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
Position is important when determining whether to continuation-bet.
Position is important when determining whether to continuation-bet. I tend to bet more flops out of position, as I lack the benefit of knowing what my opponent is going to do. But you still need to check from time to time. I tend to check when I have a decent made hand that is not susceptible to too many scare cards, like K-Q on Q-7-3 or on flops that are terrible for my range. In position, you should be a little more prone to check weak made hands and to check on boards that are bad for your range, because you will be sure to see a turn card. If you are out of position and you check, most good opponents will bet their entire range, forcing you off the best hand quite often. Against these aggressive opponents, check and call down more often with decent made hands because they will assume that checking indicates a poor hand.
One powerful play most players rarely use
One powerful play most players rarely use is the delayed continuation bet. Suppose you raise Q-J from middle position and the big blind calls. The flop comes 9-7-5. Your opponent checks and you check behind. If your opponent checks to you on the turn, regardless of the card, you can be pretty certain he has a weak hand. You should bet every time in this spot. When an opponent checks twice, you can be fairly sure he has a weak hand and will fold to a little aggression. This play also works fairly well out of position. If you raise the same Q-J and your opponent calls on the button, you can check 9-7-5 from time to time, although I would usually go ahead and bet this flop out of position. If you both check, you should tend to bet any turn card because if your opponent had something, he probably would have bet the flop. If you’re called in either situation, use your reads to decide if your opponent is calling with a weak hand or has enough of a hand to call another barrel. If you sense weakness, you should tend to bet again. There will be more on tells and developing reads in Volume 2.