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 your opponent calls, fire a continuation bet
If your opponent calls, fire a continuation bet around 95 percent of the time, checking only when you are certain he has hit the board. Suppose he raises to 3BBs from middle position and you are on the button with 7-6 and 100BBs. This is a pretty good spot to re-raise, as your hand is too weak to call. You re-raise to 8BBs, which is about normal. Your opponent calls and the flop comes A-J-4. When he checks, you should bet around 12BBs every time. In fact, with hands like 7-6, you should bet every board unless your opponent gives off a crazy tell, letting you know he doesn’t plan to fold. Only check behind with hands that have good showdown value but will be in bad shape if a lot of money goes into the pot.
Some players make these loose re-raises
Some players make these loose re-raises from the blinds but I usually shy away from that because I will be first to act after the flop. Notice that you can re-raise with hands like J-9 and A-9 from the blinds because they are too weak to call but still have value and bluffing potential if your opponent calls. Suppose you re-raise from the small blind with A-9 and your opponent calls. Bet most boards except A-x-x because on this board, you just want to get to the showdown. Go ahead and bet on 9-x-x because your hand is susceptible to a lot of bad turn cards. If you play a lot with a specific opponent, even though you would normally want to pot-control with top pair, bad kicker in these spots, go ahead and bet in order to stay balanced.