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
Playing the Flop
Playing the Flop Playing the flop is usually fairly straightforward, as you will see in the upcoming section. Despite its simplicity, many players play the flop poorly because they either overvalue or undervalue their hands. If you can figure out your opponents’ mistakes, you will quickly take their chips, because pots tend to grow exponentially in no-limit holdem.
You should generally play hands of similar value
You should generally play hands of similar value the same way every time, but you will still need to mix up your play. If you always check behind when you have something like A-3 on an A-6-4 board, your opponents will quickly figure out how to play against you. You must mix up your play to prevent this. I will list the most standard way to play each type of hand throughout the next section, but remember to vary your game so you don’t become the weak player the professionals are out to exploit.