Learning how to win money playing Texas Holdem can be a long process. Some people never reach this level and keep on playing sometimes for years without ever turning into a winning player. They play for the entertainment value, like bingo players, hoping that luck will be on their side. And usually, they play too lose.

As a tight-aggressive player, you will throw away many more hands than you ever play. Count on playing no more than two to four hands an hour when you sit at a poker table at a casino. If you are currently playing more than that, you are playing way too many hands. Get set to play the long game. If you do you will see an increase in your stack. It can be frustrating to throw away hand after hand but it is something that you must do. Patience is the first tip.

Read everything that you can on the subject. In most of the material, you will be advised that playing too predictably, or by the book, is a bad habit. You must develop a style that suits your personality but one that keeps you in the winner’s column.

Before you even set down to the table you should have a plan. Know at what time into the play you will alter your style. Know how much you are willing to invest in the game. Know how much you have already invested in the game such as gas, food, travel time, etc. Keep a running account. Write it down as soon as you can. Your poker plan must also include a list of hands that you are willing to play. It must include if you want to risk getting caught bluffing and how you can use this image later in the game. The plan must also include a bet schedule that you will use depending on your position.

The art of poker has been called the art of raising. If you play, as I do, only a few hands an hour then it is essential to get as much money into the pot as possible when you have a winning hand. There are people who will call any raise even if they could not make a poker hand out of the next ten cards. These people are known as losers. If you do not have a hand after the flop or the possibility of the best hand, then you need to fold your cards and try again the next hand.

You are going to find times when the cards run hot and the cards run cold. It all evens out over the long term. That is why strategy is so important when playing Texas Hold’em. The best Holdem strategy is going to take the money. Nothing is feared more than the unknown. If you can develop a strategy that is able to shift gears during a game and become so unpredictable that you opponents don’t know what you are going to do, then you will have an edge.

Vary the hands that you are willing to play. Once in a while see the flop with Jack/4 offsuit. Or some other equally bad hand. Do it as cheaply as you can. Remember that playing for the long run means that the cards will equal out over time. Time and hours of play will knock off the high spots and level out the bad runs.

Last but not least if you think that you on the verge of tilting, get out of the game fast. Do something else for a couple of hours. Walk around the block or play craps or Blackjack and come back to the game when you have calmed down. Tilt is probably the main cause of losses in poker, so it is highly recommended to leave the table right away when this occurs so that you can minimize this type of loss and improve your win rate.