Hold'em Tips on No-Limit Showdowns

No-limit often has a strategy of stealing the pot by bluffing tight players. However, beware of the showdown at the river.

Among good Hold'em tips in no-limit is to note how many hands end up in showdowns. With online no-limit, this shouldn't be a problem—just watch how players have been playing their hands in the chat room to see how many hands have gone to showdowns. Through this, we can also draw a mental figure of how big pots in the site can grow.

Basically in no-limit poker, the more showdowns, the better. It's great bluffing when all players call us with weak holdings, but it's different if they have better hands and they all call us down. With strong hands, all we have to do in no-limit is let players call our bluff down so that the pot gets big enough when we finally hit a good holding with a flush or a set.

Thus, this calls for a good hand play. Among good hold'em tips here is that in no-limit we have to consider the value of the hand we're playing. Those that increase value are pocket pairs or connectors of the same suit. Pocket pairs are kind of shifty and work well even under pressure. Thus, with stable hands, we can withstand the pressure of calls. Pocket pairs enable us to bet all we want when we have a good set or even just an over-pair—which are often unexpected by other players.

With showdowns, we're better off having hands with increasing values. Like suited connectors, for instance, as when we have 7 and 6 of spade, and the opponent has an ace and king unsuited, and the flop reveals an ace, 7, and 6 unsuited. With such flop, we're likely to get something. This flop is better than if it were, say, an ace, 7, and 2. Then you can get this better, take pots down, by engaging in a little bluffing. So, if we have suited connectors 6 and 7 while the board has jack, 5, and 4 unsuited, others might see the jack if we bet this time. This may make them fold or call and we take the pot down when the flop happens or draw to a hand.

In no-limit, showdowns are good, but we have to pay attention to the strength of our hand. Hold'em tips say hands with increasing value are best for playing so that come showdown, we really have something to show for it.