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
When you are first to enter the pot,
When you are first to enter the pot, I suggest you raise to 3BBs if you have more than 125BBs, around 2.75BBs with 70 to 125BBs, 2.5BBs with 40 to 70BBs, 2.25BBs with 12 to 40BBs, and all-in with fewer than 12BBs. If you are folded to in the small blind, tend to raise 0.5BB more than usual. You want to discourage your opponent from playing his hand, as you will be out of position. To avoid giving off tells or causing my opponent to think he has a tell on me, I raise to the same amount at each blind level regardless of my stack size, unless it drastically changes. For example, at 100/200 with a 100BB stack, I will raise to 275 every time. At 1,000/2,000 with 50BBs, I will raise to 2,500 every time. If I were to lose a big hand and get down to 18BBs, I would adjust and raise to only 2.25BBs pre-flop.
If someone limps in front of you, raise
If someone limps in front of you, raise to 4.5BBs pre-flop as long as you have more than 60BBs. Raise to 4BBs with 27 to 60BBs, to 3.5BBs with 15 to 27BBs and all-in with fewer than 15BBs. Add 1BB for each additional limper. For example, if there are five limpers and you have 100BBs, you should raise to 8.5BBs, assuming you plan to raise with your hand. Again, if you are out of position, either in the small or big blind, raise an additional 0.5BB. If raising over a limp will put in more than 30 percent of your chips, you should just go all-in. If you have A-J with 2,000 chips, you’re playing 50/100 and four people limp, a normal raise would be to around 7.5BBs. Because this is more than 30 percent of your stack, simply go all-in.