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
With a strong hand in position,
With a strong hand in position, you should basically always bet, as you want to get value. You usually have little fear of a check-raise, and your hand is mostly way ahead of your opponent’s check-calling range. as the pot gets larger, you need to play your hand more straightforwardly. You’ll usually have a decent idea of your opponent’s hand range by the time you get to the river. Try to make an educated decision in each spot and you can value-bet the river with confidence.
Bet an Amount They Can Call
Bet an Amount They Can Call If you are fairly certain you have the best hand at the river but think your opponent has a very weak hand, such as 9-8 on a K-8-4-3-J board, you should tend to bet a small amount because most opponents will fold to a large bet. It is important to know your opponent. Some players view small bets as weak and tend to call them. Others view large bets as weak and are more likely to fold to small bets. If you think your opponent will call a large bet on the river with a weak pair and you have that beat, by all means, fire a large bet.