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
How to Play each Type of Hand
How to Play each Type of Hand In this section I will discuss how to play each type of hand both in and out of position. I can’t stress enough that these are just general guidelines. You must mix up your game from time to time if you want to win high-buy-in poker tournaments. The lines below constitute my default strategy. In all these hands you face one opponent. I will discuss multiple opponents in a later chapter.
In position when you are the pre-flop raiser,
In position when you are the pre-flop raiser, tend to bet with strong made hands, like the nuts, flushes, straights, sets, two pair, and good top-pair hands. Bet bottom pair as a semi-bluff, such as A-3 on a K-7-3 board. You should usually bet when you flop nothing, and bet all your semi-bluff hands. Also bet most boards that are unlikely to have improved your opponent’s hand.