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
Big Calls or Big Folds
Big Calls or Big Folds There is always a debate about whether it is better to often make big calls or big folds. Obviously it should be optimal to make both, depending on the situation, but your style of play will dictate if you should tend to make big calls or big folds. In general, the more hands you play and the more aggressively you play them, the more often you should make big call-downs, as your opponents will put you on a wide range of hands and will therefore bluff you more often. If your opponents think you have a tight range, they will only put money in the pot when they think they can beat your strong hand, meaning you should fold more.
You must accumulate chips to win a tournament,
You must accumulate chips to win a tournament, so you should tend to be the guy making big calls instead of big folds. If you play the loose-aggressive style I advocate, most players will bluff you from time to time. This means you should make big calls. Suppose you raise K-Q from middle position and the button calls. The flop comes K-7-4. You bet and your opponent calls. The turn is the J. You check for pot control and your opponent bets. You call and the river is the 2. You check and your opponent bets. In this spot, if you are a tight player, you should strongly consider folding because your opponent almost certainly knows you have a hand like top pair. If you are a loose player like me, you have a fairly easy call on the river because your hand is under-represented, your opponent may be value-betting a worse hand and some players will bluff this river. Putting yourself in these situations to gain chips instead of folding away equity is one of the ways by which great players consistently win poker tournaments.