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
A similar situation comes up pre-flop.
A similar situation comes up pre-flop. Suppose you raise A-J to 2.5BBs out of your 60BB stack from middle position and the button re-raises to 7BBs. Weak players re-raise to 20BBs here all the time, folding when their opponent goes all-in. By the time their opponent pushes, they are getting 2-to-1 to call, meaning they only need to win 33 percent of the time to break even. In this situation they probably have about 35-percent equity. They have put themselves in a terrible spot where they should probably call off for their stack in a neutral-EV situation. They would be much better off calling, going all-in or folding before the flop. You will survive if you think about what will most likely happen throughout a hand. Just make sure you are not setting yourself up for failure.
Limp-Calling in a Raised Pot
Limp-Calling in a Raised Pot You may occasionally have a marginal hand with odds too good to fold, even though you think your opponent has a strong made hand. This is similar to when you are min-re-raised pre-flop, although once your stack shrinks to 50BBs or so, you have to be careful not to get it in drawing thin. Suppose someone raises to 2.5BBs, another player calls, you call with 7-6 on the button out of your 50BB stack and the big blind re-raises to 12BBs. Both the initial raiser and the caller call. When it gets back to you, there are 40BBs in the pot and you have to call 9.5 more, giving you 4-to-1 odds. Clearly, your hand will win more than 20 percent of the time, making calling the correct play even though you suspect to be way behind before the flop. After the flop, if you flop an open-ended straight draw, a flush draw, two pair or better, you should be happy getting the money in every time.