Texas Holdem Strategy

Pocket pairs are nice. It's a great feeling to look down at your hole cards and see the same card twice. However, as deadly as these hands can be, they can also be very dangerous as they get lower. When calculating the odds of winning a hand, you determine how many outs you have. When you're too busy playing poker to calculate your odds down to the fifth decimal place, there's a quicker way. Each out is worth approximately 2% when there are only a few players left at a table. If you have 10 outs after the turn, you have a 20% chance of getting one of the cards you're looking for on the river. Now let's say you're looking down at pocket 7's. You most likely have the best hand right now, since there are only 7 hands that beat you at this point.

Adding deception to your game is very important because it makes you less predictable. If your checks always mean that you are weak or your bets/raises always mean you are strong, the more observant players will have an edge on you.