Top Texas Holdem Poker Sites

Texas Hold’em poker sites are a dime a dozen these days. You can pretty much find a Texas Hold’em game running on any site. What makes it difficult is to find games that run consistently throughout the day and on a site you know you can trust with your money. Below, we have listed the top Texas Hold’em poker sites available on the market.  The Hold’em poker sites featured on this page spread their games across cash and tournaments and provide tables at a range of buy-ins and formats.

Playing Texas Holdem Online

In his seminal poker strategy book Super/System, Doyle Brunson calls Holdem “tomorrow’s most popular form of Poker.” Well, tomorrow is here; and Texas Holdem is – as Doyle predicted – the most popular game offered at poker sites by far. Why this swift rise to popularity?

For one, Holdem is a game of action. Indeed, Brunson thinks that Holdem has “more multi-way action than any other game.” He’s right, and this is especially the case at Texas Holdem poker sites. Live games can’t hold a candle to the thrill of playing online.   But it’s not all about the rush. The strategic components of Holdem are incredibly complex, and require dedicated study to master. In this article, we’ll look at the two main weapons you’ll use to crush your opponents: position and aggression.

Position in Texas Holdem: Overview

Nothing is as important in No Limit Holdem as position. Every winning player knows how to maximize his positional advantage, and most players’ winrates depend on how well they play in position. But don’t take it from me. Take it from Doyle himself: “If I had position all night, I could beat the game… and I’d never have to look at my hole-cards.” Beat the Texas Holdem poker sites without looking at your cards? It sounds too good to be true.

But it is true, and here’s why. When you’re in position, you’re privy to more information than your opponents. The advantage of this is twofold:

1. You can make sounder decisions, since there’s less guesswork involved on your part. If an opponent Under The Gun bets before you, and a player in Middle Position re-raises immediately after, you’ve got a good idea of what’s going on and can act accordingly. Players in early position aren’t afforded this luxury.
2. You can force your opponents to make marginal decisions by betting. For example if a player in Middle Position limps to you preflop, you can raise the action and force him to make a tough decision. He’ll either be forced to play a hand he wasn’t comfortable raising with in a big pot, or he’ll be forced to throw away his hand. Either way, you win.

So when you’re in position, your cards are less important than how you respond to your opponents’ actions. Hence why Doyle doesn’t care about his cards in position!

 How to Maximize your Positional Advantage

You can use a positional advantage in Holdem in three main ways: to exploit preflop limpers, to steal the blinds, and to 3-bet weak opponents.

1. Exploit preflop limpers. When a player limps to you from early position, he usually has a weak hand. That means you can raise heavy and wide from late position. Betting will force the limper to make a decision: call the raise with weak holdings, or fold and give up the pot. Neither of these actions is optimal for your opponent, and you make money off both plays.  
2. Steal the blinds often. Sometimes your opponents will fold to you preflop. When this happens, you want to steal the blinds as often as you can. If the players in the blinds are nitty or tight, you can raise almost any two cards profitably from the button; it’s more likely than not both of the blinds will fold. Although you’ll only win small pots by doing this, they add up.
3. 3-bet weak raisers. If you’re playing micro or small stakes, you’ll often run into players who open too many pots preflop. You want to 3-bet these guys with a wide range, since their raises are often bluffs. When you 3-bet, your maniacal opponent will be forced to call and play a marginal hand, fold and give up his bet, or re-raise with strong holdings. In all of these cases, you gain both money and information.

Aggression at Texas Holdem Poker Sites: Overview

19th century British statesman Benjamin Disraeli once said that “action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” If we replace “action” with “betting” and “happiness” with “money,” the statement applies perfectly to poker: betting may not always bring money, but there is no money without betting.

Hence why you need to bet aggressively and relentlessly in order to win on Texas Holdem poker sites. If you scan your opponents at an average Holdem table, you’ll find they play a passive game.  They call way too much and bet way too little. Hence why those average players consistently lose at poker.

In order to exploit your opponents’ tendencies towards passivity, pump up the value! If you know a player will call when you’ve got a great hand, don’t wait – fire away.

Maximizing Profits from Aggression in Holdem

Let’s formulate a few rules that will help us maximize our profits from aggression at Texas Holdem poker sites.

1. Never limp preflop!

Except in very rare cases, limping preflop is throwing your money away. Why? Simple: if your hand has value, you’re giving it up by not betting; and if your hand isn’t good enough to bet, you’re wasting money by entering the hand.

1. Always bet when you figure to be better off than your opponent.

If you’ve got a hand like AA, KK, or QQ, BET! Don’t worry about a bet scaring off an opponent. If your opponent will fold to a bet, he wasn’t going to hand you a big pot anyway; and if you give your opponent a free flop, you’re passing on value and helping him outdraw you. When you’re in the lead, just bet.

1. Always bet when you think your opponent will fold.

If everyone has folded to you on the button, you’re in a great position to steal the blinds. If you know there’s a good chance both players to your left will fold, BET! It doesn’t matter what cards you’ve got, since your opponents will fold often enough to make a bet profitable. When you’ve got some fold equity, fire away.