After all, you don't want 5 callers when you have AA! However, in low stakes live games or extremely loose online games you will often want to raise it more than 3x with your really good hands. You should raise it to 3 times the size of the big blind as a default strategy. They were published in my first book and they prove this point beyond a shadow of a doubt.Ĭonclusion: If you like money always raise, never limp. Here are the results taken from my own database over very large sample sizes. Why not limp (just call) though you might be asking?īecause it is simply a proven fact that raising is more profitable than limping over the long run. I recommend always raising when you are the first person to enter the pot. RFI stands for 'raise first in.' This means that you are the first person to enter the pot. Here are the Poker Starting Hands You Should RFI With From Each Position After the flop, the action will always begin with the SB and flow clockwise to the BTN. The action always starts before the flop in poker with EP and ends with the BB. Here are the positions at the poker table in Texas Holdem. What Poker Starting Hands Should You Play? He has made $45,000,000 playing poker, enough said. This is why it is so extremely important that you are adequately bankrolled for the games that you are playing in. Many people are surprised to learn that you will often need to play as much as 100k hands before you can really know your true results in poker.Īs I said before, results don't come overnight in poker and sometimes you will lose for days or even weeks even though you are making all of the right decisions. 'Variance' is the technical term that we use in poker to describe the natural ups and downs of the game. The reason why you need to have such a big bankroll is because of variance. So for example, if you play at the lowest limit online, which is typically 1c/2c with a $2 buyin, then you should have around $60 in your account before you play this game. I recommend having at least 30 buyins for any limit that you choose to play these days. This is the total amount of money that you have available to play poker with. The next thing that you need is the correct poker bankroll. Poker Cheat Sheet - Have the Right Poker Bankroll

Texas holdem starting hand chart