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 There are Limpers
When There are Limpers When players limp before the action gets to you, raising, limping, and folding all become options. The positions of the limpers, as well as your position, are important. The first thing to do when you see limpers is to determine their limping range. In general, there are two types of limpers.
The first type limps with premium hands from early position,
The first type limps with premium hands from early position, hoping someone will raise so he can re-raise to lock up a small pot. Clearly, this is not the optimal way to play a monster hand, as you would rather win a big pot. For example, someone limps from second position with A-A, the button raises to 4BBs and the limper makes it 15BBs to win a whopping 5BB pot. Against this type of limper, you should limp behind with connectors, both suited and unsuited, pairs, and even hands like A-Q. You must be very sure of his limping range to just call with hands like A-Q because if he limps with weaker hands, you will miss a lot of value by limping behind with strong hands. Basically, you want to get a good flop so you will be happy putting a lot of chips in the pot. Limp behind in early position only with small pairs and suited connectors. In later positions you can limp with hands like 10-8o and 8-5s. Suppose one of these limpers calls under the gun and you call on the button with 8-5s. If it comes 8-6-2 and he bets, you should probably call with the intention of folding if he bets again on the turn or if an ace or king comes. Remember that most of your value will come from making a hand like two pair or better, and then getting your opponent to put his entire stack in while drawing almost dead.