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
Suppose you have J-10 on the same Q-9-2 board,
Suppose you have J-10 on the same Q-9-2 board, he bets the flop and you call. Betting the turn if he checks to you is perfectly fine, as you would like to pick up the pot. If he calls your turn bet, be prepared to give up, as he is usually calling you down. Even though you have no showdown value, if your opponent plays his hand in a manner that makes folding unlikely, don’t throw good money after bad. Also, if your opponent does check-raise the turn, be prepared to fold unless you have a monster, like a set or two pair.
When you pot-control,
When you pot-control, you may give a free card that will cost you the pot. But poker isn’t about winning pots. It is about winning money. One of the major ideas of pot control is that you never put a lot of chips in the pot with a hand that is not that great. If you never put money in with bad hands, it makes it pretty tough to go broke. In exchange for giving up these pots, which will occur around 15 percent of the time, as most opponents will be drawing to around six outs, you will under-represent your hand and induce bluffs. All great tournament players realize this is a great trade, which is why you see great players pot-controlling when appropriate.