Texas Hold 'Em

About a week ago, I got a chance to play texast hold 'em with some friends. There was about 10 people playing, and we played elimination. At first, we had two separate tables, or games. We played at these tables until only 3 people at each table remained. At this time, We merged the two games. By the time we had gotten this far, about 3 hours had passed, and the friend's dad had to go to bed. We decided to play in the garage, and the father agreed. We then played for about 3 more hours. Around 12, people started talking about going home, because it is illeagal to drive past 12:30. We decided to end the game there. It was at this time that I did a very stupid move. I took out the chips from my back pocket. When my friend was passing out the chips, he had made an extra pile. I snatched it, and kept it in my back pocket the whole game until this moment. I took them out to compare how much we had, and how much we had started with. Only one other person recognized that I wasn't cheating by having those in my back pocket. He too, however, wanted to rank higher, and by counting me out of the running, as I had gotten first place, everyone would be granted a higher position. Needless to say, I was shunned as the cheater.

From this experience, I learned that one always has to judge his crowd when playing poker. Some people wouldn't care, and I thought that that was the case. Also, if you do cheat, get away with it. Don't tell anyone about it until at least a wek after the ocassion. but that advice doesn't get anyone, except for a cheater, better at poker. I believe that the reason I won was because everyone underestimated me. I had never played with any of them before, and used that opportunity to my advantage. I often said things like "stay" instead of "check" or "call". I also called a flush "5 of the same suit". For the icing on the cake, I got lucky. I hadn't been close to chip leader until the final table, when I won a ton of chips.

My strategy worked because I could have a good hand, and my opponents might think that I don't know how good of a hand it is, whether bad or good. Also, new players tend to try to bluff, but often get caught in the act.

Many people lose a lot of chips and don't realize it when they stay in. In the game I was playing at the first table, a certain two people always rose the bet before the first three community cards were lain down. This upped the pot quite a bit, but drained the individual pots people had. I suppose that this strategy of upping the pot early on is good for people who are risky, because they have more chance to win. I found a mention of this very situation in the website I mentioned earlier.

"How aggressive the players are: Assuming you've been playing with a few people for several hands, and you noticed some jackass is raising every hand preflop, you'll want to play tighter. Let the guy win the blinds (big deal) and nail him to the wall when you have a solid hand in the pocket preflop" <http://www.texasholdem-poker.com/preflopstrategy>

My personal stance is to be pretty conservative. I like to fold out quick, unless I have a really good hand in the beginning (after the first 3 cards are lain). I then try to bet medium bets every turn, so that people don't fold out. Keeping a couple of people in the game and betting medium bets gets more money in the pot than betting large amounts and playing against only one person. The only problem with my strategy is, however, that more people have chances to beat me. I usually don't worry about this, though, because I don't stay in this long unless I have a good hand (usually 2 pair or better).