If you are looking for a quick rundown of top poker tips with simple shortcuts to start having fun playing No-Limit Texas Hold’em, you’ve come to the right place.

You don’t have to be a math whiz or a high-stakes professional to use our strategy tips and start improving your game and have more fun playing No-Limit Texas Hold’em poker.

To help get you started we’ve put together the 15 Top No-Limit Hold’em Strategy Tips from the LearnWPT Pros that will give you a jumpstart on playing better poker fast.

While we can’t guarantee you’ll win, we can promise that if you study these 15 Top No-Limit Texas Hold’em Poker Strategy Tips you’ll be a much tougher opponent whether you are playing in a casino, home game, or online.

Read the 15 Top No-Limit Texas Hold’em Poker Strategy Tips from LearnWPT right now to get a leg up on your competition and soon you’ll be Thinking Like A Pro!

The Top 15 No-Limit Texas Hold’em Poker Strategy Tips

1. Play Your Best 5
2. Position is Power
3. How You Start Plays a Big Part
4. (Bet) Size Matters
5. Measure with The Same Ruler
6. Fortune Favors The Bold
7. Take Small Risks For Big Rewards
8. More Players = More Problems
9. All Flops Are Not Created Equal
10. Have a Plan For Your Hand
11. Your First Question: Can I Call?
12. Pressure Passive Players
13. Deep Stacks Mean Tough Decisions
14. Sometimes Any 2 Will Do
15. All You Need is A Chip And A Chair!

Tip #1 Play Your Best 5

Each player starts the hand with 2 cards face down (or only visible to you if playing online). They combine with the community cards to make the best 5 card hand. The best 5 can be made from both, one, or none of your cards. The best 5 card hand in poker is a royal flush, Ace-King-Queen-Jack-Ten of one suit.

Tip #2 Position is Power

To start each hand 2 players post forced bets called blinds. The action starts with the first player following the big blind and continues clockwise around the table until all bets are complete. Pay attention to how each opponent bets and think about all of the possible hands (or hand range) they would make these specific plays with. The best seat at the table is the Button because you get the benefit of acting last.

Tip #3 How You Start Plays A Big Part

The hands you should play change based on your position at the table. With a lot of poker players left to act you’ll want to play only the best poker hands such as Aces, Kings, Queens, and Ace-King. As fewer poker players remain you can raise with many more poker hands first into the pot. Because you wouldn’t just play one specific hand from a given position, you have to think about the total possible hands that you should play from a given seat, otherwise known as the range of hands. Make sure you download the FREE First-In Hand Range guide and use them to help you get started.

👉Download your FREE copy of First-In Hand Range charts here

Tip #4 (Bet) Size Matters

Betting in No-Limit Hold’em is not just about the 2 cards in your hand. It’s also about how big or small you should choose to bet. Don’t fall into the habit of betting a different amount with your strong hands than your weak hands or you’ll be giving off a betting pattern. If your opponents can determine your hand strength based on your bet size it will be very hard to win. Your goal should be to bet a standard bet size that will help your good hands win more money on average and get your bluffs respected.

Tip #5 Measure with The Same Ruler

You will often be in hands against players with various stack sizes in the games you play. In order to make decisions easier and to help keep track of your own stack you can start thinking about poker in terms of Big Blinds (see Tip #2 for an explanation of the Blinds).

❓ If a player at your table has a 100,000 chip stack are they a big stack or short stack for the table? If the big blind is 1,000, then they would have a big stack of 100 Big Blinds (divide 100,000/1,000 = 100).

💡 However, if we are late in a tournament and the big blind is now 10,000 chips, the same player will be considered a short stack of only 10 Big Blinds (divide 100,000/10,000 = 10). Making betting decisions based on Big Blinds helps create a system for consistency when looking at poker hands across different game types and buy-ins.

Tip #6 Fortune Favors the Bold

To win your fair share of pots in No-Limit Hold’em you will need to keep opponents guessing and on their heels.

🗝️ One of the keys to being a player that forces the action vs one that gets run over at the table is to always raise if you are coming into the pot first. If nobody has entered the pot yet and it’s your turn to act you have the advantage of being first-in to the pot. So if you have a hand worth entering the pot with (see Tip #3) and have the opportunity to be first-in, make sure you come into the pot with a raise instead of just calling for the minimum.

Raising first-in gives you the advantage by putting your opponents on the defense and allowing you to continue aggression in the hand. Adding aggression to your game takes practice and it might feel uncomfortable when you start raising more often as a strategy, so keep practicing and you’ll find more opponents folding to your raises.

Tip #7 Take Small Risks For Big Rewards

Raising is absolutely the best strategy when you are the first player to put chips into the pot before the flop.

❓ What happens when a player has called for the minimum or even made a raise before you get a chance to play?

This is the perfect time to look for plays with Speculative Hands. These hands consist of suited cards that can make big hands like flushes or straights, or some pocket pairs that can match their rank on the flop and make a set.

🗝️ The key to playing speculative hands without wasting too much of your stack is to only call under a specific set of rules. You’ll want to make sure to only invest a small portion of your stack (less than 5% maximum) and that the pot is multiway.

Tip #8 More Players = More Problems

The strength of your hand can change dramatically based on how many opponents see the flop. This is a hard lesson to learn for many players who have trouble laying down pocket aces on the flop after a bet and 2 raises in front. Think of your hand strength as slowly shrinking each time a new player is added.

For example, if you have the best possible starting hand in poker, pocket aces, you are a big favorite against a single opponent. However, if you are in a postflop hand against 4 or 5 people you will need much more than just 1-pair to win in most circumstances, even with the biggest pocket pair in poker! The concept of adjusting hand strength based on the number of opponents is a foundation for advanced poker strategy.

Tip #9 All Flops Are Not Created Equal

When you decide to bet out on the flop it’s important how the rank and suits of the 3 cards interact, otherwise known as board texture. When cards are more connected or have 2 cards to a flush like this flop of T♥8♠7♠, that flop is considered coordinated and you should proceed with caution unless you have the best possible hand.

When a board has 2 low cards and 1 big card like K♦2♥2♣ it is considered to be dry, or not likely to connect with opponent cards and you can bet with more confidence. Practice reading boards when you are not in a hand and try to categorize them as dry or coordinated, then notice which hands the players showdown on the river.

Tip #10 Have a Plan For Your Hand

If you approach the hands you play with a “wait and see what happens” attitude you’ll be leaving chips on the table (or worse yet handing over chips when you could have avoided a mistake). Poker Pros use specific plans for certain types of hands, otherwise known as Betting Lines, to make sure they aren’t putting too many chips into the pot with vulnerable hands or betting too aggressively and scaring away opponents when they have a big hand.

Betting lines must be created to avoid patterns so be careful not to fall into the pattern of betting small with your weak hands and betting big with your strong hands, or vice versa. A balanced strategy for betting lines with all the different types of hands you can have, such as 1-pair, sets, flushes, straights, and full houses will help you maximize value. The goal is to bet so that you aren’t just focused on the actual hand you have in the moment, but all possible hands that you would play this way (otherwise known as your hand range) in a given situation.

Tip #11 Your First Question - Can I Call?

In each hand of No-Limit Texas Hold’em that you play there can be several decision points. Deciding between the options of check, bet, raise, call, reraise, and fold may seem a bit overwhelming especially with money on the line. In order to make poker strategy decisions easier, you need to have a process for each time you need to make a decision at the table.

The simplest way to start your decision-making process in a poker hand is to evaluate whether you can call based on how likely you are to make your hand on the cards yet to come (see Tip #12 for more). You want to limit the times you call to clearly profitable situations with a plan for cards to come. This is especially true when you’re first starting out since one of the biggest mistakes new players make is calling too often with bad hands.

Tip #12 Pressure Passive Players

No-Limit Texas Hold’em players who consistently win big prizes in poker tournaments and build huge stacks in cash games are great at putting pressure on their opponents.

They excel at figuring out which players are likely to play a more cautious game and attack their weakness with frequent bets and raises. Weaker players are less likely to make a big call with a borderline hand such as 1-pair with a weak kicker, especially when community cards that seem likely to help their opponent (known as scare cards) hit the board.

Players like this who fold frequently to aggression and make straightforward plays when they have a good hand are the perfect target to make a move against in some spots, even in some cases without holding good cards.

Tip #13 Deep Stacks Mean Tough Decisions

In a poker hand when both you and your opponents have chip stacks with 100 Big Blinds or more, the game is said to be deepstacked. In deepstacked poker, you will be put in more difficult situations because there are many more moves available to each player.

For example, it is usually more profitable to play suited cards and try to make a big hand like a flush, straight, 2-pair, or trips (see Tip #7) than to try and win a hand with Ace-Queen by flopping just 1-pair when stacks are deep. This is because there are likely to be multiple betting rounds in the hand and it is less likely that your opponent will fold to a single bet on the flop, especially with good drawing hands. You need much more than 1-pair to win most pots in deepstacked situations.

Tip #14 Sometimes Any 2 Will Do

As you get further along in a No-Limit Texas Hold’em poker tournament it’s not uncommon to receive many poor starting hands in a row, otherwise known as “running bad” in poker. This certainly doesn’t mean however that the only time you’ll win a tournament is if you receive a constant supply of pocket aces and kings.

🗝️ The key to advancing to the money rounds in tournament play is looking for opportunities to pick up small pots along the way without showing your cards. In order to maintain your chips as the blinds and antes increase, it is crucial to start looking for spots to steal when action folds to you in late position and there are only a few opponents left to act. In this spot, you can open up your play a bit and raise first-in to the pot with a wide variety of hands.

Sometimes this can mean opening the pot with almost any 2 cards you can hold. It may take some courage to pull the trigger the first time you try to steal a pot with 2 random cards, however, you’ll be thankful to have this tool in your belt for the times when your good hands are few and far between.

Tip #15 All You Need is A Chip and a Chair

The term “Chip and Chair” refers to a philosophy for approaching poker strategy when a player is short stacked, or has a chip stack of 10 Big Blinds or less in a No-Limit Texas Hold'em poker tournament. In a nutshell, as you have at least one chip remaining you still have a seat at the table and a chance to rebuild your stack and win the tournament.

Players often become short stacked as a result of losing a large all-in pot vs an opponent or due to a long period of playable hands. Short Stack play is one of the most studied elements of No-Limit Texas Hold’em. The best way to play these types of hands is to shove all-in before the flop and force your opponents to make a decision that would have them show down their cards to win the pot.

Sometimes your short stack shoving strategy will result in everyone folding and you taking down the blinds and antes without having to show your cards. If you do happen to get called you’ll be shoving with a solid range of hands that will sometimes win at showdown and result in a full double up. The next time you lose a big pot or get a bad beat in a poker tournament and your stack gets below 10 big blinds don’t get discouraged. Use this short stack shoving poker strategy to get back into the game.

Make sure you bookmark this page so that you can always refer back to these Top 15 Tips for No-Limit Hold’em Beginners from your friends at LearnWPT and the World Poker Tour.

The best way to start improving your game is to take a little time each day, or at least on days you are going to play, and review these simple strategies to get you into the right mindset to play.

These Top 15 Tips for No-Limit Hold’em Beginners will put you on a path to playing better poker and you just might get some comments on your play at the next home game 😊

We hope you enjoyed these tips and we wish you success at the tables.

If you are interested in learning more about No-Limit Texas Hold’em poker strategy from world-class professionals in a welcoming community of poker players, be sure to check out LearnWPT.com.

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