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
The substance of the above boils down to this: You must play them
The substance of the above boils down to this: You must play them tight, at least up until you receive your third upcard. Let us go back to the hole card and the first upcard. When your hole card has a ranking value of a jack or better and your upcard is a ten or lower, it is worth a reasonable bet. That is, provided a jack is not showing as one of your opponent's upcards. Should this be the case, fold up at your turn, because your chances of pairing that jack have been reduced 33 1/3%.
The player must always bear in mind that an upcard paired has
The player must always bear in mind that an upcard paired has much less value than a hole card paired; and the smart player will consider playing the hand in an attempt to pair his hole card rather than an open card or upcard.