isn’t an intuitive decision. You can find various websites offering strategies for this, but I have another recommendation:

The house edge is the amount of each bet that the casino projects you’ll lose on average based on the probabilities behind the game. Obviously, the lower the house edge, the better for the player. You should do everything you can to minimize the house edge on any casino game you play.

If you use perfect basic strategy on Ultimate Texas Holdem, the house expects to win a little over 2%. Let’s assume that the house edge is 10% if you don’t know basic strategy. What does that do to the cost of playing the game in the long run?

There’s an interesting post at Two Plus Two from a gambler describing his basic strategy for Ultimate Texas Holdem. I don’t know how close it mirrors a mathematically perfect strategy, but here’s what “nonprofitgambler” says is the correct way to play:

Preflop, he suggests raising with any of the following hands:

• Any ace
• Any k5+, and any king suited
• Q5s+, Q8+
• J8s+, JT+
• 33+ for pocket pairs

That small “s” after the number means that the cards are of the same suit (they’re “suited.”) On the flop, he says most people play the same, and that it’s correct—if you pair anything, you raise. But those obviously aren’t the only hands you should raise with here. You should also bet flush draws, straight draws, and combination draws. This means you have 4 cards to a big hand. On the river, you should bet any kind of made hand, but some boards are scarier than others.

Finally, I’d like to point out that the house edge on Ultimate Texas Holdem isn’t outrageous, but blackjack is still almost always a better deal. With perfect basic strategy, many blackjack games have a house edge of just 0.5%. This means you get the same kind of entertainment for closer to $2/hour instead of $8/hour.

You can play a nice, free version of Ultimate Texas Holdem at this site. It has a place where you can toggle the sound on and off. You can also toggle the “give advice” button off an on. If you’ve never played Ultimate Texas Holdem before, this page is a great way to practice. It’s refreshingly free of advertising, too, which is rare and unusual in this industry.

Also, if you like Ultimate Texas Holdem, I suggest you give multiplayer Texas holdem in the poker room a try—if you haven’t already. It’s a lot more fun, and you have more of an opportunity to get an edge, since you’re competing against other players.

That’s it for my “Definitive Guide to Ultimate Texas Holdem.” I can’t imagine any information you could want about the game that I’ve left out. But if I did miss something, or if you have questions about Ultimate Texas Holdem that remain unanswered, please put a note in the comments.

In our last tip covering '5 Common Poker Tells to Look For' we ended with a reminder to new players not to concern themselves too much with looking for tells, as it's usually better to focus on betting patterns than what opponents are saying or doing.

By betting patterns we mean both when players tend to bet and how much they bet. Watching both closely — and keeping in mind patterns being exhibited — can help you a great deal when trying to narrow down the possible hands a player might have. In live poker, especially, players often give away a lot about the strength of their hands simply by the size of their bets.

How to Describe Bet Sizes

Below we'll get into some of the important distinctions and factors that affect bet sizing, but first let's briefly cover how to talk about bet sizing — or at least how the topic is normally discussed.

When discussing preflop bets, we typically speak of betting amounts relative to the size of the big blind. For example, in a $1/$2 cash game (where the BB is $2), a player opens with a raise to $8. From a strategic standpoint, what matters here is the size of the raise being four times the big blind, or '4x' the BB.

The next reraise might also be spoken of in terms of the number of big blinds it represents, or (more commonly) it will be described as it relates to the original raise. For instance, after that $8 raise, a player reraises to $23. You could say the reraise is 11.5x the BB, or more likely you'll say the reraise is nearly 3x the initial raise.

When talking about postflop betting, amounts are often spoken of instead in terms of how they compare to the size of the pot (and not in BBs).

Let's say after that $23 reraise it folds back around and the original raiser calls, making the pot $49 total. On the flop, the first player checks and his opponent bets $25. The bet size is described as 'half-pot.' If he'd bet $35, that be referred to as a bet of 'three-quarter pot'; if he bet $50, that be about a 'pot-sized' bet; and so on.

The reason why postflop bets are referred to according to their relation to the pot is it helps with calculating pot odds. You can even begin to memorize common postflop situations to make figuring pot odds easier — e.g., a half-pot bet always yields 3-to-1 pot odds to call. (See 'Pot Odds Basics' for more.)

Preflop Bet Sizing

In no-limit hold'em cash games, you'll often find players making larger preflop opening raises than happens in NLHE tournaments. A preflop raise that is 3x the big blind in a cash game is often on the small side, while in tournaments such a raise is relatively speaking going to be bigger than most.

In low-limit live cash games, in fact, you'll frequently see opening raises of 5x or more as players try to cut down on callers. This happens in online poker as well, particularly at the lowest stakes (including the 'micros').

Whether in a cash game or a tournament (or live or online), pay attention to what a 'normal' or average preflop open seems to be at your table, then make note whenever anyone deviates significantly from that 'standard.' If a 5x open seems to be the norm in a live cash game, make note when a player opens for 8x or 10x, or decides to make a relatively small open for 2x or 3x. Then look at what hands these players end up showing (if they do), as that will provide useful information when evaluating their preflop opens going forward.

There are a few factors you want to consider when evaluating an opponent's bet size when open-raising before the flop:

• the player's position
• the player's stack size
• the player's style and betting patterns

No Limit Texas Holdem Betting Strategy

Opening raises from early position are often going to be larger than middle or late position raises. Someone under the gun usually wants to discourage people calling behind them, as they'll have to play out of position against them postflop. (See 'The Importance of Position.') Meanwhile players in later positions aren't as concerned about postflop position — e.g., the button knows when open-raising before the flop that he'll be playing from position after the flop.

When a player bets before the flop, it's also worth noting how much that player has behind. Say in a $1/$2 cash game a player opens for $12 from middle position and it folds to you on the button. Before you decide what to do, you take a look and see the player only has $40 left after making the raise. It's likely a player with such a short stack may be eager to get the rest of it in the middle soon after the flop, which means a call of $12 may soon lead to committing $40 more yourself. If your hand is strong enough, you might want to reraise and force a decision on the opponent before the flop. Or if you are thinking of set mining with a small pocket pair, you should realize your opponent's stack isn't deep enough to warrant this play. (See 'The Fundamentals of Set Mining.')

Finally, a player's style and betting patterns provide important context when evaluating the size of a preflop raise. Is the player loose and aggressive, having made lots of opens before? Is the player a nit who almost never open-raises? When raising before, did the player usually make it 4x the BB, and now has chosen 6x? Answering these questions can help you decide more accurately what the player's raise in this particular instance might indicate about hand strength.

Postflop Bet Sizing

When we move to postflop betting, distinctions between live and online poker and between cash games and tournaments tend to be less dramatic. Some live games will play much more loosely than some online games (and vice-versa); also, some cash games will be very tight and some tournaments full of loose, aggressive players. The point again is to get a sense of the apparent 'standard' when it comes to postflop bet sizing and make special note when players deviate from it markedly.

That said, we can make a few generalizations about postflop bet sizing that tend to apply across different NLHE game types and settings.

On the flop, continuation bets are commonly made by preflop raisers. Big 'c-bets' — say, 3/4 pot and above — often signal both strength and potential vulnerability. A player holding pocket jacks on a flop doesn't want opponents to see a turn card cheaply, and so makes a big flop bet to try to win the pot right there. Small flop 'c-bets' — say, less than 1/2 the pot — are more ambiguous. A player making such a bet on that same flop could have king-high or a set of nines.

On the turn, bet sizing becomes even more meaningful, and in many cases more telling. When evaluating bet sizing on the turn, you'll again want to consider the player's relative position (acting first or last?), stack size (is the player pot committed, or nearly so?), and style and betting patterns (is the player aggressive or passive postflop?), as well as the board texture. A player betting $30 into a $120 pot on a board might be semi-bluffing or making a defensive 'blocking bet.' A player betting $90 into a $120 pot on such a board might have completed a draw and be going for value while also protecting a hand that could be outdrawn on the river.

On the river, big bets (three-quarter pot or more) often indicate either extreme strength or a bluff — they are 'polarizing,' forcing an opponent to answer the question 'Does he have it or not?' The board reads and a player fires $150 into a $180 pot. Should you fold your two pair, or can you call with what is essentially a 'bluff catcher'? Small bets (e.g., a third of the pot) might also be bluffs, but lean toward being value bets. A player betting $55 into $180 on that same board might have a flush and figures that size to be optimal to get a two-pair hand or straight to call.

How Should You Size Your Bets?

So how should you be sizing your bets, both preflop and postflop? A complete answer to such a question would require a separate series of articles, but as a general rule try if you can to balance your bet sizing and avoid being too obvious with patterns of betting.

By 'balancing' we mean (for example) don't always make the same big bets with strong hands and the same small ones with weak hands. Don't always make the same size bet when bluffing, or the same size bet when betting for value. Attentive opponents pick up on those patterns quickly, and suddenly you'll find no one is calling you when you have strong hands and everyone keeps calling when you don't.

Also, size your bets with an awareness of the pot odds you're giving your opponent(s) to call. A small bet or raise yields inviting pot odds, while a big bet gives poor pot odds. It may be that you want callers with draws and medium-strength hands to stick around, say, when you hold the unbeatable nuts. Or you might want to drive out players by giving them a bad price to call you down when you're hand is currently best but vulnerable.

Texas Holdem Poker Betting Strategy

Whatever you do, size your bets with purpose, and try to choose the best betting amounts to help achieve the goal you are aiming for by making the bet. Want a call? Want a fold? Want to try to induce a raise? Do the math, and make your best bet.

Also in this series...

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Betting Strategy In Texas Holdem

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Betting Strategy For Texas Holdem

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