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
You do not Have to Raise the Button
You do not Have to Raise the Button Some players, especially young online players, feel obliged to raise the button whenever it is folded to them. This is a big mistake because it makes them predictable. If your opponents know you are going to raise the button every time, they can play nearly optimally against you, as you will usually have a weak hand. If you fold sometimes, they are stuck guessing whether you have a strong hand or are stealing.
One other benefit of folding the button
One other benefit of folding the button sometimes is that when you raise, you will get a little more credit for a strong hand. Normally when you raise the button, even if you fold your weakest hands, you still prefer to just pick up the blinds. Suppose you can raise 75 percent of hands from the button when the action is folded to you, picking up the blinds each time, or you can raise all the time and win the blinds half the time. Raising the blinds 75 percent of the time will win you more chips. Also, when you’re called and have to play post-flop, you will have a much stronger range of hands when you raise only 75 percent of the time, allowing you to win much more often.