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 the pot is large by the time you get to the river,
If the pot is large by the time you get to the river, both players will have put in a decent number of chips. Say you raise to 3BBs out of your 150BB stack with A-J and the big blind calls. The flop is Q-9-6. You make a standard continuation bet of 4BBs and your opponent calls. The turn is the K. Your opponent checks and you decide to bet 9BBs on the turn, hoping he will fold, but he calls. The river is the 2, and your opponent checks. This is a terrible spot to bluff because if your opponent had something on the turn, he probably isn’t folding. He could have a flush draw, but then you still have the best hand. The only thing you may be able to bluff your opponent off of is a hand like Q-J or Q-10, and he’ll sometimes call even then. If instead of A-J you have J-8, you should just give up the river because most opponents will not fold. You might bet a small amount to push him off a busted flush draw that has you beat, but even that is pushing it. If an opponent tells you he has a hand by calling on the flop and turn, especially if you have any showdown value, you should check behind on the river.
You may occasionally have a weak made hand on the river
You may occasionally have a weak made hand on the river and decide you need to turn it into a bluff. Say you raise A-3 from middle position, the big blind calls and the flop comes J-5-3. You bet and your opponent calls. The turn is the Q. You could semi-bluff the turn, but your opponent probably has a jack and may or may not fold. Assume you decide to bet this time. Your opponent calls. The river is the K. Your opponent is probably going to fold on this river unless he has K-Q, K-J or Q-10. There are also very few draws he could have on the flop, so he probably has a made hand. In this spot, assuming you are deep-stacked and bluffing the river won’t cost too much, you should fire a 2/3-pot bet, hoping to bluff him off a queen, or more likely, a jack. Bottom pair may appear to have some showdown value, but it is almost always behind on this board, making it a decent spot to bluff.