Author: horse-racing-free-tips

While there is no argument that QQ is one of the most powerful starting hands in no limit Texas holdem, it also can be challenging to play correctly. The trademark of a good player is one who can win big pots while losing small ones. What this means is that the best players minimize their losses when they do lose a hand and maximize their profit when they win. QQ is one of the starting hands that separate the winning players and the losing ones.

When you are first to act or the first player who hasn’t limped into the pot, you should raise most of the time. There are two reasons for this. The first is you don’t want anyone to see the flop for cheap, especially hands with an Ace and small kicker. The second reason is that you need to do everything you can to find the strength of your opponents hands. By raising, if one of your opponents re-raises and/or moves all in, you will have a difficult decision to make, but you may be able to get away from the hand if you think your opponent has AA or KK. This is the absolute worst position to be in. In addition, QQ plays best against one or two opponents. You should keep all of your pre flop raises roughly the same to not give away the strength of your hand, usually three or four times the big blind.

Playing QQ after the flop is usually straightforward. If you have shown strength by raising pre flop, continue to show strength until one of your opponents convinces you that they have a better hand. This includes when an Ace hits on the flop. You must bet to represent an Ace in your hand. If you check, you are giving your opponents permission to steal the pot from you, as you will have to fold to a bet. When you bet and an opponent calls or raises, you then must decide if they actually have a better hand or not. In most cases they will have a better hand because you have shown strength two times and they should respect your hand, unless you have been playing too loose.

There are a few situations in which I will check after the flop. They both happen when I am in the hand with an aggressive opponent and I feel I have the best hand. The first is when a Queen hits on the flop giving me trips. By checking, rarely will a free card hurt me if my opponent doesn’t bet and this gives them a chance to bluff off more chips to me. The other situation is when the flop doesn’t have an Ace and appears ragged. My plan when this happens is to move all in when my opponent bets after I check. There is danger in both of these situations, especially the later one. Your opponent may have hit a set, in which case you will be drawing almost dead. However, I have found that the times they can’t beat my hand far outweigh the times they can, so these situations are profitable. The key to both of these is that you must be sure your opponent will take the bait and bet. Giving free cards can be harmful. I do not do this when two cards of the same suit are on the flop unless I did flop a set. When you flop a set, you have many outs to a full house, even against a flush. The other thing is that these plays do not work very well against the best competition. They will respect your hand and will be less likely to bluff at the pot after you check unless you do a great job of acting weak. After showing pre flop strength, this is often difficult.

You must select your starting hands very carefully because it is crucially important to choose the right hand to start with. Every situation calls for a certain type of hands so choose the hands accordingly to other external factors.

When you select the table to play in you must be careful. Select only tables you can afford. Do not try and play at a table that is over your bankroll edge, you must pay attention and see that at least some of the players at the table are weak or at least weaker than you.

Read others as quickly and as often as you can. Make sure you know from the first moves who are those who play hands that shouldn’t be played at all, which players can be bluffed and which bluff, who usually calls or bets with low value draws or hand, who plays tight and who loose.

Call in Omaha as less as possible. If the odds are on your side then raise or bet. If not, simply fold. Call only when you have something good in mind as tricking a player or increasing your odds.

You have to take seriously when someone bets a great amount or raise the same way. In pot limit Omaha this counts a lot because bluffing can be disastrous and the majority of players don’t do it.

In Omaha there can be 13-way, 17-way or even 20-way straight draws. Don’t; remain accustomed to the regular 8-way straight draw because this is a different game with different odds. Wait for the right draw to raise.

The nut flush draw can be in hold’em a great possibly because you might usually win the pot when you get a pair for you Ace or get the flush, but in Omaha that is not true so stay away from that draw because it just isn’t going to happen in most cases.

When you have been dealt a pair of Aces and next to them two other low cards, unconnected and unsuited in anyway to the aces, then you must know that you hand is pretty low. The chances you have on the flop are minimal and if the flop dealt cards don’t give you an Ace then you will end up probably loosing the pot.

When playing multi way pots the odds change and you should always draw the nuts. When everyone placed their chips in the middle, play aggressive because if you have odds on your side and draw for the nuts. Do not try and involve all you money to a simple draw without any additional implications because you might not hit it or even if you do you will split the pot with another player.