Noted Poker Authority » No Limit Hold ‘em

What To Do When They Won’t Fold

Ed Miller — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:54:57 +0000

How do you beat a guy who won’t fold? It’s a question I hear asked frequently at the no-limit hold’em table, usually after T-5 suited has made a flush on the river or a pair of fours has called a river bluff. Maybe you’ve even asked it once or twice. ...

Overprotecting Your Hand

Ed Miller — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:50:05 +0000

Protecting your hand is a well-known poker concept. If you think you likely have the best hand at the moment, you bet to force your opponents either to fold or to pay to draw out. In no-limit hold’em, however, many players tend to overprotect their hands.

Here’s a simple example. When ...

Winning In Live No-Limit Games

Ed Miller — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:06:38 +0000

Most live $1-$2, $1-$3, and $2-$5 players focus on the big pots. They want to see flops, hit hands, and stack opponents holding second-best hands. This focus, unfortunately, does not promote long-term, consistent winning. The problem with it is obvious once you think about it. Everyone else is trying to ...

Two No-Limit Plays That Make You Easy To Read

Ed Miller — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:00:03 +0000

I play no-limit cash games regularly both live and online. I prefer to play live, and a major reason is because live players are for the most part much easier to read. It’s not that I can magically decode an opponent’s every twitch and tic. Physical tells are sometimes useful, ...

Picking Off Bluffs

Ed Miller — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:52:28 +0000

Your no-limit hold’em opponents bluff. I know it may shock you, but it’s true. Are you just going to let them get away with it, or are you going to do something about it?

If you don’t have a good plan for dealing with your opponents’ bluffs, you may want to ...

The Final Hand

Ed Miller — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:45:36 +0000

The final hand always gets the most attention. It could be the last hand of a grueling heads-up battle to determine a million dollar tournament winner. Or it could just be the hand you busted out on in your local Wednesday night tournament. Either way, chances are that you (and ...

Thin Value

Ed Miller — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:40:38 +0000

The longer I’ve played poker, the more I’ve become convinced that a single concept is truly at the core of nearly all successful strategies. It’s a concept that is as important playing no-limit hold’em as it is at limit stud eight-or-better. This central concept is extracting thin value.

It’s a simple ...

Board Textures And Hand Ranges

Ed Miller — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:33:47 +0000

Last issue I wrote about how the most useful way to read hands relies on the concept of hand ranges. Because your opponents do not provide you perfect information with their checks, bets, and raises, you cannot quickly narrow down their holdings to just one or a few hands. ...

Reading Hands Using Hand Ranges

Ed Miller — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:27:43 +0000

Reading hands is a critical poker skill. The better you can key in on the sort of hands your opponents have, the better decisions you will make, and the better your results will be. Most players use some sort of hand reading process to inform their decisions.

But not all hand ...

Winning Stacks

Ed Miller — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:48:38 +0000

Stacking your opponent is the ultimate no-limit high. There’s nothing more exhilarating than winning a huge pot. But, beyond that, stacking opponents is a critical no-limit skill. I’ve noticed that the best players tend to be far more adept than the average player at encouraging opponents to part with all ...