The Flop Is Q-10-2
You bet out $2, the lion raises it to $4, and then the elephant reraises it to $6 to go. In this case, you need a J for a straight or an A or a K for a pair. You have to call the $6. You have to figure that at least one of your opponents has you beaten, even though one of them may have a hand like K-J, an open-ended straight draw. (You may even consider raising it again to make it $8 to go! Whoops, never mind, that’s a play for the advanced discussion, still to come.) The point of this example is that if what turns up on the flop gives you a straight draw, then you need to play your A-K. Three available aces, three available kings, and four of whatever card completes your straight draw (in this case four jacks) give you too many winning possibilities (pros call this having 10 “outs”) to fold right away.

The Flop Is 6-5-3
You bet out $2, and the lion calls. Then the jackal makes it $4 to go, and the elephant folds. What do you do now? You probably have the lion beaten, since he only called the $2 on the flop, and lions usually don’t merely call when they’re pretty sure they have the best of it. The jackal could easily have you beaten with a pair of deuces, fives, or sixes, and jackals play a lot of strange hands. But he is the jackal and he could just as easily have 7-8, A-4, A-3, 7-9, or 8-9, all of which give him a straight draw of one sort or another. If this is the case, then you are a favorite over his hand. (He has to hit something with only two cards to go, while you’re already winning and don’t need to improve to beat him.) You’re going to call the $2 raise anyway, so why not reraise, making it $6 to go? betting online

The reraise will probably cause the lion to fold his hand, isolating you (getting it down to just the two of you) against the jackal. If you don’t reraise, and the jackal does have 8-9, and the lion does have 0-0, you might end up losing the hand to the lion because you let him in cheap! This is the advantage of being the jackal; his erratic play sometimes causes you to put in extra bets against him. But aggressive play against the jackal is a good thing! Since he will play his drawing hands “fast” (raising and reraising), you will have a chance to win some big pots when he misses his hand. What I’m really trying to say is this: play your “A-K high” (the best nonpair hand) aggressively on the flop against the jackal when you think there is a decent chance he’s drawing. You can always fold your hand on fourth street or the river if you think the jackal has you beat.
We’ll talk more about how to play A-K on the flop in the intermediate discussion of limit Hold’em, to come.

• Top Ten Hands In Hold Em Poker (0)
• The Flop Includes An A Or A K (0)
• Raising With A Top Ten Poker Hand In Late Position (0)

(For Example, A-9-4, K-10-7, A-ai-3, or K-Q-J)
You bet, raise, and reraise quite a bit because you have hit "top pair" with "top kicker." In every case where an A or a K hits the flop you will have top pair with top kicker (A-A-K or A-K-K), and this is a very strong hand in Hold'em! For example, if the flop is A-9-4, then you have a pair of aces with a king kicker. This hand will beat all other pairs of aces like A-Q, A-J, A-10, A-8, etc.

But let's suppose now that the flop is A-9-4 and someone is holding A-9. Your A-K would be losing on this flop, because A-9 now makes two pair, aces and nines. Still, for every time someone who plays a weak A-9 against your powerful A-K and beats you, you'll beat him more than two other times (that is, the A-K is slightly more than a 2.5 to 1 favorite heads-up against A-9). The point I'm trying to make is that A-K becomes very powerful when you catch an A or a K on the flop, and you should put in a lot of betting and raising on the flop when this is the case. Fortunes have been won and lost with A-K!

Now let's move on to a few examples of how to play the A-K when you miss the flop.

The Flop Is J-5-2
You bet out $2. The lion, Leo, raises, making it $4 to go; and the elephant, Earl, calls the bet. In this case you figure that one of your opponents has you beat, but you call $2 anyway, on the chance that an A, K, Q, or 10 will hit the board on fourth street. If an A or K hits, then you should bet out $4 on fourth street. But if a Q or 10 hits, then you will want to call a $4 bet (check and then call $4 if your opponents bet) because you have picked up a straight draw. Since you know you will call $4 when a Q or a 10 hits, you may choose to bet out $4, attempting to win the pot right there (but right now we are talking about play on the flop). So the play on the flop here is fairly simple: you bet out $2 and call the raise of $2.

The Flop Is and You Have g-g]

You bet out $2, and the lion raises it to $4 to go. The jackal calls $4. Now what do you do? Folding here isn't a bad option, because two of the cards that under other conditions you would like to see on the turn or river, [V] or [V], would make four diamonds on the board, so they're very likely good cards for someone else, bad cards for you. Still, it costs you only $2 to see if you can hit your hand. I would probably just fold for $2, but an expert could call the $2 bet, because he feels that he reads his opponents well enough to avoid getting too involved later on in the hand. The point I'm trying to make is this: sometimes, even though you have A-K, you have to fold your hand on the flop when the others raise you. You're not folding often, mind you, but situations where you face three suited connected cards like 0-0-0 or 0-0-0 on tne board,and y°u have none oi the
suited cards in your hand (like with 0-0), are )ust to° "kely to have helped someone else in the hand. Those two examples are the worst possible flops for your 0-0, and lt's Probably right to just fold your hand on the spot.

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• The Flop Includes An A Or A K Part2 (0)
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It's time now to tackle an old problem in the Texas Hold'em game: how to play A-K after a bad flop. Since you will be putting in a lot of bets before the flop with A-K, you can usually play this hand pretty aggressively after the flop as well (because you've already built a pretty good-size pot, one worth going after).

Even though we are only in the beginners' section for limit Hold'em, I want to talk briefly here about the historical significance of A-K in no-limit Hold'em tournaments. The classic hand to come up between two players in big no-limit Hold'em tournaments is A-K versus Q-Q. Many times one of these tournaments is decided because a great player has hit or missed his A-K versus Q-0 for a mountain of chips! At the 2001 World Series of Poker, which is the poker world's world championships, I had Q-Q early in one event and was "all-in" (all my remaining chips were in the pot) against my opponent's A-K. I put my last $2,000 in before the flop with my Q-Q, and my opponent called me with A-K. If I had lost this "coin flip" (actually, Q-Q is about a 13 to 10 favorite), then I would have been eliminated and would not have gone on to win the event and $305,000 for first place. This is a fairly common occurrence late in these events. It makes sense, considering that the hands J-J, Q-Q, K-K, A-A, and A-K are the top five hands in Hold'em. The trick is to "finish the job" and go on to win the event if you are lucky enough to win a big coin-flip pot.

Examples
Now that I've shown you the key role that A-K often plays in no-limit Hold'em events, it's time to set up the next five examples. Here are your six assumptions:
1. You have A-K in the small blind in a $2-$4 game at your house (someone may win or lose up to $200, but usually $50-$ 100 wins and losses are to be expected at this limit).
2. A jackal named Joe makes it $4 to go in the third position.
3. An elephant named Earl calls the $4 on the button.
4. You reraise, making it $6 to go from the small blind.
5. The big-blind lion named Leo calls the $6 bet.
6. Joe the jackal and Earl the elephant also call the $6 bet.

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• The Flop Includes An A Or A K Part2 (0)
• The Flop Includes An A Or A K (0)

You have J-J before the flop, in any position. OK, you have the fifth best hand in Hold'em, and in general I would say never fold this hand before the flop in limit Hold'em. But there may come a time or two, as you become a lion, when you choose to fold this hand before the flop. Maybe, for example, the tightest mouse on the planet has made it four bets to go, and you just have a strong feeling that you're beat. After all, what hand would encourage the tightest player in the world to make it four bets to go? Probably A-A or K-K. But because this is the beginners' section, I'd advise you to put in your four bets anyway; when you are a lion you will know when the time is right to fold this hand.

Before the flop, then, successful play in Hold'em is pretty darn easy using the top-ten-hands strategy. In general, you raise or reraise every time you have a top ten hand, and you fold the rest of your hands. The exceptions are: when a mouse makes a raise or reraise (two bets or three bets), a lion makes it three bets (a reraise), or an elephant makes it three bets (since it is out of the ordinary for the elephant ever to bet his own hand). In these cases, you might want to back off if your top ten hand is 9-9, 8-8, 7-7, or A-Q.

Notice that I'm not diagramming the way you should play every hand. There are just too many variables for me to attempt that. The fact is that the play of some of these hands depends on the opponents involved. But I've given you a few things to think about, and you will develop many more things to think about as you gain more experience and a greater feel for the game. It's time now to move on toward the next step in playing a limit Texas Hold'em hand: how a beginner should play limit Hold'em on the flop.

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• Preflop Limit Hold (0)
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The game is $15-$30 limit at the Mirage poker room in Las Vegas. The jackal in seat one raises the bet, making it $30 to go. The mouse on the button makes it three bets, or $45 to go. You have K-K in the big blind, so you make it $60 to go. Yes, the mouse's raise is ominous, but you have K-K, the second-best-possible hand, and you need to raise with it no matter what the hand looks like otherwise.

Pocket Aces
You have A-A in any position before the flop. Put in as many bets as you can before the flop, regardless of what your opponents do! This is the best possible hand in Hold'em!

Kings, Queens, and A-K
You have K-K, Q-Q, or A-K in any position before the flop. Again, put as many bets out there as you can before the flop! With any of these you have one of the four best hands in Hold'em!

• Preflop Limit Hold (0)
• Poker – Pocket Jacks (0)
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The game is $2-$4 at your local bar. You hold J-J on the button. The player in the first position (see the illustration) has raised, making it two bets, or $4, to go, and the jackal, in the second position, has reraised (The jackal reraised! What a surprise!),
making it three bets, or $6, to go. You then raise it again to make it four bets, or $8, to go. This hand is easy enough to play because you have one of those top ten hands and also have the advantage of late position.

Beware of the Mouse
The game is $5-$10 at the local businessmen's club. You have 9-9 in the small blind, and the jackal, in the third position, has raised it to two bets, or $10, to go. Then the lion, in the fourth position, makes it three bets, or $15, to go. Now, the mouse on the button makes it four bets to go! Yikes, what to do? You know that the lion probably has a strong hand, but the mouse making it four bets, even over the top of the lion? That is big trouble!

You decide that the mouse probably has A-A or K-K, and you throw your hand away right then and there, because you figure that you're a 4Vi-to-l underdog (a small pair is roughly a 4/4-to-1 underdog against a big pair). I know that I've said you should always play these hands, but sometimes a little discretion is the better part of valor. If no animal personalities had entered the picture, you could play this hand—but poker is about people as well as game theory. Deciding to call the four bets in this case wouldn't actually be foolhardy—but it would be a pretty weak play, one that would lose money over the long run. Many players who consider themselves experts would call this a terrible play, but they're forgetting to consider the very large pots you're likely to win in such cases if you do happen to "flop a set" (three of a kind, in this case three nines).

• Poker – Pocket Jacks (0)
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These are the five animals: the mouse, lion, jackal, elephant, and eagle. I have created these animals because they seem to be the most common types out there right now.
The mouse is like your old aunt Edna, a conservative type who probably wouldn't even approve of your reading this book. The mouse—like you—plays only the top ten hands but hates to invest any money with a hand as weak as 7-7 or 8-8. The mouse hardly ever raises someone else's bet; but when he does raise, look out, because he has the goods!
The lion is a tough competitor who plays fairly tight poker but doesn't limit himself to the top ten hands. He bluffs with excellent timing and seems to know when the other players are trying to bluff him. Though he plays pretty tight, he's occasionally out on a limb with a bluff or a semibluff. You could do worse than play like the lion.

The jackal is loose and wild, and some days it seems as though he's just giving his money away. Because he's involved in so many pots and raises so often, his play can take some pretty big swings. The jackal's logic seems at odds with the logic of all the other players. He just seems crazy! (He's what many of us in poker call a megalomaniac, or sometimes just maniac.) The jackal can hurt you and himself too with his crazy play, because he puts in so many bets. But there is some method to his madness. He's good at raising the pots at the right times (his style of play gives him many occasions to think about what's going on), and when he does at last win a pot, it's generally huge! If a jackal runs hot by catching good cards for a while, you may become convinced that he's the best player in the world, but when his cards come back to earth, he can lose money as fast as he won it.

The elephant is fairly loose (which means he plays a lot of pots) and seems to be from Missouri, the "Show me" state. He's what we refer to in poker as a "calling station": he never folds when he is supposed to fold, because he doesn't ever believe that you have the goods. Because he's impossible to bluff, no one with much experience ever tries to bluff him—with one exception: can you guess who that is? The elephant keeps feeding the other players his chips, slowly but surely. The elephant isn't very sharp and isn't a very dangerous opponent for most players, but he seems to do well against the jackal, because the jackal keeps on trying to bluff the elephant.

Finally, we have the eagle. The eagle is a rare bird, and you might not ever play with him, because he's one of the top 100 poker players in the world. You'll find the eagle wherever high-stakes poker is played. He flies around high in the sky and swoops down to eat other animals' chips when he's hungry! You'll find the eagles competing every year at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), trying to win world championships and the money and prestige that come with winning them—if not in the tournaments, then perhaps in the big-money side games the WSOP always generates. Learning how to play like an eagle is a lofty and worthwhile goal, but it is beyond the scope of this book. (In fact, if you're able to absorb everything in this book, then perhaps I'll see you sitting across the table from me soon.)

Now that we've pondered the personalities of most of the animals (players) that you'll be playing against, it's time to move forward with some examples of how to play the top ten hands to perfection. (As we proceed, you'll see the value of recognizing these personality types.) Again, the basic premise in playing the top ten hands is this: always raise or reraise with these hands before the flop, no matter what the action has been before it's your turn to act. (While I lay out these examples, I'll begin to weave into the equations some ways to play the hands somewhat differently, depending on which animals you're playing against.)

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• The Flop Includes An A Or A K (0)

1. A-A
2. K-K
3. Q-Q
4. A-K
5. J-J
6. 10-10
7. 9-9
8. 8-8
9. A-Q 10. 7-7

When you break limit Hold'em down to its basic elements, good game theory suggests that you wait for big starting hands before you get involved in a hand, because the blinds are relatively small compared with the size of the pots, unless you're playing in a very tight game (which is rare at low stakes). It may seem a bit boring to play only these top ten hands; after all, most of you play poker just to have a good time and socialize—that is, for entertainment. Fair enough, but if you want to win the money, then you need to show some patience and entertain yourself in another way. And, anyway, how entertaining is it to play all the hands and lose most of them?

In general, I recommend playing the top ten hands regardless of your position in the betting order or the number of bets it will cost you to get involved in the hand. Always raise with these hands, no matter what it costs you to get involved. Of course, if you have a lot of evidence to suggest that your 7-7 is beaten (perhaps the tightest player in the game has just re-re-reraised the hand, making it, as we say, "four bets to go"), then you might do well to fold the hand. But in general, playing these hands aggressively is a good way to play Hold'em.

I know that you're probably thinking right now, "Is it really that easy? All I have to do is play Phil's top ten hands?" The answer is basically yes, at least as far as your starting requirements (your first two cards) are concerned! Yes, because it will be easy for you to play before the flop (on the first round of betting) when all you have to remember is to play only the top ten. (Playing after the flop is much more complicated, I'm afraid; but don't worry, we'll cover that as well.)

In what follows I'll be giving you a number of examples of hands that will help you understand the best courses of action for a beginning player to take. But before I give you these examples, it's time to introduce those "animals" I promised you. I cannot go much further in teaching you how to play poker without characterizing some of the personality types that you will inevitably face as you play Texas Hold'em, because no matter how much you may want to think of Hold'em as a card game played by people, in many respects it is even more valid to think of it as a game about people that happens to be played with cards. This becomes more and more true as the stakes get higher and the games get tougher.

• The Flop Includes An A Or A K Part2 (0)
• The Flop Includes An A Or A K (0)
• Raising With A Top Ten Poker Hand In Late Position (0)

To begin with, I recommend playing only the top ten hands and folding on all others. The top ten are, in order of relative promise: A-A, K-K, Q-Q, A-K, J-J, 10-10, 9-9, 8-8, A-Q, and finally 7-7. Experience has shown me that these are the strongest starting hands in limit Hold'em. This beginning "strategy for survival" is designed to keep you in the game while you learn the more subtle techniques that are necessary to beat tougher games, or to extract more money from weak games. And in some games using just this strategy will make you a winner. With this patient strategy alone, and really not much else in the way of poker instruction, I was able to crush the games in Madison. What happens is that when you consistently play only the top ten hands, your opponents will begin to fear your bets and raises because they'll see that you're always playing something powerful.

This fear gives you some leeway to make a few different plays later on, when you've absorbed the intermediate and more advanced advice I'll be giving you later. In other words, the "top ten hands" strategy teaches the right fundamentals. You will need these fundamentals when you do add some intermediate and advanced strategy to your arsenal, because playing supertight alone just won't get the pots in these tougher games: the good hands don't come along often enough, and perhaps even more important, you risk becoming a bit too predictable.

• Poker – Pocket Jacks (0)
• Top Ten Hands In Hold Em Poker (0)
• The Flop Includes An A Or A K Part2 (0)

Tuli had a basic theory about Hold'em: "Tight is right." "Tight" means that you drop out of most hands before the flop. It was good advice. After studying the game with Tuli's tutoring and playing with the group for about three months, I found that I'd surpassed Tuli and become the best player in the game. After all, I had no job and no money, which meant that I had a lot of time on my hands and a strong motivation to learn the game. The amount of money I was winning each week was pretty good, too. In fact, from my modest perspective, the money was phenomenal. After about 18 months, I'd put more than $20,000 in the bank, and I paid off all my student loans! The bigger poker game on campus included mostly successful faculty and staff members, doctors, and lawyers. The money, combined with the fact that my ego felt great competing with and beating successful PhDs, JDs, and doctors twenty years older than I was, caused me to devote a lot more time and energy to learning Texas Hold'em.

While I was crushing the games in Madison, I began developing my own basic theory of Texas Hold'em. I had taken Tuli's theory and moved on: supertight was better than tight. In other words, playing even fewer hands than Tuli had suggested was the way to go. Another skill I had developed was an ability to read my opponents (to analyze how strong or weak their hands were, from subtle clues of behavior). Reading players, though, is a more advanced concept, so for now let's just take a look at my theory: "Supertight is right."
To make "supertight" something that you can sink your teeth into, I'll begin by identifying my top ten hands for Hold'em—the 10 strongest Hold'em hands out there. I'll then teach you how to play those top ten hands before the flop, on the flop, on fourth street, and, finally, on the river—in other words, on all four rounds of betting. I'll teach you how to use well-timed raises on the flop to gain information that will help you judge, in the final rounds, whether or not your opponents have you beat. I'll show you how to make good use of that information when you're on fourth street. Finally, I'll show you that folding your hand on the river is usually not a good idea, because of the amount of money that's already in the pot by then.

Before we get into analyzing tactics in actual hands, I'll also introduce certain "animal types" that describe many of the people you will be playing against. Through examples, I'll show you when to raise, reraise, call, or fold your hand, depending on what types of "animals" your opponents seem to be, and thus what their tendencies are likely to be.
If you can truly absorb all the information I'll be offering in this chapter, and act on it under game conditions, you will already be capable of beating most small-limit Texas Hold'em players all over the world! I will now teach you how to play limit Texas Hold'em—a variation of Texas Hold'em in which the size of the bet in each round is preset. This is the most popular game in the world today.

Remember to read Chapter 2 before you read this chapter.
In this chapter you will learn:

- Preflop limit Hold'em for beginners: the top ten hands only. I My "animal types": jackal, mouse, elephant, lion, and eagle. I How to play the flop for beginners: the power of the raise. I How to play A-K on the flop.

- How to play the top ten hands on fourth street. I How to play the river: call because of pot odds.

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• The Flop Includes An A Or A K Part2 (0)
• The Flop Includes An A Or A K (0)