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Written By Kevin Venclauskas
1. Early Position Raise : One of the
biggest mistakes I see players make is not respecting
someone who raises in early position. Remember he has
another 8 people after him at the table who he has to fade,
so chances are that he is holding a big hand.
2. When you have the nuts and someone betting into you:
I was watching a friend of mine play a poker tournament
online, and although he made several mistakes that I
corrected him on, the biggest mistake he made was pushing
someone out of the pot by re-raising him on the turn when he
should have slow-played the hand. Let me give you the
scenario. My friend Mike was dealt 10-hearts and K-hearts.
Someone raises pre-flop and there are 4 callers including
Mike. On the flop came K-diamonds, 10-diamonds, K-spades.
Yes, he flopped the dead nuts. The first player checks, the
second player who was the original pre-flop raiser bets
$100. Next player re-raises $100, the third and fourth
players fold, lastly its up to Mike. He just called the bet
which was the proper play. Next card on the turn was
3-spades, no help to anyone. Original player in first
position bets $200, second player calls, and what does Mike
do, raises the pot $600 and the other 2 players drop out.
You need to ask yourself "What am I trying to accomplish
with this bet." What was Mike trying to do, make everyone
fold. Number one he already has the dead nuts and he has
position. So it is imperative to give the other players an
opportunity to catch their card. The proper play was to
continue letting the player bet into you, then take him off
on the river. He might be holding 2 diamonds and hit his 3rd
diamond on the river and you could have taken all his chips.
You want those players to get so committed to the pot that
they simply cant lay down their 2 pair or their flush or
their set. Remember in no limit poker you can always raise
the pot or even go all in on the river so its really quite
simple. If your playing NL Hold'em and someone is betting
into you when you have the dead nuts and are in position,
let him continue betting into you and do the raise on the
river as to maximize any chance you have at getting most or
all of his chips.
3. Protect Your Hand: Don't give players an
opportunity to draw out on you, make them pay for it. If
your holding top pair and there is flush or straight
potential, don't let them get any free cards to draw out on
you with. Make a good size bet and you should thin the
herd.
4. Thin The Herd: If your holding an average hand,
say pocket 10s and there have been no pre-flop bets yet,, go
ahead and make a bet, I prefer to triple the pot. You
certainly don't want the guy next to you who has King Deuce
to hit his King on the flop and beat you. Your bet should
thin the heard down and will lesson your chances of getting
out drawn.
5. Chip Lead: Listen people, if you have the chip
lead tighten up a little. There is no sense in getting
involved in too many pots. I see it all too often. A player
has the chip lead and starts getting involved in every pot.
. Then he catches one of his cards and gets committed to the
pot and ends up losing 20% of his chip stack to the pocket
rockets. You want to hold on to the chip lead folks, so try
to avoid getting involved in too many pots unless your in
position and you can see the flop for cheap. Simply let the
other players on short stack weed themselves out and you
will find yourself at the final table. I am not saying play
scared, just play smart and don't risk a large amount of
chips unless you have the pot odds to do so or you have a
pat hand.
6. Common Sense: Common sense supersedes all the
advice given to me over the years. Use your head for crying
out loud. My friend Mike was on the big blind and there were
no raises pre-flop, so he got to see the flop for free.
There were 7 people in the hand and the flop comes A-hearts,
K-diamonds, -10-diamonds, now Mike was holding crap, 6-7 off
suit. Well nobody bets and it comes around to Mike and he
triples the pot. It goes around the table and one guy calls,
another raises, then another goes all in. Of course Mike
folds but common sense tells me with a flop like that
everyone got a piece of it, whether its a gut shot straight
or 4 to a flush or just top or second pair. My experience
has been that usually players discard their low cards and
stay in with their big cards or pocket pairs. When a big
flop like that comes up common sense tells me when there are
7 other people in the pot that a few if not all of them
caught some part of that flop. What a horrible time to try
to buy one. Chalk another mullet move up to Mike.
7. Play like a champion: Try to imagine yourself at
the WSOP final table playing for 1.5 million. Then ask
yourself how would Doyle Brunson play the hand. Take your
time and you will probably make the right call. Remember
skill will only get you so far, you also have to be lucky
and not get too many bad beats to snap a big tournament off
so don't get discouraged if you made the right play and lost
the hand. If you played the hand like Doyle would have
played the hand and you get a bad beat, well that's just
part of poker so you might as well get used to it now.
8. SURVIVAL . Your goal of course is to snap the
tournament off, but your first priority should be to get
into the money. Just use your head and play smart.
9. Study Your Opponents: Study your opponents and
make note of their tendencies. For example, if you have a
player that calls just about anything, obviously it would
not be wise to try to steal a pot against him as he will
probably call you with his low pair. Conversely, if you have
a player like that and you have a strong hand, bet more than
you normally would as you will probably get a call out of
him unlike if your playing against a good player that would
probably fold his average hand.
10. Realize The Amount Of Players Left In The Tournament
And Where They Stand In The Money: If your in a
tournament that pays the top 9 places and you have 11 people
left in the tournament, this may be a good time to steal a
couple of pots if your in position. They are trying to get
into the money and wont risk their chips unless they have a
premium hand. On the other hand, once everyone is in the
money, if your going to play a hand make sure it is one
where you are willing to risk a large part of your chip
stack on. My experience is when it gets down to the money
players, you see many people on the short stack going all in
so although it may be tempting to play that 9-10 suited, it
may not be a hand you want to risk a large amount of chips
on.
These are just a few of the bigger mistakes I see players
make when playing Texas Hold'em tournaments. There are many
more strategies that I will be sharing in the future. A
quick note for cash ring game players. Take a minute before
you sit down at a table and watch the game until the button
goes around the table once. What your looking for are the
saps who think they can play, but don't have a clue. When I
play online poker, my goal is to win money. And don't
understand the players who like to sit down with the poker
guru's. Frankly, when I play poker I am looking for the easy
action, not the tough action. And unless you don't like the
color green, there is no percentage in playing the poker
guru's.
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Written by Kevin Venclauskas
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