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
Most good players are keenly aware of how they are perceived.
Most good players are keenly aware of how they are perceived. I usually go out of my way to create a fairly loose image early in a tournament and also whenever I get moved to a new table that is not going to break for a while. I have the advantage of being a young kid, which automatically makes players think I am loose. I go out of my way to create a loose image so I can play fairly tight later and get in as a big favorite for a lot of chips. It is usually fairly cheap to make a few pre-flop raises early in a WPT event where you start with 300 big blinds. You may lose 10BBs or so, but you will have cultivated an image that will get you all-in as a 60-percent or greater favorite for the other 290 big blinds. I usually do this by raising basically any hand I would play from late position besides big unsuited cards from any position, and then play the hand straightforwardly from there. When my opponents see me raising 9-7s from first position, they tend to assume I will do that for the rest of the tournament, whereas in reality, I will be playing a fairly tight range under the gun.
Do not go overboard with these plays,
Do not go overboard with these plays, as after a few times, your opponents will think you are loose and will stick to that read for years. Also, do not lose too many chips making these plays. There is nothing worse than losing half your stack early in a deep-stacked tournament in an avoidable spot. These plays work best in the biggest buy-in events, both live and online, because it is okay to gamble a little more than usual in the early levels, as it costs a small percentage of your stack. Once you get down to 75 big blinds or less, I suggest you take these advertisement plays out of your game and play your normal strategy.