If you are new to poker, then you will want to try your hand at Texas Hold’em  first. It is one of the easiest poker games to learn for beginning players, unlike Seven Card Stud or Omaha. In fact, Texas Hold’em can be learned in just a few minutes. Within a few hours, you could (and I use that loosely) be playing like a professional!

With Texas Hold’em , expect the betting arrangement to fluctuate. Most of the time there are two players who will start the game off with an initial amount to kick off the game. Other times, antes are used. A regular playing card deck is used and the dealer gives each player two cards face down. These are referred to as your hole cards in Texas Hold’em.

Next is a round of betting. Keep in mind that there is also folding, raising or calling of card hands. And once the betting ends, the dealer will get rid of the top deck card to stop cheating. After that, the dealer in Texas Hold’em will place three cards face up on the table. This is called a flop and the cards can be used by anyone in conjunction with their hole cards.

There is another round of betting followed by the turn card. This is when the dealer flips another card. A final betting round happens and usually bets can grow quickly. The last thing in Texas Hold’em is when the dealer turns up the last card face up. This maneuver is called the “river.” Players can use their hole cards or the five cards they already have to create a poker hand. The last round of betting ensues in Texas Hold’em. Afterwards, everyone shows their card hands. The player with the best poker hand wins!

When starting out in low limit Texas Hold em a safe and sure strategy is to only play the premium pre-flop starting hands. The top ten premium hands are AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs, TT, AQs, AJs, AK, KQs. While there are more premium hands, those are the top ten.

Premium hands play well from any position and are proven to be the top performers. As a beginner, sticking to premium hands will keep you in the game so you can learn and develop additional techniques to winning at Texas Hold em.

As you gain experience and add additional strategies the foundation laid by playing these starting hands will enable you to beat tougher more savvy players at all levels.

In some games this strategy alone can make you a winner. Always remember winning at Texas hold em is not about playing cards, it’s about playing people. Or as Phil Helmut said in his book, Play Poker Like The Pros, “don’t think of hold em as a card game played by people, in many respects it is even more valid to think of it as a game about people. That happens to be played with cards.”

Starting out as a beginner at Texas hold em with just this simple strategy, and really not much else in the way of poker knowledge should enable you to win more than your fair share of big pots.

If you consistently play only the premium hands your opponents will begin to respect your bets and raises because they know you’re playing with something powerful. Earning the other players respect, gives you the discretion to make different plays as your game advances.

You will need this foundation so that you can add some additional strategy to your poker playing arsenal, playing tight will not give you enough pots in a tough game. Premium hands won’t show up often enough to win consistently and you never want to become too predictable to the other players at the Texas hold em table.

All of the top pros suggest you wait for the premium hands before you get involved in a pot, unless you’re in a game with a lot of very tight players, which doesn’t happen very often in the lower limit Texas hold em games.

Waiting for premium hands means that you will have to fold a lot. I realize this can get boring, but how exciting is it play a lot of hands and lose most of them?

You can play the premium hands from any position in the betting order, and it doesn’t matter how many bets it costs you to get in. You should raise with these hands in almost all situations.

If you have a reason to believe that your pocket tens are behind due to the fact that the tightest player in the game reraised and made it four bets to go, then it might be a good idea to fold the hand. However in most cases, you can and should, play these premium starting hands, aggressively.

This strategy alone will not be enough as you get in the games with higher stakes and tougher opponents, but it can serve you profitably as a beginner until you advance your knowledge and skill.

Want to increase your odds of hitting a poker Jackpot?

In most major card rooms the easiest jackpot to hit is when 3 aces come up on the board. Besides three aces ther are many flops that can hit a jackpot. Among those is any three suited connectors.

From my experience, every time I have been at the table (15 times), here is what happens.. a) usually the board comes close several times to jackpot flops (such as two aces on the board, three suited, two pair, etc..), or b) usually it’s unexpected.

Using these two rules we can improve our chances of hitting the jackpot. First off, don’t think about hitting the jackpot. Let it leave your brain. We all want the jackpot, but don’t play for it or think about it. Let it just happen. I believe if you think too hard of hitting it, it actually repels it away from you.

Secondly, when the deck keeps putting out jackpot boards (you know, the five face up cards in the middle of the table), let the deck(s) play out. Right now the dealer and the cards are in the zone.

DO NOT ask for a new setup just because you are losing. Changing the deck at this time kills the harmoney of the cards. A new deck comes in and now all of a sudden, the jackpot boards quit appearing.

My suggestion is let the cards play out until the dealer has rotated out. If the jackpot doesn’t come by then, change the deck since the new dealer will rarely be in tune with the cards like the last one.

I can’t explain this, All I know is every jackpot (15 and counting) I’ve seen hit usually did so after several close jackpot boards. Besides, if you are not winning, if every hand you make gets beat, you are the perfect candidate to make a big hand and lose, claiming the jackpot along the way. Isn’t thousands of dollars better than hundreds?