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
The hand would be slightly different
The hand would be slightly different if you had 5-5 on a J-5-2 board. Checking makes a little more sense, as you want your opponent to hit an overcard and he probably doesn’t have 6-4, 4-3, or A-3. Despite this, you should still bet because you have a strong hand and want to get all the money in. You can play your hand fast by checking when you know your opponent will bet if you check. Say you raise 7-7 with a 70BB stack from middle position and the button, an overly aggressive player, calls. You should probably check if it comes A-7-2, hoping your opponent will put you on an underpair like K-K to 8-8 that you will fold if he bets every street. I would usually check-call the flop rather slowly, acting as if I really don’t want to put any more money in the pot, and either check-raise or check-call the turn. Your opponent will often barrel the whole way, giving you a huge pot. If the board runs off scary, like A-7-2-K-Q, you should still call down but perhaps not check-push the river, as your opponent could have back-doored a better hand.
Always consider bet sizing
Always consider bet sizing when trying to get all-in. Leave enough chips behind so it looks like you can fold if your opponent raises or goes all-in. Say you raise with 2-2 and the button calls. You both have 50BBs. The flop comes K-10-2. Always bet around 4BBs here. On the turn, with about 44BBs in your stack, bet about 10BBs, leaving 35BBs behind. This is still a decent chip stack and because of this, your opponent may decide to go all-in to force you to fold. Say you start the hand with 30BBs instead of 50BBs. If you bet 4BBs on the flop and 10BBs on the turn, you will only have 13BBs left behind. Even the most unobservant players will see that you cannot fold if they go all-in, so they will fold all their weak hands. Instead, size your flop bet a little smaller, like 3BBs, and bet about 7BBs on the turn, leaving 17BBs behind. Your stack is now large enough that you might fold to a push. Also notice that if your opponent just calls the turn, you still have less than a pot-sized bet left to go all-in on the river.