tips for texas holdem.
-dont go all in unless you can the opponent.
-use the strategy of tight-aggressive(meaning choose your hands wisely but when you have something bet it out).
-follow the tells: slow response by bet=strong hand, slow response by check=weak hand, fast response by check=weak hand, fast bet on the flop may mean bluff, fast bet on turn or river is a big hand.
-generally you need a weaker hand to raise than to call a hand of the equivalent raise.
-play tighter in the beginning of a tournament and gradually get looser to steal some blinds.
-use the power of position(the best position in holdem is the person who is last to act, for he can steal the blinds). The person last to act is best because he has the most information.
-raise big pairs to get less callers and try to call multiway pots with suited connectors. Remember AA won't hold up against 7 people but a drawing hand like 89spades might.
-do not go all in on a draw.
-generally do not play hopeless cards like 7/2 8/3 before the flop. Just throw them away.
-figure out what kind of opponents you are playing up against(conservative,aggressive,super aggressive) and alter your play according to the player.
-try not to go on tilt(when you are on tilt any suited cards look like a good all in hand).
-Generally do not show your hands. The less information the better.
-contradicting the above, if you are a bluffer show your strong hands. If you only play strong hands show your bluffs.
-do not be a calling station, either fold or raise.
-only go for the blind steal when the blinds are actually large enough to steal - not early in touraments.
-do not go on tilt after a bad beat.
-When equating whether a decision is sound or not consider the following: your cards, what you think your opponent has, and pot odds.
-do not overbluff. it is fun to bluff but only bluff occasionally.
-generally your style should be the opposite of the table(if it is conservative you should be aggressive)
-luck is a big factor in tournaments. If you analyze your play and you still lost you have to realize tournament poker has a huge luck factor involved.
-when the table gets smaller, your starting hand selection should go down in quality. The opposite is true for larger tables.
-don't fall into the ACE KING RUT. Ace king is a fine hand but remember, you don't even have a pair you just have a draw.
-Top pair/ [censored] kicker may not be good enough. Don't think that top pair/[censored] kicker is the best hand if there is lots of raising.
-When playing texas holdem you want to maximize your profits and minimize your losses. Its all about not going broke on one hand.
-Use defensive raises to figure out where you stand in the hand and if your beat.
-The check followed by the raises indicates a player trying to be tricky usually with an excellent hand.
-Don't raise with ace anything unless trying to steal blinds. A common mistake of online players is to really bet ace-x really hard.
-Usually you do not want to go all in with one pair unless it is preflop.
-if you have top pair punish drawing hands by betting big.