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
Some players stop-and-go with strong hands,
Some players stop-and-go with strong hands, like 8-8 or A-J. This is a clear mistake because you are way ahead of your opponent’s range and would be happy just getting all-in before the flop. The one time I would consider a stop-and-go is when you are against an overly tight player who thinks everyone plays straightforwardly. These players will fold to a push on the flop unless they connect, which will be around 33 percent of the time. Even then, the stop-and-go is a questionable play. It is important to recognize a stop-and-go when it happens, even if the bet sizes are rather odd. In a WPT event I raised 8-8 from middle position to 2.5BBs out of my 30BB stack and the small blind, with a 25BB stack, called. The flop came 10-7-4. My opponent went all-in for 23BBs into the 7BB pot. Against most players I would call here simply because I think they’ll show up with a wide range. I called off fairly quickly in this situation and beat his 6-6. The whole table told me what a great call that was, but in my mind, it was super standard because his range had to be filled with weak hands. If you ever want to destroy me in that spot, call my raise with A-A and make the huge over-push. I will look you up every time.
If someone, especially a young or aggressive player,
If someone, especially a young or aggressive player, tries the stop-and-go on you, just call. If he pushes, he will usually show up with air and if he checks, tend to check behind and try to get to a showdown. Get in your opponent’s head and figure out what he is thinking.