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
Relative Hand Strength
Relative Hand Strength Weak players often talk about how they made a full house, only to lose to a better full house. Usually, it turns out they had 6-6 on a J-J-9-9-6 board. It should be clear that 6-6 on that board is a weak hand. In this situation, the worst full house has basically no value except as a bluff catcher. The fact that a hand is high up on the hand-ranking chart does not make it a strong hand. As another example, A-A on an A-J-7-6-2 board is the nuts and you should be happy getting all the money in with it. It is total trash on an A-9-8-7-6 board and should be folded any time your opponent seems happy to commit a lot of chips.
There are numerous situations where your hand may appear strong
There are numerous situations where your hand may appear strong but it is actually far behind your opponent’s range. Suppose someone raises from first position and you know he is very tight, raising only A-A to Q-Q and A-K. If you call with 9-7 and the board comes A-K-7, you should fold to a bet every time. Suppose you call and the turn is a 9. If he bets again, you should again fold because you are behind every hand he could have except Q-Q. If however, the raiser is a maniac who raises from late position, you can be happy getting a lot of money in with 9-7 on an A-K-7-9 board because he could be betting strongly with many hands you have crushed.