• Texas Holdem Poker Board Game
• Texas Holdem Poker Best Hand

However, there are 1,326 different starting poker hands in Texas Holdem, and even 270,725 poker hand variations in Pot Limit Omaha. While there are many different starting hands options in various games, the winning hand is determined by poker hand rankings consisting only of 10 options. When is the kicker used to determine the winning poker hand? The games are intended for an adult audience. The games do not offer 'real money gambling' or an opportunity to win real money or prizes. Practice or success at social casino gaming does not imply future success at 'real money gambling.'

Table Of Contents

Gareth James is a tournament poker player, author, coach, content creator and streamer.

He currently grinds the off-peak Sunday schedule over on Twitch and you can find his regular strategy content, for free, over on Youtube.

I'll start this article off by saying I love Holdem Resources Calculator (HRC). I've used it for many years and regularly recommend it to my students.

However, recently I've seen some content from well-known, respected poker players, authors and streamers who seem to be suggesting that it can give you good opening ranges and responses to those ranges including good, solid BB defence strategies and I'm a bit concerned.

Mainly because I know that HRC cannot do these things as it doesn't factor in equity realisation.

HRC is great and I use it regularly, but definitely not for working out opening ranges or response ranges.

In this article I'm going to just focus on BB defence at 20bb and compare the results of both Holdem Resources Calculator and Simple Preflop Holdem.

READ MORE:7 Tips to Take Your Poker Game From 'Meh' to Amazing

What is Equity Realisation?

First let's talk about equity realisation, what it is and how we know HRC doesn't use it.

Equity realisation is how much of the pot a hand can expect to make (as a percentage) based on raw equity AND many other postflop variables including, but not limited to:

• Whether you're in or out of position
• The type of hand you have (a suited hand like 76s will realise equity better than K2o for example)
• The skill level of your opponent (e.g. will they find enough aggressive moves that will prevent you from seeing turn and river cards?)

The key thing here is the fact that it relies on postflop variables.

Now even if we take out the skill level of your opponent, it will hopefully be clear already that in order for a solver to solve properly, it will need to factor in these postflop variables.

Sadly, HRC does not. It essentially believes that after the final preflop action where neither player is all in (so there is an opportunity for postflop betting to take place) the hand just gets checked to showdown, something which rarely happens or at least is rarely strategically optimal.

Putting Theory into Practice

Let me give you an example. Nine players at the table, everyone has 20bb, the blinds are 0.5bb/1bb with an ante of 0.13bb and it folds around to the BTN who opens for a minraise.

For this example, I've run an advanced hand where I've edited the range for the BTN to see what Holdem Resources Calculator suggests the BB can call and 3-bet jam versus this open.

This is the result:

As you can see it's suggesting playing 100% of hands: calling 81.8% and 3-bet jamming 18.2%. Now you could be the best player in the world postflop, but I still don't think you're going to be able to play 72o well enough where it's actually going to make money as a call.

So what's going on here?

When the BTN opens for a minraise there are 4.67BBs in the middle and it costs the BB just 1BB to call. Thus, they're getting 4.67:1 odds which is about 17.6%.

As you can see, every single hand has enough equity to make the call here, which is why HRC is suggesting playing 100% of hands.

72o, though, does a really poor job at realising equity. In order to profitably call, you would have to realise more than 60% of your equity with 72o, something that just isn't going to happen.

READ MORE:What Is Real-Time Assistance (RTA)? Is it Legal?

Button vs Big Blind

To better illustrate this point, here's a table of selected hands for this spot 20bb BTN vs BB to look at how different hands do at realising equity, sorted by those that realise the best. For a hand to be a profitable call the equity x equity realization has to be higher than 17.6%.

Now all of the hands in this table will make the grade, simply because I only included profitable hands in the BB defence range when running the reports in Piosolver in the first place.

The key thing to focus on here is how some hands do better than others at realising equity. Suited hands will always do better than their offsuit counterparts.

Connected hands will always do better than unconnected hands. K4o, while having a lot more raw equity than 32s, does a lot worse in terms of equity realisation.

Simple Preflop Holdem

So if HRC doesn't give us a usable solution, how do we solve this problem?

Enter... Simple Preflop Holdem.

Simple Preflop Holdem is a preflop solver that factors in equity realisation by considering some of the postflop variables we discussed earlier - namely postflop betting and position.

I've used exactly the same opening range for the BTN and once again given the BB the options to 3-bet jam, call or fold. Here's the result from Simple Preflop Holdem this time:

Let's take a look at the calling and 3-bet jamming strategies side by side for comparison.

As you can see there are some big differences, mainly with suited hands. Simple Preflop Holdem does a lot more calling with suited broadways and suited Aces, hands that HRC likes to jam, but then just folds hands like 94o, 93o and 73o, which HRC likes as a call.

Again there are some differences here. Simple Preflop Holdem likes to jam the weaker offsuit Ax hands more frequently, but then flats hands like AA, QTs and T7s that HRC likes to jam.

What Simple Preflop Holdem is essentially doing here is telling us that it believes it's a higher EV play to just call Aces than it is to jam and the same goes for other hands like KQs, A5s and T7s.

You can clearly see equity realisation being utilised here to give a better strategy where the EV of both lines are compared and the better one is recommended.

In Conclusion

HRC is good for many things, especially push/fold in cEV and $EV situations at 8bb and under, but it can't give you solid BB defence strategies that you can use in your own game so please don't use it for that.

When we think about which hands to flat and which hands to 3-bet jam, we should always be thinking about which line will generate the higher EV.

We also need to make sure we're making +EV decisions in the first place and not blindly following the HRC readout and calling with 72o and 94o.

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In Texas Hold’em, the person who starts or goes first is dependent on what stage of the hand being played. Before the flop, the first person to act is the player seated directly to the left of the Big Blind. This seat is often referred to as Under The Gun (UTG). After the flop, the first person to act is the player seated in the Small Blind (SB) position. Thereafter, the order stays the same for the rest of the hand through the Flop, Turn, and River.

What Is the Exact Order of Play?

The order of play is based on how the players are seated at the table. There are typically 6 seat names in poker. UTG (also known as first position) is divided up into multiple seats (UTG, UTG+1, UTG+2) for games larger than 6-handed.

Here is what a 6-max poker table looks like. In the chart, the seats are called Under The Gun (UTG), the Hijack (HJ), the Cutoff (CO), the Button (BTN), the Small Blind (SB), and the Big Blind (BB).

Pre-Flop Order

Before the flop, the last player to act is always the Big Blind.

On a 6-handed table, the order of play would be UTG, HJ, CO, BTN, SB, BB. Once the first player acts, play continues around the table in a clockwise fashion until it reaches the Big Blind, who acts last on the first round.

On a 9-handed table, the order of play would be that the UTG starts followed by UTG+1, UTG+2, UTG+3, HJ, CO, BTN, SB, BB.

Post-Flop Order

On the Flop, Turn, and River, the last player to act is always the Button.

Accordingly, on a 6-handed table, the post-flop order of play would be the SB starts followed by the BB, UTG, HJ, CO, and BTN.

Are There Any Exceptions?

The post-flop order never changes. However, the pre-flop order of play can be slightly altered if there is a player who straddles. A straddle is when the player seated just to the left of the Big Blind (usually UTG) posts a double big blind bet in front of him prior to the cards being dealt.

Essentially, he is buying the right to act last before the flop. In the case of a straddle, the person seated just to the left of the “straddler,” goes first pre-flop once the straddle has been wagered.

Texas Holdem Poker Board Game

What Is the Dealing Order?

The first person to act after the flop is also the first person to receive a card; the small blind. The easy way to remember this is that the dealer must always deal clockwise to his or her left.

Who Goes First in Heads-Up Play?

The pre-flop order also changes in a heads-up match. Instead of the Button acting last before the flop, he or she acts first instead. The easy way to remember it is that the Big Blind always goes last before the flop. And, in the case of heads up, the Button is the Small Blind, and therefore acts before the Big Blind player.

During post-flop, nothing changes heads up. The button still acts last, even though technically he or she is the Small Blind.

Dealing Order For Heads-Up Play

In heads-up play, the Big Blind is dealt to first and the Button 2nd. The button always receives the last card when dealing no matter how many players are seated at the table.

What’s the Order of Play Three-Handed?

Texas Holdem Poker Best Hand

The same rules apply whether there are 3 players or 10. Before the flop, the player to act first is just to the left of the big blind. In the case of three-handed play, that would be the button. After the flop, the small blind acts first as always.

Who Bets First?

After the flop and before action is opened, any player can perform one of two actions. They can either bet or check. Of course, the person who acts first has the first option to bet.

When Does a Poker Hand End?

There are a couple of ways that a poker hand can end. First, someone can bet and all the other players fold. This can happen on any street. The second time a hand can end is when the action closes on the river and showdown is achieved. In the latter case, all live hands are revealed and the winner is determined.

Who Shows Their Cards First at Showdown?

Once the hand has ended on the river and showdown has been achieved, the order that each player reveals their hand is exactly the same as the post-flop betting order. The first person to reveal is always the first person to the left of the Dealer and the last person to reveal is the player on the button.

Of course, if a player only has to show their hand if they want to. Many players will choose to “muck” or throw away their hand instead of showing if they are sure they have no chance of winning the hand at showdown. This is sometimes a wise choice in order to not give away information about your hand.

Is It Better to Act First or Last?

Being in position (acting last) is much better than being out of position (acting first) in poker. Poker is an informational game and the person that gets to act last has more information than everyone else. I wrote a detailed article on position; check it out for more details.

What Is the Best Position at a Poker Table?

Since we have established that acting last is most advantageous in poker, the Button would be the best seat at the table. However, in reality, the seat name is irrelevant, as long as you are acting last. Therefore, let me refine my definition slightly: the best seat in poker is any seat that has you acting last in the current hand on the current street. For example, if it is blind versus blind after the flop, then the player in the Big Blind has the best seat possible for that hand.

Why Is It Called the Dealer Button?

When poker began the players had to deal the cards. In order for everyone to get equal opportunity to share the burden of dealing, the moving dealer button was born. Today, in casinos and even in some home games, there are dedicated dealers to speed up play, enforce the rules, and lessen the likelihood of cheating.

Why Do the Blinds Act Last Before the Flop?

The exact reason that the blinds act last before the flop has been lost to history. However, one could deduce that the reasoning is simple. Since the blinds are the only players to pay to play a particular hand, it only makes sense that they should be rewarded by being given an informational advantage via acting last. This theory is bolstered by the existence of “straddles” where one can essentially “buy” position before the flop.

Who Goes First in Pot Limit Omaha?

There is no difference between Texas Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) when it comes to the order of play. In fact, the order of play is the same for every poker game that has two blinds and a dealer button.