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
Every poker decision, including folding,
Every poker decision, including folding, can be classified in terms of EV. In general, you want to make the play that is the most +EV or the least –EV. Suppose you have 8-2 in first position. You can raise, which is -EV, call, which is also –EV, or fold, which is neutral EV. Even though you don’t actually gain by folding here, you do not lose. Any money not lost is essentially the same as money gained.
From time to time you will find a +EV situation you should pass up.
From time to time you will find a +EV situation you should pass up. Late in tournaments, you have many chances to go all-in if you are short-stacked, but you should pass on some of these because if you lose on one marginally +EV play, you will lose the opportunity to make more +EV decisions later. Suppose you think that pushing in a situation will show an expected profit of 0.25BBs. This isn’t much, so you should probably wait for a spot where you can profit 1BB or more.