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
Another great example of this
Another great example of this is when you have the same hand on the same board, this time with position. If your opponent checks and you make a standard continuation bet, it’s usually good to check behind the turn for pot control, as you usually don’t want to get a deep stack all-in with top pair, bad kicker. When you check behind, you must be prepared to call every river card, including those that complete straights. Checking behind on the turn almost tells your opponent that you do not have a strong hand and might give up on the river. Therefore, he will often bet his entire range, either as a value bet with hands like a pair, or as a bluff with busted draws. For you, this means that folding on the river is unforgivable.
Advertisement Plays
Advertisement Plays You have doubtless heard that you have to give action to get action. This is true in basically all forms of poker. If you sit and wait until you get A-A, and then raise, people will usually fold or call with a hand that does well against A-A, hoping for high implied odds. You will get little action even if you lower your starting requirements to 10-10+ and A-K. In tournaments, especially once antes are involved, it becomes very +EV to raise basically any suited or connected hand when it is folded to you in late position. You will often pick up the pot pre-flop, and you will sometimes get action with a strong holding because your opponents will put you on a very wide range of hands. Sometimes you will actually wake up with A-A. The theory behind this is that you lose small amounts on weaker hands but more than make it up with your big hands. Let’s look at both ends of the spectrum, one where you play only 9-9+ and A-Q+, and the other where you raise every time your opponents have folded to you.