1. Gotta Know When To Hold'em And When To Fold Em
2. No Fold Em Hold'em Poker
3. When To Hold Em When To Fold Em
4. No When To Hold'em Know When To Fold Em

• 3499 - No Fold'em Hold'em North America - Greater New York - 2005/2006 The recent Texas Hold'em craze has spawned a bunch of on-line Poker sites. These sites tend to breed a group of poor players whose primary strategy is to never fold or throw away a hand. These players will always play.
• Texas Hold'em Rules. Texas Hold'em is the most popular type of online poker in the world. It's played with a standard 52 card deck, and there can be between 2-10 players at a table (Note: At Natural8 the max number of players is 6). To start with, the dealer gives everyone two hole cards. These are your own personal cards that no one else.

Maywood Studios - Hold Em or Fold Em 8387EB Ecru/Blue Western Shirtings. Hold Em or Fold Em from Maywood Studios Tell a friend about this product: Click on Image For.

Description

The recent Texas Hold'em craze has spawned a bunch of on-line Poker sites. These sites tend to breed a group of poor players whose primary strategy is to never fold or throw away a hand. These players will always play and bet on every card on every hand no matter what the cost or what cards they have. You have decided to take advantage of these stupid players by developing your own poker site that allows you to always beat these players.

The way your site will work is: there are only two players in each game: you and your opponent (this is called a heads-up game). Each of the two players will get two “hole cards”; these cards are dealt face down so, presumably, only the player can see them. Four of the five community cards (cards shared by both players) will be dealt face up on the table. We will dispense with any betting for the purpose of this problem: it is irrelevant since each player will always call every bet right to the “river” (the fifth and final community card). You will always be seated at position 1, and your opponent at position 2. The program knows what seat you are sitting at and the hole cards for both players, therefore, it can compute all the cards that remain in the deck that will maximize the amount of money you would get playing the hand – folding is not an option. In the event there is no card that would allow you to win or tie the hand, you will be forced to take a loss on that hand (after all, it looks good if you lose sometimes).

Input

The first line of input contains an integer N which is the number of data sets that follow (1 ≤ N ≤ 100) . Each data set consists of three lines. The first line of each dataset specifies your two hole cards. The second line is your opponent's hole cards. The third line is the four community cards. A card is specified by two characters: it's rank (A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,T,J,Q,K) and it's suit (S,D,H,C) for Spades, Diamonds, Hearts, and Clubs respectively. For example, the Ace of Hearts would be AH, the Nine of Spades would be 9S. Within a line, there are no spaces or invalid characters. All input will be valid.

Output

For each data set, your program will output (on a new line) the data set number followed by a colon, followed by a space, and a list of card(s) that will maximize the amount of money you could get playing the hand. If no card will allow you to win or tie, just display ‘LOSER’ instead of the cards. Each card should be separated by a single space. Your program will display up to 15 cards on each output line. If more than one output line is required for a dataset, additional lines should be indented by exactly 3 spaces. Cards should be output in suit order (S,D,H,C) and rank order within each suit (Ace high).

Sample Input

Sample Output

Source

NL Hold’em Starting Hand Charts

One aspect of the game of No-Limit Hold’em that causes beginning players much grief is deciding which hands to play and which hands to dump. NL Hold’em is much more difficult than Limit Hold’em because the value of a hand depends on so many factors other than just the cards in your hand. Despite this difficulty, our coaches believe that following some general guidelines and adjusting from these is a better solution than having no guidelines at all. Given that well over half of your profitability in NL Hold’em is based on hand selection alone, we have developed these charts to help you better determine whether to play or fold.

There are no perfect No-Limit starting hand charts. That is because there are many factors that affect your decision, and charts cannot account for all of them. Some of these include:

1. The size of your opponent's stacks.
2. How loose or tight, passive or aggressive, your opponents are.
3. Where these opponents are located at the table – for example, does an aggressive player still have to act after you?
4. Your image at the table – for example, how tight or tricky you are perceived.

That being said, these charts will serve you well in most typical low-stakes No-Limit cash games, such as games with blinds of $1/$2, and home games. These games typically have several loose players at the table, and good opportunities for winning big pots with suited connectors and pocket pairs. With practice, you will be able to be a consistently winning player with these charts as a starting point. As you improve, you'll find yourself making adjustments to these charts based on the factors listed above, and more.

AGAIN: These charts are a good starting point for beginners. Specifically, Chart #1 recommends a significant amount of limping. This is great in loose, passive games but less often seen in tougher games. You’ll find other training material on Advanced Poker Training that may recommend a more aggressive approach for more experienced players.

Note: It would be a serious mistake to apply these hand charts before reading the Frequent Asked Questions first.

CHART #1 ‐ LOOSE, PASSIVE GAME (OFTEN 4-5 LIMPERS PER HAND)
NO ONE HAS RAISED YET

• Raise Always
• Call from Early Position, otherwise raise
• Call always
• Call from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)

CHART #2 ‐ TIGHTER GAME (FEWER LIMPERS) OR MORE AGGRESSIVE GAME
NO ONE HAS RAISED YET

• Raise Always
• Call from Early Position, otherwise raise
• Call (or Raise) from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)

CHART #3 ‐ THERE HAS BEEN A SINGLE RAISE
(3‐5 TIMES THE BIG BLIND) BEFORE YOU

• Re‐Raise Always
• Call from Early Position, otherwise re‐raise
• Call always
• Call from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

For the hands in yellow, what do you mean when you say to play these hands if the conditions are right? The hands in yellow are speculative hands. They should always be folded from Early Position. From other positions, they can be profitable given the right conditions. Some of the questions to ask yourself:

1. Are there other players who have called so far (the more, the better)?
2. Are the players who have called playing poorly after the flop? Will they pay me off if I hit something?
3. Is there an aggressive player still to act behind me (you might get raised and have to fold)?
4. If there has been a raise and no other callers, what chance do I have of using my position after the flop to win the hand even if I don't improve (Chart #3 only)?

Why does Chart #2 say to sometimes raise with the hands in yellow, but Chart #1 does not? We have different goals in mind. Using Chart #1, we want to call to encourage additional players to enter the pot. These hands will be immensely profitable when our loose, passive opponents enter the hand, and get trapped when we flop a set, or make a well-disguised straight. When using Chart #2, however, we want to size up the opponents still to act. If they are tight, we can raise. Sometimes, we'll pick up the blinds. Other times, our pre-flop aggression will allow us to take down the pot on the flop.

What's the difference between AKs and AKo? AKs means an Ace and King of the same suit. AKo means an Ace and King of different suits.

What are early, middle, and late position? Early Position is generally the first 2 (in a nine player game) or 3 (in a ten player game) positions after the blinds. Late Position is the “cutoff” position (to the right of the dealer), and dealer button positions. Middle Position is everything in between.

How much should I raise? As a general rule, raise 3 to 4 times the big blind, plus 1 extra big blind for every player who has called before you. So if there are 2 callers already, raise between 5 and 6 times the big blind.

What if someone raises after I call? Whether you call the raise depends on how much money the raiser has for you to win, how many other players are involved, and what type of hand you have. As a general rule, if you have a pocket pair, lean towards calling. If there are a lot of other players (and therefore a big pot), lean towards calling. In general, fold suited connectors from early position. Fold hands like KQ that don't play well against a raiser.

How do I play from the blinds? From the small blind, play the same hands you would play from late position, plus a few more. But don't call with junk hands like T5o, just because it is “cheap”. From the big blind, if there is a raise to you, play like you would if you had already called from early position.

Gotta Know When To Hold'em And When To Fold Em

The chart says to fold KQo to a raise. Really? Yes, this hand performs very poorly against typical raising hands. Against AK, AQ, AA, KK, QQ, you are a big underdog. Other typical raising hands like JJ, TT, 99, AJs, are slightly ahead of you as well. The only time you might call or re-raise is from late position, if the opener was in middle or late position, indicating they might have a wider range of hands.

No Fold Em Hold'em Poker

I was told to fold AJo from Early Position, why do you say to call with it? Folding AJo is not a bad idea in many games. We included it because, at low stakes tables (even tight or aggressive ones), the players are often playing badly enough after the flop that it can be profitable. We used data from millions of hands of low-limit poker to analyze this. The same could be said for KQo, ATs, and KJs – you can make a small profit in the long run at most low-stakes games, but folding would be perfectly acceptable from early position.

When To Hold Em When To Fold Em

Can I use these charts in a NL Hold'em tournament? The charts would be best applicable to the early stages of a NL tournament, when everyone has a deep stack. In the middle and later stages, they should not be used.

No When To Hold'em Know When To Fold Em

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