The most basic Texas Hold'em strategies are solid starting hand selection, paying attention to your seat position at the table, knowing when to 'chase' a hand, and bluffing.

Obviously, when playing Texas Hold'em poker a pair of hole cards that either are, or could turn into solid poker hand is the best place to start. Two starting hands that get players into trouble are two suited cards and an Ace anything combination.

When your two hole cards are suited they have the potential of becoming a flush by the end of the hand. However, playing two cards just because they are suited often isn't a good idea. The problem is twofold; first you may not make the flush, and even if you do make it you may not have the best flush by the end of the hand. Having the second best hand at the table is worse than finding 2-7 off-suit as your hole cards. At least it's more expensive.

The other common starting hand mistake is playing an Ace with any other card. The problem here is that if the second card in your hand is not the same suit as the Ace it won't help grow your hand into a powerful Ace high flush. And if your second card is not strong and an Ace lands on the board that second card may be called into play as the tie-breaking "kicker" card. If it comes up short you'll be second best again, so before you play A-7 off-suit again, think about what may happen at the showdown.

As well as playing only solid starting hands being aware of your position at the table is very important as well. The basic rule in position play is the last player to act has the greatest advantage. The last player to act has two advantages; 1) they get to see how strongly players feel about their cards by their betting patterns, and 2) they also know how many people are competing for the pot before they have to make a decision. Remember that the player acting first is at the biggest disadvantage. The larger the number of players that get to bet after you the more strongly you have to feel about your cards to justify betting.

Here is an example of how position play is an advantage. You are holding A-10 in your pocket, not the best cards but not the worst either. The flop turns up A-Q-3. During the round of betting that follows the first player checks, the second player checks, and then as you are in last position it is your turn to act. Though nothing is guaranteed, the odds are pretty good that you have the only Ace. You know this by observing the bets of the two players in front of you. If the first player bet and the second player raised you should think that perhaps yours is not the only Ace, or someone may have two pair or three of a kind. How you play this hand is up to you, but it illustrates how by being the last to act you get to see how the other players bet before you need to act, and how you can form an opinion about their hands.

Another basic Texas Hold'em skill is deciding when you should 'chase' a hand and when not to. Chasing cards is the term used when a player has an incomplete hand after the flop (such as four of a suit, or four cards in sequence) and decides to stay in hoping to complete the straight or flush. These hands are called 'drawing hands' because you will need to draw another card to complete them.

The very least you should know about drawing hands is that to complete the most common ones (drawing to an open-ended straight or a flush) the odds of landing your card are roughly one in five. How is this helpful? Simple, when you have to bet to see the next card make sure you aren't paying too much to see it.

When the pot amount (including the bet you are being asked to make) is at least five times the bet, you will be ahead in the long run making the bet. The odds are against you making the flush or straight, but when you do you'll win a big pot as a reward, big enough to pay for taking the risk. When the pot value is less than five times the bet, it is not big enough to justify taking the risk of betting to see the next card.

For example, assume you have four hearts and need to pay $2 to see the next card. If the pot is at least $10 (and remember to count your bet in with it also, so $9 in the pot + my $2 bet will make it $11) I'll pay to see it. If the pot was smaller, say $4, "chasing" that flush would be a bad move, the pot simply isn't big enough to justify taking the risk and making the bet. This concept of comparing the odds of making your hand with the amount you stand to win is called 'Pot Odds'. This is only a basic look at pot odds, but just knowing this much will help you keep chips in your stack that might have been spent chasing cards that weren't worth chasing.

The last basic Texas Hold'em strategy to look at is the art of bluffing. Two things to keep in mind when thinking about bluffing: 1) bluffing at low-limit tables is usually not worth the time, with so little at risk people are much too likely to call your bet and find out you have nothing and 2) remember you need to fool everyone with a bluff, if a single person is not fooled you've given your chips away for nothing. So, no bluffing at the low-limit tables and no bluffing at pots when many players are involved.

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