Knowing the Table and Being Aware: Texas Hold'em

Strength is a matter of relativity. The meaning of the term itself can change from context to context. In boxing, it's a combination of explosive power, speed and endurance. In Texas Hold'em, on the other hand, strength or strong play is a matter of knowing just what to do, which means knowin what's going on. Texas Hold'em, despite the amount of pressure in any given game, can also be a slow game and slow games tend to draw people into a sort of lull or a relaxed state. This relaxed state is of course, dangerous and detracts for the ever important situational awareness.

It is of utmost importance to any Texas Hold'em player to realize that the game is never the same. No two hands are ever exactly the same. Even if the same cards are dealt out to the same people and even if they have the same amount of money, having it happen twice will still result in two entirely different outcomes. The most striking example of this is the way that your hole cards in Texas Hold'em radically change in value the moment the flop decides to rear its ugly head.

Let us then hypothesize that you are in a game against two highly aggressive, tight players. They haven't let up on the pressure over the last few rounds and seem to be sticking to tight aggressive play. You're in a tournament and the blinds have gotten uncomfortably high - mistakes can easily cost you the rest of the tournament. If they both check, due to the fact that they are tight aggressive players, you could theorize that perhaps they have drawing hands. This is, strategically, the time to step in and attempt to either steal the blinds or push them out before those drawings hands could turn into made hands. Raising changes the scenario, in that their tight aggressive play heavily suggests that you should bet warily.

Changing the way the people act in that scenario could change the overall worth of your hole cards in a way you may not have considered. It cannot be overstressed how psychological and situational Texas Hold'em play is. Had those two players in the aforementioned example been loose aggressive players, you would have needed to act differently. The fact is, that you cannot just rely on repetition or pre-programmed responses to carry the day for you. You need to pay attention to how the current Texas Hold'em round is going and make sure that whatever you do, you do it according to your current position in the game.