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 one type of hand I suggest you always call with
The one type of hand I suggest you always call with from the small blind is small and medium pairs. These hands are better to call with than suited connectors because you know right away if you have a strong hand. With deep stacks, you will be risking around 3BBs pre-flop for the chance to win your opponent’s 100BB stack. I have coached a few people that fold hands like 2-2 from the small blind against a raise. Their logic is that they are beaten before the flop, which we know doesn’t matter because you are playing your hand purely for set value, and they don’t want to run into a bigger set. If you run into a bigger set, you were simply unlucky. There will be another tournament next week. From the blinds, much of your profit will come from making sets against your opponent’s top pair.
With limpers in front of you, call only with hands that have some
With limpers in front of you, call only with hands that have some potential. For example, fold J-3o if there are 3 limpers in front of you, even though you will get 9-to-1 to call pre-flop. Some players justify calling in this spot, saying they will only continue if they flop two pair or better, but when the flop comes J-8-3, their J-3 really isn’t in great shape because most turn cards are bad for them. Save yourself the variance and just fold trash hands from the small blind. Raise over the limpers with strong hands like A-J+, K-Q, 7-7+ and big suited connectors from time to time. You can also raise limps with fairly junky hands, as long as you don’t do it often, maybe once out of every 10 opportunities.