Pre-flop holdem is the round before the flop round. This round follows the ante or the blind bets. The pocket cards are dealt in the pre-flop round. The quality of strength of the starting hands of the pre-flop holdem cards can give a clue to chances of winning in a particular round.

Tight aggressive players play a careful pre-flop holdem round. If you are having worse hands it is better to fold rather than risking a few stakes. However, you can still proceed playing with medium hands based on odds to see if they can qualify a poker in the flop of the first community cards, if is it unfavorable you can fold in the flop. A very strong starting hand in the pre-flop holdem can take you through the river to win. However, a strong hand in pre-flop holdem does not mean winning, odds and strategy applies along with a little luck too.

To decide on how to proceed with pre-flop holdem you need to know the strongest hands and other poker basics relating to the kind of poker hands like what is a no pair, pair, straight, flush, royal flush, three-of-a-kind, four-of-a-kind, full-house etcetera. If you are not familiar with any of these terminologies you can refer to a poker glossary for the meaning and example of the terms.

Being able to understand lows and nut lows is very crucial in high-low games. The trick of creating juicy pots should be initiated from the pre-flop holdem round if you have a good and strong hand.

Also you need to know that you should not bet very high stakes in letting your opponents learn that you are in a good stand. Be poker faced if you have got a monstrous poker hand, if you are going to show your excitement, your fellow players are going to fold quite early and you will land up with having a small pot for the split.

If you have had a very good and unbeatable hand in pre-flop holdem round you need to employ some semi-bluffing to have your opponents put in stakes in to the pot; putting up with an unpredictable playing style is also one way to be a successful player. Having a good starting hand is not a key to winning, it should be combined with tells and odds to finally hit the pot. And, a little bit of poker psychology too!