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
The next section will teach you how to play based on your stack size.
The next section will teach you how to play based on your stack size. You should play A-J with 125BBs much differently than with 10BBs. I will explain how to play with several ranges of stack sizes: more than 125BBs, 60 to 125BBs, 40 to 60BBs, 27 to 40BBs, 6 to 12BBs and less than 5BBs. Techniques used with the biggest stacks often apply when you are shorter. I will note when this is the case.
I will be speak in terms of big blinds
I will be speak in terms of big blinds when referring to stack sizes throughout this book. Some authors list your stack size in the number of orbits before you blind off. I think this makes things too difficult for no reason. I can’t remember the last time I blinded off in a tournament. If you play as I suggest, neither will you. There will be little mention of playing with antes until I get to the short-stacked section. If you are deep-stacked with antes in play, simply raise a few more hands pre-flop than I suggest. I am a firm believer in making things simple. You will find that to be the case throughout this book. I do not address short-handed or heads-up play in this section. These will be addressed in the Stages of a Tournament section in Volume 2. Finally, I do not take prize payouts into consideration in this section. This section assumes you are not close to the money in a tournament.