Author: ladyholdem

A solid poker strategy can take time to develop, progressing through various stages of edification. It’s only proper to begin that progression with a series of beginner poker strategies. Such points of interest include player position, outs and odds, managing your bankroll and staying alert. We’ll cover each of these aspects in the following beginner poker strategies.

Position

Player position is a basic, but very important element in poker play. In some situations, your position can turn a mediocre hand into a solid betting hand. Late position is easily the best seat to be in, particularly on the button.

As a late position bettor, you are privileged to extensive knowledge, including the confidence of all previous bettors. When early and middle position bettors choose to fold, or limp in, you can raise with the healthy assurance that they will fold. If an opponent calls the blind early, they rarely have a strong enough hand to call a follow-up raise. Late position is the easiest place in which to steal blinds.

From early position, the rule is simple enough, bearing in mind that you soon have to face a late position bettor. Either fold your hand, or raise the big blind. If you’re not willing to call a possible raise from your opponents in the late positions, don’t bother betting at all.

Outs

Outs are a poker player’s best friend, and the more you have, the better. An Out is any card that will improve your hand. For instance, a 6 would complete a Straight in a hand of 3-4-5-7. There are four 6’s in a deck, so this hand would have four Outs. Let’s say this hand also contains four Spades. There are nine Spades left in the deck, giving you nine more Outs to a Flush. Every Out you have raises your chances of getting one of the cards you need, thereby raising your chances of winning the hand.

Odds

Pot Odds are based directly on the number of Outs you have to a better hand. By calculating your Pot Odds, you can determine exactly how much you can safely risk wagering. For example, should your hand have 8 Outs (an Outside Straight for instance) after the Flop. That leaves 47 unseen cards, 8 of which can help you. We calculate that to find there’s a 17% chance the next card will be one of your Outs. The proper bet would be 17% of the current pot size. If the pot has $100 in it, you would bet or raise $17. This is called a “value bet”.

You can try to make some odds calculations yourself using the Max Poker Bonus Odds Calculator, or you can even install a tool such as Poker Crusher to help you make proper decisions.

Be Alert

Awareness is a vital skill in poker. You should always pay close attention to how other players are betting, and how they have acted in previous hands. By observing your opponents, you can get a strong read on their behaviour. If a player always bets or raises with a marginal hand, then suddenly chooses to check, they may be attempting the classic “check/raise”; i.e. they have a monster hand. Look for any kind of patterns you can associate with a player and soon enough you’ll be able to predict their hands and upcoming manoeuvres.

Bankroll

As a novice poker player, proper maintenance of your bankroll (bankroll management) is crucial. Knowing what size stakes to play, as well as how much to bring to the table, will help your bankroll to last much longer, especially if you’re utilizing the above beginner poker strategies as well. There are two major bankroll rules to follow.

First, never take more than 10% of your bankroll to the table. This ensures you’ll have at least ten fair shots at a winning session.

The second rule applies to what stakes to play, according to how much 10% of your bankroll is. If you enter a Fixed Limit game, you should have at least 100x the Big Blind bet. For a Pot Limit or No Limit game, bring at least 400x the Big Blind bet.

The previous poker strategy articles from LadyHoldem about tournaments covered up most of the game before reaching the money. This episode continues how to play after you’ve made the money.

How you play once you’ve made the money really depends on where you are chip-wise. If you’ve played very tight, you are probably a little bit low by now. On the other hand if opportunity arose, and you dug in, you might well have needed help getting your chips to the table.

Being Short Stacked

Let’s go with short stacking and then we’ll work our way to the chip mountains.

If you’ve made your way to the final table there are two things I want you to keep in mind. One is if you’re in last place, you’ve already won last place, so don’t be afraid to shove your chips into the middle often and with every playable hand.

Whenever there’s considerable money in the pot and you have a plausible hand – go for it. Don’t let the blinds eat you here, and if you have less than 10 times the big blind, call nothing, shove everything.

Worst that can happen is you’ll double up.

However, the second thing I’d like you to keep in mind is that a passive game here may well get you more money. If you get to 3 or 4 players, and you still have a seat, it might be a good time to ask about a chop. (We’ll get into making chop deals later in this article.)

Hang onto your seat, it might prove to be quite valuable.

In most cases the longer you stay in the game, the more money you make. Each person sent to the rail usually doubles your money. So you do have last in the bag, and if ever there was a time to gamble, this was it. However, there’s also reason to hang onto your chair with all your might. That’s why the big bets, they’re harder for your opponents to call, and make it easier for you to pick up a few extra pots. This alone can often take you out of last place, and put you solidly into a better position.

If you came to the table with a larger sized stack, then take that last bit of advice to heart. The longer you stay at the table, the more money you make. If you have a considerable chip lead for one you’re poised for first, don’t donk off that lead thinking it’s your job to call every idiot bet.

Use Large Chip Stacks as a Weapon

There are bets that are just equitable calls. However, just because the short stack is short doesn’t mean you should call. You’ll just bleed off chips if you lose here. With the large stack however, you do have the ability to shove the other players around a bit.

When playing against smaller stacks, they really only need two choices, if you’re going to be involved with the hand at all, let them choose, all in, or fold.

As the seats at this table empty, you should also be thinking of chop possibilities. Because with the majority of the chips in your possession, the remaining players should be anxious to chop.

You might for instance suggest that they just give you first place money, and chop what’s left evenly. If you have a large stack, and are playing with very inexperienced players, tell them you’ll chop, as long as you get 1st place plus an additional 10% to cover your entry fee.

You’ll be surprised how often you can get away with that move.

Tournament Mission – Get in the Money

In my last article, Poker Tournament Strategy – Part II, we touched on something I’d like to bring up again.

I’ve often walked into poker tournaments where that loud and boisterous fellow is bragging about being the sheriff. In fact, often times there are grinders there egging him on. Encouraging him to be the sheriff.

The reason for this is that the sheriff has a job in every game. Yes he steals a lot of pots, and even cashes now and then. He re-raises often when he thinks someone is bluffing, he’s the guy that will call your bet just to keep you honest.

Hallelujah for him! We need his chips. He gets them by overplaying a small pair, or a weak ace, and then hitting some amazing stuff, and getting the nits to put all their chips in. Understand me here, he gets rid of the nits, and then he donks off his chips.

The point here is that we do not want to be the sheriff, he’s going to play a big part in getting us into the money though. We want to wait until the sheriff has over-bet a few dozen pots, and hopefully taken a few people out of the game, narrowed the field for us, and we want to wait until we catch said sheriff, and smack him over the head with a big bag of NUTS.

Final Stages Tournament Play

During this later portion of the game we really have but one goal. Make money, first and foremost. So if your only goal here is to finish in the money, you can’t shove in all of your chips and risk your tournament stake with mediocre hands. That King Jack of Diamonds that Darvin Moon shoved in at the final table of the World Series of Poker, well that’s just not going to work consistently.

Basically, if you can find a reason to fold a hand here, unless you are severely short stacked (and we’ll cover short stack play later on in another series) fold’em up. Basically you are considered short stacked once you leave the green zone according to Dan Harrington’s M-Calculator. Personally I think at this stage of the tournament you should even consider the yellow zone as somewhat safe. Don’t start acting panicky yet.

As long as you’re comfortable with your stack size here, you really just coast. If the table tightens up, and no one is calling bets, make a few.

If however there’s plenty of action, watch the show for awhile. As the money gets closer, and the blinds get bigger, you’ll find that the action slows way down.

Now when this happens, and opportunity may present itself for you to do some stack building, and when there are free chips on table, who are we to turn them down.

Stealing the Blinds

Since we’re nearing the money, the blinds are of course easier to steal here. We’re playing smart and are not risking our own tournament life, but that has nothing to do with our willingness to take advantage of other players’ fears.

When playing poker tournaments, watch for weaker opponents, and the ones that know how to lay a hand down. Generally the ones that always bet a big ace will make a few calls if you have the chips to gamble with. I’ve found that calling pre-flop, just flat out calling, slows them down on the turn if they’ve missed. Now you’ve let them see four cards, so this can be risky if they’ve hit something, but you should have some idea what they’re drawing for here.

Making the Final Table in a Poker Tournament

If the turn bet is smaller than what you’d expect, or they check the turn. Cut into them deep. Make a large sized bet, if they missed it this late in the game, they’ll lay it down.

Your ultimate goal here is only to make final table, and to make the money. To be a winning tournament player, you need to be consistently making money. You don’t always need to win first, but you need to cash.

Once you’ve made the money, we’ll switch things up again, open up our game, and we’ll gamble a bit more. But we’ll talk about that in another edition.

In her previous article, Poker Tournament Strategy – Part I, LadyHoldem wrote about early tournament play. In this episode she continues with middle stage strategies for poker tournaments.

Once you’ve reached say the 4th or 5th blind level, even just stealing the blinds now and then can add valuable chips to your stack.

Something to keep in mind is that picking up the blinds once per revolution keeps you even. Don’t dwell on it, or feel overly compelled to obsessively make a stab at the blinds every revolution, but do keep it in mind. For instance, say you’re hanging in, waiting to wake up to a decent hand. The play is soft for a bit, so you pick up a couple mini-pots, and then the next revolution a new player comes to the table and changes the tables dynamic.

Players seem to be in the mood to get their money into the pot. This new comer to the table is pushing, and your table mates are bored and enjoying the action. Feel free to sit this spell out, floating along on the chips you gained from earlier steals.

In fact, whether or not you’re able to snag a few pots during the slow periods, one thing you want to avoid when playing a poker tournament is premature pressure to act.

Many players realized they’ve lost all their ‘big chips’, or they’ve lost half their stacks, or for whatever reason they’re playing with less chips than they would prefer to be playing with at some point. As long as you’re holding at least 10 big blinds, just wait.

Wait for a hand, or your blind, an opportunity to set a trap, wait for a real hand. Don’t shove at the site of an ace. More often than not that action will send you on your way to the rail, quite prematurely.

Patience is Key in Poker Tournaments

If you’ve ever played the 440 man tournaments on PokerStars, and cashed, you’ve probably realized that this entire tournament can be played in as few as four hands. A player can play that tournament folding nearly every hand that is raised before it gets to them, and then towards the middle of the game, play a hand or two doubling their chips, a couple strong plays at the last stretch, and first or second place is pretty much a given.

What’s to be learned here is patience. Fight it out with the bullies, only when you have the nuts. With that point made. Pots at this level when the blinds are steadily increasing really add some weight to your stack.

The time to gamble with lower suited gappers and the like is pretty much over. You might see a flop with a QK suited if the play at your table hasn’t been overly action packed. Aside from that, it’s a good idea to remain seriously particular. Strong hand selection is a MUST.

Once you opt to play a hand, dig in. But remember, a bad beat is a lot worse when you’re on you’re way out the door. There’s no river that you HAVE to see. Look for signs that you’re beat. Fold when it’s time, but until it’s time, shove on.

It has been some time since Max wrote his Sit&Go Strategy articles and they have been valuable information for quite a few of our visitors. And now the time has come to finally talk about strategy for multi table tournaments.

The beginning of a poker tournament depends a lot on what is already going on at the table. For instance, if you’ve sat down to a multi table tournament online where many players are all in every hand, you probably want to just sit back and watch the show for awhile. Even if you’re dealt pocket aces, you want to fold here.

I know that seems like crazy advice, but the fact of the matter is that if you’re playing at a table where maniac fever has taken over, you need to preserve your tournament life. That usually is only the case in micro stakes game and free poker games.

If you’re playing at a bit higher stakes, you will still want to take it a bit easier during the lower blind rounds, getting in as many hands as possible, for the cheap price, but really playing the other players, paying attention to tells (there ARE tells whether you’re playing live or an online tournament). A big part of these early rounds includes either drawing to the nuts and getting paid off big, or picking off some small pots and keeping your blinds plaid up.

This is also the portion of the tournament where you can really start observing other players. Be on the look out for players that make unusual bets, not the normal 3/4 times the blind amounts, as that’s one sign of an inexperienced poker player. Also, pick out the rocks from the calling stations. Rocks play the big big hands, and often use the chat box to talk badly about players that call a raise with anything less than big slick.

It’s really easy to put these guys on a hand when you’re involved in a hand with them, and it’s generally easier yet to bet them off a hand when they miss the flop. But we’ll get into that later on.

The loose players or calling stations are easily identifiable as the guys that tend to see every flop, or even a large percentage of flops. Another player to look out for is a player that shows his hand, that’s (1) a sign of inexperience and (2) free information for you.

Early Tournament Play – Hand Selection

During the first 3 levels of a tournament, you want to play very strong hands, as well as experimenting with some drawing hands when you’re in a good position. At this point for instance, a suited 9T would be a decent hand to play from the button as well as from the blinds. I wouldn’t recommend raising under the gun with it, however, as long as you’re in a late position and the tables been playing pretty ‘friendly’ (i.e. more calling than betting going on) go ahead and give those smaller suited connectors a shot.

Now this is not the time in the game to do much bluffing, or even semi bluffing. When making a flop you want to have at the very least top pair, preferably two pair. Remember, at this stage of the game it’s not uncommon to have four guys call with nothing, meaning if you bet a pair of 8’s, there’s a pretty good chance there’s going to be a few overcards left in the hand.

Early Tournament Play – Betting The Flop

When you do have a strong hand, dig in. Bet it, and bet it big. Early in the tournament as a rule of thumb, bet 1/2 the pot, to all of it. If there’s a good draw on the table, and I’m not drawing for it (for instance if you hit to pair, but there are two spades on the table, and your cards are not spades) bet the whole pot.

Remember, you’re still watching your opponents, look for the ‘sheriff’, the guy that likes to pay off his opponent at showdown with ace high “Just to See”. The new players can double you up, or with dumb luck alone, they can take you out. If someone’s brand new, you’re not going to bet them off a draw, or a hand if you’re hugely over-betting, and they’re calling. Back off a bit if you’re vulnerable.

Play strong when you play, and coast your way into the bigger blind levels, which… we’ll talk about in a future article here on Max Poker Bonus.