Texas Holdem is a great card game with many intricate plays and strategies, here we will review and explain the various winning strategies and how and when you should be using them.  Don't be a calling station, put a play on someone...

The Slow play is a useful tool to extract maximum value from a hand against an over-aggressive player.  Slow playing is when you check or cold call while holding a very strong hand.  You are feigning weakness to encourage one of your opponents to bluff at the pot, or give them an opportunity to improve their hand so that will call your larger bets on later streets. 

Slow playing is generally wrong.  The exception is when you flop monster hands or are playing against one or more opponents who are inclined to bluff frequently when someone checks to them and are also likely to follow through on the bluff betting into later rounds.  The reason slow playing is often wrong is that occasionally your opponents will disappoint you by not betting at the hand thereby keeping the pot small and making them less likely to call river bets.  Slow playing should be reserved for situations where you make a very strong hand that is very unlikely to be outdrawn.  You should not be slow playing hands like two pair or trips frequently as by giving other players free cards they might make a better hand cheaply and you will end up losing a very large pot. 

Slow playing can be very effective when by checking once or twice you can have an opponent absolutely convinced you do not have a particular hand, especially if this leads them to over commit to the pot. 

Semi Bluffing is a far more profitable and useful tool then stone cold bluffing. The key difference is that a semi-bluff refers to a bet made where you are probably behind at this point in the hand but have a decent chance to improve to the best hand.  While a bluff would refer to betting when you think you have the worst hand with little or no chance for improvement. Bluffing often takes place on the river, while semi-bluffing is more common on the flop or turn. What makes semi-bluffing so profitable is that you are effectively combining the chances of your opponent folding right now and your winning the current pot uncontested with your chances of being called and improving to have the best hand.  By putting in a semi-bluff you are inflating the size of the pot for later rounds, ensuring that if you do hit your draw there will be money in the pot making it hard for your opponent to avoid paying off your made hand.  If you miss your hand completely you are to fold to a river bet saving those additional bets.  Semi-bluffs can also often result in free cards, particularly if you are betting from late position on the flop.  Even if you do not improve on the turn there is a good chance your opponent  will check to you, allowing you to check behind them and see the river for free.

Choosing an Appropriate betting line is perhaps the most integral aspect of playing big bet poker.  It is the very flexible to determine how much you want to bet that makes these games so intricate and skillful.  As a general rule an appropriate opening bet pre-flop is 3-5 times the big blind.  This will vary depending on the table and you should always be watching your game to see what the "table bet" is.  You'll notice that quite commonly players fall into a rhythm where they are all consistently opening for around the same amount.  It is a good habit to match this raise as it is usually an innocuous amount and will provide decent camouflage while still accomplishing your two primary goals when betting: Getting money into the pot when you have the best of it.  &  Limiting the players contesting the pot with you. Rarely make a raise of only a single blind, you will be giving the big blind excellent odds to beat your hand.  He will be getting odds of 3.5 -1 on this call and there is almost no hand in holdem that is this large an underdog.
 
Post-Flop there are two popular betting lines and each has its advantages.  Post flop we can add a third goal behind our betting: Ensuring that players who are drawing are not getting pot odds to play the hand profitably. For this reason bets should generally be between half to the full size of the pot.  By making a pot sized bet you are giving poor odds on almost any drawing hand.  This betting line also has the best chance of stacking an opponent without your having to result to an outlandish overbet.  Consult the charts below for an overview of some common betting lines. 

*All charts assume one player (not one of the blinds) calls your bet on each betting round.  Final pot size counts all money put in the pot (roughly half is profit/your opponents stack) and all amounts are given in big blinds. Most cash games will have most players at or around 100BB.  Any betting line listed below that results in more then 200BB in the pot by the end can be one where it is safe to assume all of the money went into the pot.

A bluff is when you make a bet with a hand that you think would not win at showdown in the hopes that your opponent(s) will fold.  In No Limit poker knowing when to bluff is extremely important.  Put into context many beginning players would do better by never bluffing then continuing to bluff too often and bluffing at the incorrect times.  In full ring games bluffing is usually done post-flop as the blinds are inconsequential when compared to the size of each players stack.  In SNG's and tournaments bluffing will become vital in the later stages as the blinds increase.  Bluffing is generally more successful against less players, this is primarily because the more players involved in a hand the more likely one of them has made a powerful hand they will not fold to any sized bet.

Cash Games
In early betting rounds, Pre-flop and flop, you should never be making large bets on outright bluffs.  Pre-flop raises should be made when you have hands that are likely to be best right now or stand a good chance of improvement.  On the flop or river bluffs are best made when you are last to act or in late position and other players have checked or made small/weak bets.  Whenever you bluff you always make a bet at least 3/4 the size of the pot, with any other bet you are giving your opponents good odds to draw against you.  Many times bluffs are best made on the river, there are many opponents who will draw against even for large sums of money if they think they have a chance of making a nut hand.  Once the river has been dealt if they have missed they will most often fold.  In many cases you can win with an inferior hand just by betting when they miss this draw they were chasing. 

Tournament Play
Early in tournaments when you table is full bluffing should be limited.  When the blinds are still small this is especially true.  As the blinds grow and there are less players at your table you will have less risk of running into a premium hand that would call your bluff, and since the blinds are bigger you also have more to gain.  For this reason as the play becomes short handed and the blinds are increased you should begin to bluff with greater frequency.  When bluffing in these situations the key aspect is to make bets that will threaten the entire stack of your opponents, or indicate through your bet that you cannot be folded and will show the hand down. You wish to discourage as much as possible another player trying to re-raise you off the pot.  Assuming the blinds are larger then 1/10th of your stack any bet should be All In, this includes outright bluffs.

The vast majority of the time (80%+) you should be making bets that are either in line with the size of the blinds or the pot.  Occasionally though, primarily to keep your opponents off-guard, a large overbet can be a very effective play.  When you overbet you should be holding a nut or near nut hand most of the time while your bluffs should be less conspicuous and more in line with actual pot size.  The reason for this is that overly large bets raise a players natural suspicions that you are bluffing.  It seems contradictory but many times a player will fold to a pot-sized river bet yet the same player in the same spot will call a bet 3-4X the size of the pot.  This is because when your opponent sees the oversized bet his instincts tell him you are trying to take the pot away from him.  He thinks that if you had a good hand you would make a smaller bet to induce his call and a bet this large must mean you really don't want a call.  Do not underestimate the power of this reverse psychology.  This play works particularly well when combined with a loose reckless image. 

On the flip side, making large over-bets with weak or medium strength hands is generally a losing strategy.  Bluffing can be effective but since with a bluff you will never win when called your bluffs must be kept inline with size of the pot to remain profitable... i.e. if you make a pot sized bet your opponent must fold 1/2 the time for the play to be profitable, if you made a bet 2x the size of the pot your opponent must fold 3/4 of the time, at a certain point you would need your opponent to fold to every single river bet for the play to be successful.  To carry this thinking further, you also  do not want to overbet with medium strengths hands primarily because most of your money on medium strength hands come from getting called by weaker hands, this is best accomplished by small value betting as a player is not likely to call a large bet with a weak hand but may call a bet that is very small in relation to the pot or even try a bluff himself.  If your opponents is holding the nuts or a monster hand he is going to call/raise you no matter what so your overbet would only cost you more money in that case...no chance he is folding the nuts.

Floating is a powerful strategy at the mid to upper level NL games, particularly in shorthanded play.  The strategy is only effective at a table or against an opponent with substantial folding equity (in other words you must be playing against players good enough to lay down a hand if they think they are beat).  Basically the play is simple, call on early streets, on the turn or river you make a large raise indicating you caught big or were slow playing a monster to take the pot away from a raiser.  When well executed this can be a powerful play.  Very similar to a bluff the key difference is when bluffing usually you have set up the play by being the aggressor throughout the hand, when floating you flat call or check along feigning a slow play or draw.
 

The stop N go is essentially a tournament play but it can also be used effectively in a fairly short stacked cash game. The reason this play works better under these conditions is because the play is about manipulating the pot to put maximum pressure on your opponent immediately on the flop.  For this to work you have to be able to build a pot worth stealing either with your flat call, or with a raise that stands some chance of folding your opponent post flop.  As the stacks become larger it becomes more and more worthwhile for opponents to stay into a hand to try and complete a big draw, or make a play back at you on the turn or river.  With relatively short stacks your second raise should be the final one, your opponent will be faced with either calling and seeing a showdown, or saving some chips and letting you have the pot.  The Stop N Go is calling a large pre-flop raise cold or making a moderate opening bet instead of pushing all in.  You then go all in on the flop regardless of the outcome.  The play has the advantage of forcing out some hands that would have called you pre-flop once they have missed.  A good example of this is a player making a 1/4 stack bet pre-flop, knowing the player you put him on AK, you flat call with 88 and when the flop comes out blanks you push All In.  He likely would have called pre-flop but will probably fold to your push when he misses. This effectively reduces his chances of winning the hand from a 50/50 to a 75/25 in your favor.  This play can also be done when you are leading the betting.  Say you are dealt 22 and get several limpers, based on the way the table is playing that no matter what raise you make you will get at least one caller but by raising you can definitely thin the field.  So if you were to go all-in here we know you would get called by a wide range of hands by at least one player. Now virtually any hand is at least a coin flip against you and a great many have you dominated.  Instead lets say you put in between 1/3rd and 1/2 of your stack on this bet.  Still an outlandishly large raise that should push most players out, but on this loose table one player stays in.  You now see a flop and push all in regardless of the outcome, now he of course doesn't really know you were going to go all in in with anything and he is now put to a tough decision almost regardless of what flops.  The vast majority of the time your opponent will be holding a very mediocre hand, monsters just don't come around all that often.  By pushing the rest of your chips on the flop you are going to make it a lot harder for him to beat you with pocket fives, or a hand like KQ un-improved on the flop.  Remember if he had a hand like KQ and didn't catch on the flop he still would have caught on the turn or river almost 24% of the time. And if he has a hand like 55 or 77 you may actually get him to fold when the flop comes out K J  8, and here you would have had less then a 1/12 of winning at showdown.  This play can be extremely profitable when used properly but do not over use it as over time you will loose the tight aggressive image that makes it effective and begin to look more like a maniac, once that happens players will stop folding and this play is of no more use.

The Check Raise is a vital tool in a players arsenal.  Correctly used in can add substantially to your profits.  Essentially a check raise is when from an early position you check to the players after you knowing that one of them will make a bet at the pot.  You then make a raise back to them.  This can have several effects, first for any players caught in between you and the initial bettor are now in a very tough spot.  They will probably throw away any marginal holdings and will likely fold even strong draws.  They are almost forced out because even if they call your bet, they cant be certain that the initial bettor wont re-raise YOU, they are stuck in the middle of what could become a raising war.  This makes this a great way to narrow the field regardless of whether you are playing limit, no limit, or pot limit.  In limit holdem it is a vital tool in this regard because there are many players that will stay in for one bet, but consistently fold to two bets, and many of your hands may fair better in a heads up confrontation.   In no limit this can also be a great way to take down a bigger pot then betting out right away would.  A good example would be holding a marginal over-pair after the flop in early position.  There isn't a lot of money in the pot yet and table is pretty aggressive, so you are fairly certain if you just bet out a great many players will call and would possibly improve and take the pot away on the turn, so instead you check letting one of the players in late position make a pot sized bet.  You then go over top of his bet with a pot sized re-raise.  If he doesn't have a very strong hand you will take the pot right here and will have won a much larger pot then had you bet out and everyone had folded.  By checking you allowed an aggressive player to make a bluff at the pot. 

Getting maximum value from your winning hands is what separates profitable players from the long term losers.  Over a long enough time line every player will be dealt the same mix of winning and losing hands, it is your ability to lose as a little as possible with your losing hands and make as much as possible from the winners that will create your profits. Several factors are involved in making a good value bet.  The first consideration is "are there hands that I can beat that will call this hand?" if the the answer to that question is no you should modify your bet.  A small bet that will be consistently called can show more profit then an overbet that goes uncalled a large portion of the time in the long run. 

Rarely bet medium strength hands (hands like a middle pair or the bottom end of a straight) because more often then not you will find the hands you beat fold, and the hands that beat you don't.  It can be profitable to bluff weak hands, and it is almost always profitable to bet strong hands, your medium strength hands are often best checked.  This is particularly important when you are last to act and you are very deep stacked.  You may well be ahead in the hand, and stand to win the pot by just checking and showing your hand, but then by making a small value bet you open the door to one of the players making a very large check-raise that you cant really call.  This type of small bet could end up costing you the whole pot.

As a general rule most average players call far too much,  it is the largest hole in the majority of players games. Weak players often make the mistake of not betting for fear they will drive the other players out of the pot.  Instead the check right to the river, and then out of desperation make a medium to large bet hoping to get paid.  No one will call a river bet if there is no money in the pot unless they themselves have a strong hand.  Do not worry about players folding early and your not getting paid with your over-pair or other medium strong hand. When you are ahead bet.  Do this consistently and your on your path to winning money. By betting early and continuing to bet out you will have many players calling you all the way to the river chasing all kinds of draws. Occasionally you will lose a big hand, but as long as you are only using the value bet when you are holding a strong hand it will work out for you in the long run.  

Texas Holdem is a game that rewards aggression.  For this reason, chances are that the majority of hands you play you will have raised preflop.  By being the player who put in the last raise preflop you have set yourself up as the aggressor.  In a way when you raised or reraised you announced "I have the best hand" and when the other players called you instead of re-raising they tacitly acknowledged this.  In a way they are saying "Ok, you have best hand now, but lets see after the flop..."

A  continuation bet is when you bet out again on the flop, regardless of your hand having improved or not.  The reasoning  behind this is that none of the players raised you pre-flop, there if your hand was ahead then you may still be ahead now.  By betting again on the flop any player that did not improve their hand or pick up a strong draw will probably fold right there.  The majority of hands in holdem are won either preflop or on the flop. 

Continuation bets should be made consistently, primarily to prevent players from seeing the turn and or river for free, and also because there is a very good chance your hand is still best.  You do not want to be so predictable as to C-bet 100% of the time that you raised pre-flop as this would guarantee other players begin to start check-raising and trapping you more often.  Instead it should be done any time the board is not threatening to your hand or a hand has flopped that you believe you can represent effectively.

In poker, especially the online variety, most of your information will come from the betting that occurs over the course of a hand.  Generally over time you are able to identify how a given player will bet or play in a certain situation.  But there will also be times where a player has checked to you, or made a small bet representing a hand and you will be holding a hand that is fairly strong but not good enough to beat a huge hand that is possible.  In this situation you may want to make a small bet to see if the player was slow playing a monster or in the example of the player who bet, just trying to scare you off the hand.  In the event the player has nothing you will probably win the hand right there, if in fact they do have the hand though they make a big bet here or cold call you and hope to get the money in on a later round.  In either case your bet has given you the information that you wanted.  If the player goes big you fold your hand for a minimum loss, if the player folds you have won the pot right there and eliminated the risk of them improving cheaply. 

Remember though, when you bet for information and get re-raised FOLD.  The the whole point of this play is to avoid paying off a big hand, do not talk yourself into calling because you already put some money into the pot.