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
You can trap some of the most aggressive players
You can trap some of the most aggressive players by being aggressive yourself. Say I raise A-J and it comes J-J-3. If I suspect my opponent will try to put a play on me, I will bet this flop every time, and assuming we are very deep-stacked, I will even raise again if he re-raises me on the flop. Make sure you both have enough chips so that he can rationalize an all-in bluff, allowing you to win a huge pot.
You have to figure out how to get your opponents to put in a lot of chips
You have to figure out how to get your opponents to put in a lot of chips when they have nothing and you have something. What you should not do is bet a hand like middle pair and then fold to a raise against a player that you think is going to try to outplay you. Say you raise A-10 and it comes J-10-3. Be content to just check-call down, because your hand can’t stand much pressure. Don’t become paranoid and think everyone is going to try to outplay you. Once this happens, you will be afraid to raise anyone’s blinds. Raising blinds constantly is the whole reason players will start to play back at you in the first place, so you should usually keep the pressure on because you want them to make –EV bluffs.