Texas Holdem Rules. In our description of the Texas Holdem rules we use the poker terms most commonly used within the poker industry. Before the game starts, the 2 players next to the dealer have to make a forced bet called a blind bet. The first player next to the dealer has to place the small blind bet (half of the minimum bet). The minimum bet is $5 at all casinos except Jerry’s Nugget, where the minimum bet is $2. This is the only proprietary table game in Las Vegas with a minimum bet under $5. Note that you will need double the minimum bet to get a hand as an ante and blind is needed.

You’re new to poker online, and you’re not sure what stakes you should play for. Should you play the free games with the play money chips first, in order to learn how the game controls work? Should you start by playing for small stakes and then move up in stakes? And if so, then how low should you go? Should you try the micro stakes games?

This page tries to answer all these questions, but no one answer will be the same for every poker player.

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Starting Off with the Play Money Games

All online cardrooms have an option to play for real money or play money. These play money games are aimed to players with no bankroll at all. But if you’re completely new to playing on the Internet, these play money games are the perfect way to get started.

Someone who has played poker online before might do well to skip these games, as they might encourage you to create bad habits, like calling when you should fold. When there’s no money on the line, poker players tend to make all kinds of bone-headed decisions.

On the other hand, if you’re a complete neophyte, you SHOULD start with these free games in order to learn the controls. It’s way better to lose fake money when you accidentally push the raise icon instead of the fold icon than it is to lose real money.

It won’t take long to get familiar with the controls and how they work, and as soon as you’ve done so, you should move up to real money games. That’s because money is the whole point of poker, online or live. Without money on the line, you might as well be playing solitaire.

What Stakes Should You Play

If you’re from the United States, you should start off with the lowest stakes you’re comfortable with. The legal situation in the USA and the difficulty transferring money to and from Internet cardrooms creates a situation where you should literally only play with money you won’t miss. If the website at which you’re playing shuts down or is unable to make payouts, you won’t be in a situation where you can’t pay your bills.

On the other hand, if you’re from a more enlightened country, you needn’t limit yourself to super low stakes, although you still shouldn’t gamble with money you can’t afford to lose. Your bankroll should be a separate stack of money that’s only used for that purpose. Gambling with the rent money is always a bad idea.

The size of your bankroll should determine what stakes you should play. You need a large enough bankroll that the vagaries of luck and statistical deviation don’t bankrupt you before your long-term expectation kicks in. (Of course, if you’re a losing player, you’ll need an infinite bankroll to avoid going broke, but that’s beyond the scope of this article.)

The most commonly agreed bankroll requirements for Texas holdem player are as follows:

If you’re playing no limit, you need a large enough bankroll to accommodate 20 buy-ins.

If you’re playing limit, you need a large enough bankroll to cover 300 big blinds.

If you’re a sit and go specialist, you need a large enough bankroll to cover 40 buy-ins.

Suppose you have $300 in your bankroll. This means you could afford to play for the following stakes:

• You could play in no limit game with a buy-in of $15 or less.
• You could play in limit games with blinds of $0.50/$1.00.
• You could play in sit n goes with buy-ins of $7.50 or less.

Should you ever play at lower or higher stakes than those? The answer depends on your goals and your situation.

If you’re losing consistently at these stakes, you should probably go down a step and play for lower stakes until you’re confident you can beat the game at that level. You should be keeping detailed records of your play, as well as studying books and/or training videos in order to improve.

If you’re winning consistently at these stakes, it’s okay to “take a shot” at the higher stakes, especially in terms of a tournament that’s outside your normal buy-in. For example, it wouldn’t be outrageous for a sit and go specialist to take a shot at a tournament with an $11 buy in if she’s feeling lucky. She just needs to be prepared to go back down in stakes right away if she loses.

What If My Bankroll Is Really Small?

If your bankroll is less than $100, you’ll really need to focus on beating those microstakes games. For example, if you only have $50, you will most likely need to stick to the $0.01/$0.02 no limit games. You might be able to handle $0.05/$0.10 or $0.10/$0.20 limit games. The biggest sit n go tournament you could afford would only have a buy-in of $1.10.

You needn’t feel ashamed of playing for low stakes. Everyone has to start somewhere. Even Chris Ferguson, for grins, has played for microstakes to see how long it would take him to turn $0 into $10,000. He started by playing nothing but freeroll tournaments, then he used the winnings from those to move up.

You do need to understand that the texture of the game changes based on what stakes you’re playing. The level of play and the style of play that wins in a no limit game at the $0.01/$0.02 level won’t win at the $1.00/$2.00 level. You’ll need to focus on continual improvement of your game.

Conclusion

Small stakes holdem online is appropriate for a lot of different kinds of players, especially those from the United States. These stakes are most appropriate for those with small bankrolls or concerns about their ability to cash out their winnings. Players need to focus on constantly improving their game as they play for higher stakes, because what wins at the microstakes tables often loses at the higher stakes tables.

Finally, purely recreational players who don’t care if they win or lose can play for any stakes they like.

Understanding when to bet is an important skill to master in Texas Holdem poker. But just as important or even more important is knowing how much to bet in each situation. When you bet or raise, you need to size your bet appropriately for your goal. Playing smart and being aggressive is the formula for winning at texas holdem poker. You will not be successful if you need the best hand to win. When you bet or raise, you have two ways to win, you could have the best hand or your opponents could fold. When you check or call you can only win with the best hand at showdown. Understanding bet sizing is vital or your bets and raises will fail to accomplish their goal.
Below is an article from the Poker Bank that will help you to understand Bet Sizing.

Knowing when to bet is an important skill in poker, but an equally or even more important skill is to know how much to bet in each situation. A good knowledge of bet sizing can help save you from making very unprofitable plays, as well as allowing you to maximize the amount of money you can make in each session. All winning poker players have the ability to make the correct size bet when necessary, and so its pretty important piece of no limit Texas Holdem strategy that you should learn.

As a general rule to start off with, you should always try and be aggressive and strong with your bets. More often than not, a small and weak-looking bet will not give you any leverage in the hand or give you any information on the strength of your opponent(s) hands.

Texas Holdem Minimum Bet

If you regularly like to make minimum bets and raises, you will find that you are almost always giving your opponent the right odds to call you if they have a draw or even a small piece of the board. So you should try and get into the habit of making strong bets to protect your hand when you think that you are ahead and to get more information from your opponents.

The first opportunity you have to make a bet or raise is on the flop. It is here that you have the opportunity to thin out the field when you have a strong hand and make your post-flop decisions easier by reducing the number of players who continue to see a flop.

The way to reduce the amount of players in the hand is to make a decent size raise that forces other players into either calling or folding. A minimum raise before the flop isn’t going to make much of an impact, and so you will find that you get a lot of callers. A good preflop raise should be at least 3 times the size of the big blind, with the optimum raise in my opinion being around 4 big blinds.

From here on out, the size of your bets should be in relation to the size of the pot. This means that you should always look at how big the pot is before deciding how much you should bet. If you feel you have the best hand or looking to bluff, you should try and bet around 75% to 100% the size of the pot. This will give your opponents bad pot odds to call for any draw and make them consider folding with decent hands that may be slightly better than yours. Any bet larger than this will make little difference as far as odds are concerned, and you will be risking too much if your opponent has a stronger hand than you and decides to play on.

As a final note on bet sizing, you should make your re-raises strong, just as you do with your standard bets. If a player bets into you and you decide to re-raise for whatever reason, you should be looking to re-raise around 3 times the size of that player’s initial raise. Again this will put them to a tough decision and give them poor odds to call if they are on a draw.

Texas Hold'em Minimum Betting Rules

So hopefully as you can see, the key to good bet sizing in no limit games is to stand your ground and bet strongly. If you are too afraid to put money into the pot when you feel you have a winning hand, you should probably take up another hobby. There is no room for fear in poker, and so you should always make strong bets to keep your opponents on their toes and force them to decisions.