New Texas Hold Em Poker player's don't know what to do when they hit a great pocket, raise, then completely miss the flop. Let me give you some tips on how to deal with this.

Many times you'll pick up a nice A-K or K-Q in your pocket. Its a nice hand, one that you should raise with. So you up the pot four times the big blind because your playing good poker. Sure, some fold and some call, you may even get the aggressive opponent who reraises and you call that too. But then the flop comes out 10-8-6... You don't know what to do. Your lost, a little bit afraid. You've already put so much in the pot and don't want to lose that but you actually have nothing. You know you shouldn't continue past the flop if you have nothing but still. Maybe you can pretend a bluff? Yeah! But you're afraid to lose any money. Usually, 9 times out of 10, an average player will call in this situation. They want to stay in, but don't want to raise.

Now your opponent immediately assumes you don't have a big pair because you've just called. So what does he do? No matter what he has, he raises, pretending - or worse, actually having - a high pair because he knows that you, the original raiser, now calling, probably didn't hit on the flop. And even though he may only have Q-J for example, pocket cards actually worse then yours, he will take the pot away from you if you check to him. A similar scenario would be when the less then desirable flop comes out, the opponent plays before you. You haven't called like in the previous scenario, the opponent just raises flat out. So now you have to make the decision, do you call him and continue?

In either of these scenarios, that is, you get nice pocket cards, raise before the flop, then the flop comes out and is useless to you, the solution is to keep your cool and not get stubborn. Stick to the game plan, if you've got nothing at the flop, fold. Like I've said in my previous tips, if your hand isn't nice and tight by the flop then fold em. You've gotta know when to hold em and know when to fold em. You should just simply fold and give up the battle. You need to wait for a better opportunity to attack. Don't go into a gun fight holding a knife.

So in Texas Hold em Poker, when you raise early but miss the flop by a long shot, don't keep putting more chips in. Have the integrity with yourself to fold you cards and wait for a better hand when you do hit the flop and have a nice hand to work with. You can't afford to be losing chips to weak hands because you just wanted to stay in because you had already put so many chips in already. Don't fall for this trap, this is the trap amateurs fall into.