No-Limit Texas Holdem Strategy Tips:

Preflop:

1. don't fight big reraises
2. don't get over-committed with bad hand
3. stay away from trouble hands in a raised pot (KQ, AJ, etc)
4. build a big pot with a big hand (AA, KK, QQ, AKs; AK, AQ, JJ, TT in position)
5. isolate with reasonable hands only
6. frequently slow play AA more first in with mid-small stack
7. sometimes, slow play AA-QQ from blinds against "stealer"
8. sometimes, slow play AA-QQ in position against 1 raiser, for value and deception
9. usually raise less after limpers with big pairs than big cards
10. min-reraise (sometimes OOP) is generally weak

Flop:

1. OOP in big pot, over pair in scare board, play safe. try not to lose big stack in messy flop
2. when flop good on baby board HU in POS, check behind as non-aggro (hope for good turn for opponent)
3. sometimes, with AK flopping A out of position, bet-n-stop to induce big turn "bluff"
4. don't invest too much to win small pots, even with a OK hand
5. sometimes, when flop trip, use stop-n-go
6. avoid losing too much when AK misses
7. as the re-raiser, c-bet flop, not turn
8. rarely, bet into HU weak raiser with cinch, c/r him. but do bet into strong hand
9. bet big into strong hands with very big hand to build pot

Reading Opponents:

1. fold one pair hand if bet big and get raised on flop (when deep)
2. if opponent bets weakly after scare card, he mostly ready to fold
3. if opponent betting out of position, they are usually strong, especially if the pot is multiway
4. if opponent bets weakly after you call his raise, he is probably ready to fold to a big raise
5. if aggro lead big into multi-way, it means he has big hand, min-raise him with 2-pair+ HU, but be cautious with 1-pair hands
6. small re-raise followed by small c/bet = weak - c/r him and bet turn
7. aggression elevate is usually very strong
8. check/raise against aggressor means great strength, be careful
9. think a little in big bet situation

Facing big raise:

1. have i acted strong thus far?
2. am i strong enough to beat a hand that beats a strong hand?
3. does his bet look like he wants a call?
4. does his bet look like he fears a raise?

Getting Value:

1. don't raise (or too much) donk bet with set
2. GET THE MONEY IN when your hand is strong! (trip w good kicker, set, top two pair, or complete hands)

General Rules:

1. draw as cheaply as possible in a raised pot
2. when board develops for others, don't overbet (or "protect your hand")
3. check behind with a vulnerable made hand HU to reduce risk
4. don't slow play 1 pair hand OOP
5. in big pot with big stack - protect the stack

Bluffing:

1. avoid spending too much stealing
2. avoid bluffing too frequently
3. rarely bluff on the river, instead, bluff on turn if opportunity presents
4. avoid bluffing with too much money
5. avoid bluffing opponents that display strength
6. delayed bluff-raise in small pot doesn't work well
7. semi bluff best starts on flop
8. never bluff when tilt (or tilt image)

Play games through corporate firewall on Windows XP:

If you ever tried to play an online game at work, you have probably already found out that you can't. Luckily, I have spend some time and got it working and here is what I had to do.

1. Set up a Windows server outside of the firewall, ie. your home computer (connected to the internet).
2. Install a SSH server such as OpenSSH, a copy of it can be found here.

• 2a. take all default settings
• 2b. follow \OpenSSH\docs\readme.txt directions to set up groups, and passwords
• 2c. edit the \OpenSSH\etc\sshd_config to change the listening port to 443

3. Install SSH client (I prefer PuTTY because it works well on Windows and it supports proxy)