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 your opponent bets 4BBs,
If your opponent bets 4BBs, you should tend to just call. You don’t want to raise to 14BBs and see your opponent re-raise to 40BBs. This wouldn’t be much of a problem in a cash game because you wouldn’t mind calling to see another card, or just pushing to maximize fold equity, because you could re-buy. In a tournament though, you have to worry about survival, so shy away from huge semi-bluffs when you may not have much equity when called.
So, you call the flop.
So, you call the flop. If the turn is the 4 and your opponent bets 8BBs, you should usually just call again. If you raised to around 25BBs, your opponent could push on you or he could just call, setting you up for a tricky river where you will be tempted to bluff into what’s probably a fairly strong hand. So, just call again. If your opponent bets the river, you can safely fold when you miss, losing only 15BBs. You can push all-in if you hit, and your stack won’t be much larger than the pot if your opponent bets again. If he checks, you can check back or consider taking a stab at the pot, depending on your opponent and his range. It is all right to give up on a pot from time to time in a tournament, again because it’s usually bad to risk a lot of chips on a bluff. look to bluff big overcards and cards that complete a likely draw.