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Dr Carnasis's Texas Hold'em Strategy and Tips:

Poker, namely Texas Hold'em Poker is my favorite game. I am not a fish by any means but I am not the best at the game either. I have some pretty poor strategies I learned from playing in home games and I believe I am actually a worse player than I was when I didn't know anything. I am not going to go into the basics of the game, there is thousand of websites and books on this subject but like Golf is my father's favorite game, Texas Hold'em is mine.

Hold'em Poker is a game of concentration and of facts, there is no room for assumption, presumption or fear. Though some would disagree with me, I find I do best when I just follow logic and strategy. Now there is some confusion on what I call facts. Facts are not always emperial, a fact is like in chess I can create a trap and it will work 9 out of 10 times, but there is always that 1 time where someone will figure away out of it or actually have a hand worth playing. I feel good though when I pull off a trap and rake in the chips.

So here is Dr.Carnasis's Texas Hold'em Strategy and Tips:

The goal is to take as many chips as possible without losing any chips of your own. Do not play every hand, only play hands you are confident in winning.

Best combinations (suited and not suited): AA AK AQ AJ KK KQ KJ QQ QJ JJ.

Second best combinations are any face card and kicker which are suited, any suited connector (example: 10♠9♠ or 4♥,5♥).

Alright so these are the hands you have before the flop. I hold the strategy of check raising and this means that on what most people would raise, I would check or call. In the reverse, I will raise on certain hands which most people would check. So here are the following scenario's in which I would check or raise: I would check AA AK KK QQ off the flop and call any bets made; I would raise before the flop JJ.

Now depending on the Flop, I will bet or check.

Now here is a hint, unless you have a gut feeling your card is coming, look at the flop and play off the flop. So an example of this would be. You are dealt Q♣ 10♣ and nobody raised on the flop, depending on your place from the dealer, watch to see if anyone checks or raises and if they raise stare them down to make sure they were not check raising before the flop. So let us say that nobody bets on the flop, you need to steal the blind. Now do not steal the blind if you don't have it, but you cannot let the turn or river come up because nobody has a hand. So the flop comes up Q♠ 9♣ 3♥, you have the winning hand on the table. It doesn't matter if someone has an A♣ 9♠, you have the winning hand with a pair of Queens over his pair of nines. Now do not bet all in, bet double to triple the blind, it will remove all those who are chicken on the hand but it won't put you broke if someone has a K♥Q♥ because they have a higher kicker than you. However by this time you are hoping that anyone with any high non-paired card has folded. Chances are they did.

Next the flop turns a 8♣. Now you look at your outs. You have a pair of Queens but have a flush draw and now even a straight draw showing up. By pot and match odds, you have a 70% chance of winning this just by the cards themselves. Now of course everyone will realize that you are running for a straight or flush, so I would check to see what the other players are doing or go confident hoping that you get a Jack or club. So I would redo the same bet as I did before the turn. It will knock out most people, but that guy with K♥Q♥ he won't raise you however, because he is thinking you might have hit your straight or have an Ace Queen (a higher kicker).

Now the River comes up an A♥ missing your flush and straight. This is where observation becomes part of the game. Did the guy with the K♥Q♥ fold his hand before? Has he ever been caught in his bluff? If you know he won't call you when he thinks you might have the Ace, I would bet triple the last bet confidently, I would pause for a moment so that the player can see what is playing and then smilingly I would raise because no matter what calling or checking will force my loss. I have only one play to make. He would not call that knowing you have the Ace but he might. That is why I said sometimes the trap doesn't work if the guy has a good hand. Though this person will notice that his pair of queens cannot play against an ace.

Anyways, I usually make it to the top 20 in most poker games and in private games I am usally first or second place.

Well I have more to say about this, but I would love to hear anyone's comments because the last tip I find to be the best is, there are many ways to play the game. There is no single strategy that works and the more strategies you have the more chances of winning you get.