There are numerous poker strategies designed to help you beat your opponents and walk away from the table with a stack of chips in your pocket. However, these strategies are geared towards multi-table tournaments or cash games, which are played against other players. In Live Dealer Casino Hold’em, the rules are similar, but the process is a little different and these strategies simply won’t work.
A top Hold’em player can adapt quickly, though, and you can also learn the ropes quickly even if you have never play Hold’em before. Just be sure to keep the following tips in mind:
1. Understand the Hand Values - Poker hand values are the same across most variants, from Stud to Draw and Hold’em. If you learn the strongest and weakest hands, you can prepare yourself for Live Dealer Hold’em and many other poker games.
For instance, a Flush is better than a Straight, a Full House is better than a Flush, and it’s always Ace high.
2. Learn Expected Value - Expected Value (EV) is something that all professional poker players learn and something that many of them can calculate off the top of their head. It can seem complicated at first, but a lot of it comes down to basic mathematics and common sense.
As an example, let’s imagine that you’re waiting for a final card to be drawn and you need that card to be a 6 to complete a straight. Without it, you have a weak hand that is just 5 high and will certainly lose; with it, you have what will likely be the winning hand.
Depending on the cards drawn, your odds of landing that card could be around 5%, or 20 to 1. If there is $500 in the pot and the bet is just $5, it makes sense. You’re betting 100th of the pot for an outcome that is 20 to 1. The risk is high, but the reward far outweighs it. However, if the bet is $500 then you’re doubling the pot and the risk outweighs the return considerably.
3. Bankroll Properly - Poker players have their own style, tells, and preferences. Some prefer big tournaments; some prefer cash games. But for all the differences, there is one thing that they all have in common: Bankrolling.
A bankroll is basically a gambling budget, an amount that you can afford to lose and an amount that you don’t increase unless you win money. Maintaining a bankroll helps to keep losses to a minimum and ensures that you don’t get caught-up in the action and start gambling more than you can afford.