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
When You Have Between 27 and 15BBs
When You Have Between 27 and 15BBs When your stack sinks below 30 big blinds, you gain a few of the most powerful tools in poker. Every time you enter the pot, your opponents have to be concerned that you have a hand you are willing to go all-in with, which means that if your range is fairly balanced, they are going to have a tough time playing against you. They also have to raise a tighter range because every time they raise, you may go all-in. While I may appear to advocate tight play when you have between 15 and 27BB, I suggest, as always, that you pay close attention to your table. If your table allows you to steal the blinds constantly, then steal to your heart’s content. If everyone plays loose, then wait for a hand you can happily move all-in with. As long as you pay attention, playing when you have between 15 and 27BB is fairly simple.
Raise-Folding
Raise-Folding When you get down to 27 big blinds, you will find people either respect your raises too much or not nearly enough. By now you know that if players are playing tight, you should steal any time you have the opportunity in late position. I tend to raise to around 2.25BBs before the flop if everyone has around 30BBs or less, but I’ll raise to about 2.5BBs if I am the only short stack because I always want my raises to get at least some respect. Once you get this short, it is rather tough to play post-flop because a raise and continuation bet take about 1/3 of your stack.