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
Suppose in the above example someone raised from middle position,
Suppose in the above example someone raised from middle position, you re-raised from the cutoff with A-A to 9BBs and he called. Again, you both have 150BBs. The flop comes the same J-6-3. Your opponent checks, you make a standard continuation bet of around 12BBs and he calls. The turn is the 9. If your opponent checks, you should check behind with the intention of calling a river bet, as your hand is under-represented and you will induce bluffs, or value-betting the river if he checks, again because your hand is under-represented.
Consider betting top pair on the turn
Consider betting top pair on the turn only when the board is fairly draw-heavy and you think your opponent will rarely raise the turn with a draw. Suppose you raise A-K to 3BBs out of your 200BB stack and your opponent calls on the button. The flop comes K-5-4. You bet 5BBs and your opponent calls. If the turn is any card that doesn’t hit most draws, like any A, K, Q, J, 10 or 9 that isn’t a club, you should bet again, hoping your opponent will call with a draw. Again, consider checking here if your opponent often raises with draws as well as made hands. In general though, if you think your opponent is on a draw, you should not let him draw for free if you have a fairly strong hand. This is basically a protection bet, of which I am only slightly fond. You hope your opponent will fold a hand with decent equity against yours and still call with worse made hands. On the turn, if you don’t know what to do with top pair, it’s usually best to check and try to get to showdown.