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 hands make up a larger percentage of a player’s range
Some hands make up a larger percentage of a player’s range than others because it is easier to make unpaired hands than paired hands. There are 16 ways to make a particular unpaired offsuit hands such as A-K, but only six ways to make a specific pair. Pull out a deck of cards and play around with it to see what I mean. Because of this, if you narrow a player’s range to A-A, K-K, Q-Q, and A-K before the flop, he will show up with A-K 47 percent of the time. If his range is A-A to 10-10, A-K and A-Q, he’s about even money to have either a pair or an unpaired hand, even though his range includes only two unpaired hands. Knowing this will help you to determine your equity against an opponent’s range, which will come in handy throughout a tournament.
Suppose the stacks are 20BBs,
Suppose the stacks are 20BBs, you raise 6-6 to 2.5BBs and your opponent goes all-in. You must determine if you should call or fold. There are 24BBs in the pot and you have to call 17.5 more, giving you 1.4-to-1 odds, so you need to win 42 percent of the time to break even. Assume you know this player’s range to be A-A to 8-8, A-K to A-J and K-Q. There are 42 combinations of pairs, against which you have 20-percent equity, and 64 combinations of unpaired hands, against which you have 55-percent equity. So, around 40 percent of the time you will have 20-percent equity and the other 60 percent of the time you will have 55-percent equity. You calculate (0.4)(0.2)(41.5) + (0.6)(0.55)(41.5) = 17 which is right around break-even, as you would have to put in 17.5BBs to call. If you think your opponent is pushing with a few weak hands as bluffs, such as A-4 or 7-6, which will usually be the case, you have an easy call. If you are certain your opponent will only push with A-A to 8-8, A-K and A-J, you have a close fold. Numerous online hand-equity calculators, such as PokerStove, will simplify the math for you. I suggest you spend at least 30 minutes per day running equities so you will know your equity in the most common situations.