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
If you have a strong hand, you should never check-raise the turn
If you have a strong hand, you should never check-raise the turn against a floater, because you want him to keep barreling. You don’t want to just trap him for one turn bet. Call the turn and then go for a check-raise on the river. This may seem passive, but if a player is making an already intricate play, he will likely throw out one last bet on the river.
You may have noticed that I expect other players to overplay
You may have noticed that I expect other players to overplay their situation when floating whereas I expect to get away cheaply when it fails. This is because once a player actually states that he has a hand by check-calling on the turn or firing the flop and turn, you can be fairly certain that he has a hand. Don’t get carried away with these intricate plays, as they can change from huge moneymakers to the biggest losers in the game.