Pre-Flop Is Not Something You Wear On Your Feet

Your tolerance for risk depends on your playing style. You may want to play more or less aggressively using pre-flop. Players who prefer to play for the larger pots and don’t mind a higher chance for losing a few more hands will raise. Some Texas hold'em players prefer to be selective using pre-flop while winning a hand less often. It really depends on how you prefer to play Texas hold'em, and knowing the odds.

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For example, you have Queen-Ten, no-suit and decide to remain in the hand. The player after you raises, and all the other players fold. What do you do? The odds favor the other player has the better hand. If they have an ace, king, or cards hidden in the pocket to create any pair, knowing the odds would favor them for the winning hand. You can either call again remaining in the hand risking a loss (going into the flop), or you can fold and take the loss. On the other hand if you are on the button, you could fold and let the blinds fight it out, or you could call and play the flop to see what happens. Many Texas hold'em players would raise because they could steal the blinds. Even if they didn’t steal the blinds, they would still play before you for the rest of the hand. The only reason to raise in this situation would be to gain a more favorable position.

Knowing the odds or playing the chances is a huge factor when you play Texas hold'em. Players determine their actions by calculating the odds in their favor. What are the odds at the time of finishing a flush or a straight depending on the odds? What are your chances of drawing an over card? What is the percentage of times you would choose to flop in comparison to the number of times you fold due to a bad hand and the showing cards? . Knowledge of the odds is the key to winning.