Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
It's always best that if you're unsure about a hand
It's always best that if you're unsure about a hand based on how you've run through your own poker thought algorithm, that you err on the side of caution. It may be over stated, but most players’ mistakes in no-limit Texas Holdem come from playing too many hands, not from playing too few. One of the easiest ways to correct a losing approach to poker is to start tightening up your starting range. If you're losing money or around a break even player, then generally something as simple as playing fewer hands can move you into the winning column. This ensures that when you are in a hand you'll generally have the stronger of the two hands and win more from second best hands calling you down then vice-versa.
Flat Calling
Flat Calling Flat calling, sometimes also called smooth calling, or burning money as I like to call it, is when you decide to call an opponent's raise, or call the blind. It's part of poker, and you want to have a flat calling range, but for almost all players their flat calling ranges will not yield positive results. There are a couple of simple reasons for this.