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
Betting small with both bluffs and strong hands
Betting small with both bluffs and strong hands is the only way that small bets on the river make much sense. You are balanced in this situation, which is a good thing. When calling a river raise in this spot, it is important to know you are playing an aggressive opponent who will attack weakness. Players who make blocking bets with weak made hands usually fail to see that a blocking bet looks weaker than a check to most good players. You should tend to raise when a weak player makes a blocking bet on the river, and to call with a wide range and fold your weakest hands if a good player makes such a bet. Once you see which hands each type of opponent shows up with, you will be better able to deal with their small river bets.
Bluffing on the River
Bluffing on the River Large, extravagant bluffs are almost always –EV in tournaments. You may consider a large bluff if you have an excellent read on your opponent, but even then, you have to worry that he has an equally good read on you. When I transitioned to live tournaments, I would often run a large river bluff only to find my opponent call with top pair. I asked a few of them why they called and their answer was usually the same. “I had top pair, I can’t fold that.” That pretty much sums up how most players think, and that is why I bet the river mostly for value. I occasionally hear my friends say something like, “I thought he had top pair, top kicker on the flop so I decided to bluff him.” This is one of the worst spots for a bluff. A weak player will call down. A good player will see through your creative line and will also call down. Bluffing in giant pots is usually bad.