The first thing you must understand when you play Texas Holdem is which hands are good and which are bad. Use the chart below as a guide to improve your play with pocket pairs, suited and unsuited cards.

If you are in the "early" position, the types of hands you must try to play are restricted to high cards or good hands, since you have no way of knowing what the other players in the group are holding.

If you are playing the "middle" position, you'll have players waiting behind you and others that have already played. The chance of a raise is slightly less in this position and there are already several players in the pot so you will get better odds playing weaker hands.

The advantage of being in the "late" position is that you get a chance to see almost every play so far, and will be able to read how other players feel about their hands by the way they have checked, bet, raised or re-raised.