10 Winning Tournament Poker Tips

10 Winning Tournament Poker Tips

Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr

I have been asked to provide some more tips based on my recent run to the final tables at the Oaks, so here goes:

1. Be Aware at the Table

In the early rounds of an event, you are going to run into more average players. Later on, you will run into the better players. in any event, be aware of your opponents playing styles.

I know many people use the tight/loose and aggressive/passive labels on players. I think those are fine, but I like to think in more than two dimensions.

Look at the cards players show when they are in hands, and figure out how they play based on what happened. Some players will push all-in with draws, while others will only do so with the nuts or near nuts. Some players overplay their cards and push all-in with top pair. Other players go on tilt after a bad loss. Also, learn what those big pre-flop raises for each player.

You don't need to see a hand to learn playing styles. Does a player bully an opponent in the blinds when heads up pre-flop? Or, is a player raising too often to have a big hand each time?

This information is vital since it leads to who you can and can not make a move against when the situation is right (more on this later).

2. What is Your Table Image

Realize that later in the event when you are playing against observant opponents, you have a table image. Take advantage of this image combined with what you've observed of how your opponent plays his hand.

Example:

It's down to two tables. There are 6 players at your table. Everyone folds to the player in the small blind, who raises your big blind 2.5 times. You look down to find 9s-6s. Not a good hand and an easy fold right? Wrong!

What is the situation here? You know this player made the same play against you the last round. You know this player sees you as a very tight player. If you fold, you are going to be at a dangerously low level of chips. If you push all-in, your opponent will be risking most of his remaining chips. And if he folds, he can afford to lose the chips he raised, and still have enough chips to compete.

The situation calls for a move all-in. Your cards don't matter as much as the situation.

3. What is the Situation?

This really has been the key for me in my play. I have been waiting for the right situation to make the right play. The move to make is based on the players, my table image, the chips, the stage of the event, and finally the cards.

The key is not to miss out on these situations when your cards are weak, but the situation is right.

Most players think they know the situation when they have premium cards, "I have pocket Jacks, time to raise." But, there is a lot more to the right play than knowing your hand.

4. Put the Pressure on Your Opponent

When you have a good or great starting hand, ask yourself how to put pressure on your opponents?

A typical example is early in the event, when 4 players limp in, and you are on the button with Ks-10d. Most players will call and hope for a good flop. That is a mistake.

What is the situation? Have your opponents called big raises after limping or have they have been folding? Has a player been limping with premium cards? How has the table been playing? If your opponents have been folding, this is a good situation for a big raise. You are not in a blind so they won't think you are trying a steal.

Another example is when you hold a hand like pocket pairs. A player in early position makes a standard 3x the big blind raise. Another player calls. You have pocket 9's in the cut-off. What should you do?

What's the situation? There is no standard answer. Has the player upfront been raising too much or not at all? What about the caller? Is he setting up a trap? What is the chip situation? What about the players behind you? There are reasons to dump this hand and there are reasons to put in the squeeze play. If you've been paying attention, you will have a good idea how your opponents play and what to do here.

5. Raise or Fold

A great limit poker concept is to raise or fold. It is one you should consider for playing tournaments.

I know that it feels safer to call pre-flop, but when you have a playable hand it may be time to raise or fold.

An example was the last hand when you held those pocket 9's. It may be one of those raise or fold situations. If those two opponents and you had huge chip stacks then a call seems reasonable. But, even then, a big raise can make your opponents fold a hand like A-Q or K-Q or even pocket Jacks.

Another example is the one where there were 4 limpers and you held K-10 offsuit. Think "raise or fold." Don't auto-call. Calling gives you just one way to win.

6. Misplaying Small and Medium Pairs

I hear this at poker tournaments all the time" "Those small pairs are killing my stack." A player has been getting small pocket pairs, raising upfront, and having to fold to big re-raises. So he complains.

The pairs are not killing his stack, his poor decision-making is hurting his stack.

Yeah, sets are great hands when you hit them but it doesn't happen often. You want to play the small pairs to win big pots.

Example:

You are at a 10 handed table, and get pocket 4's in early position. What should you do?

What is the situation? If the table has been limping pre-flop in these early rounds, then limp. If the table has seen players raising pre-flop a lot, then just fold. Should you raise in this situation? Doesn't seem like a smart move to me. What will you do if you get re-raised? What will you do if you get called and you miss on the flop? Throw off more chips?

Example:

You have pocket 7's in the cutoff. A player upfront raises and gets called by another player in early position. What should you do?

Again, assess this situation. Both players have a big stack. You have a big stack. You are in a back position. A call here is a reasonable play since you have an opportunity to win a big stack if you hit.

What if both players had a medium or small stack? In this situation, I would have no problem in folding my 7's. Even if I hit, I am not going to win enough to make a real difference in my standings.

What about pushing all-in against these players here?
That play makes no sense since you have players behind you, and you are most likely going to be putting yourself in a coin flip situation.

7. Don't Lose Your Patience.

Relax. Everyone goes card dead. If you are being observant, you will often find situations where your cards don't matter.

If it is late in the event, you can use Harrington's M as a guide. My belief is that his M is a good guideline, but that finding the right situations are better so you have enough chips to do damage to your opponent.

As a rule, look to be the first player to make a raise or move all-in. Avoid being a caller of a player who has made the first raise/all-in.

8. Tough Decisions: It's Better to Have Two Ways to Win

There are going to be tough decisions during a tournament. Sometimes you need to be guided by the concept of having two ways to win: Making that play to put pressure on your opponent to fold or if called, making a better hand.

Other times, of course, you have to just push your chips in and hope for the best.

9. Manage your Chips

This is key and yet I think it is an after thought by many players.

Example:

It's the final table. You have $80,000 in the $2,000 big blind and one player moves all-in for all his chips, or $6,000. It doesn't matter what you have. You must call.

Seems simple enough, but last week I witnessed this big blind folding. I was in shock. But no one at the table (except the all-in player) even noticed this awful non-call.

Example:

A tight player under the gun moves all-in. Another tight player calls all-in. You have As-Ks. If you call here and you lose, your stack will be crippled.
What should you do?

If you are low in chips, I would not hesitate to call. If I had enough chips to make some moves, I would fold.

This happened on Sunday, and the player crippled his stack by calling with As-Ks. The first player had Q-Q, the second had A-K offsuit. It was a play he did not and should not have made.

10. Don't Get Unlucky

I haven't figured out how to avoid being unlucky. The only thing is that I don't mind being unlucky one time near the start at the event, if it doesn't cripple my stack.

I hope these 10 winning poker tournament tips help you at your next poker tournament. Good luck!

More Poker Tournament Tips as I Get To Another Final Table

More Poker Tournament Tips as I Get To Another Final Table

Image via Wikipedia

On Wednesday, I decided to go to the evening event at the Oaks. I have not entered this event in many years. It is a $100 buy-in with an $80 rebuy.

After the learning which I posted in my last blog post: How to play against yourself in a poker tournament--I was going to make sure not to finish on the bubble.

The Early Stages

The starting chips are $2,500 and the blinds begin at $25-$50.

At the start of the tournament (and when I get moved to a new table) I like to figure out the following:
1. The betting patterns of my opponents
2. Identify basic table images--who are the ABC players, the tricky ones, the overly aggressive ones, the super tight ones, etc.
3. The tells of the most aggressive player at the table
4 If the player to my immediate left looks at his cards early, and how to connect his actions to whether he will play a hand or not.
5. Any other tells by players

Ideally, I prefer to wait until one round of play has completed before finalizing my opinions of the above.

But after the first five hands, I had already gotten a sense that the players at this table were just limping with any two cards. I was in the small blind and 4 players limped. I turned up A-Q. I usually just limp here since it's early in a rebuy event. But thinking I could make everyone fold, I made a big raise to $350. One player called.

The flop was J-8-4. My opponent moved all-in. I folded. Oh well....I guess I outsmarted myself.

After a while, it was clear the players at this table were very passive and tight. I decided to open up my game a lot. I would call on the button with almost any two cards. I decided to raise pre-flop in a back position.

If there were callers pre-flop and everyone checked to me, I bet and won. If I raised pre-flop and got one or two callers, I made a c-bet.

At the $100-$200 blinds, I got my first premium hand A-K suited. The player who beat me earlier, raised in an early position to $600. It was his first raise of the game, so I knew he had a big hand. However, it was a rebuy event and I needed chips, so I moved all-in. He called with Q-Q. I hit the Ace on the flop.

My most aggressive opponent had two tells; one of which I used for a nice win as well. When he was the pre-flop raiser, his flop bet would give away his hand. That is, if he slid his chips in as a bet, he was weak. If he stacked them, he had a strong hand.

Oh, yeah, his other tell is a very common one: If a player stacks his chips and one or more chips fall off messing up his stack, watch what happens next. In most cases, if a player goes back to fix the stack, he is not that strong. If a player doesn't fix the stack, he is most likely very strong.

Anyway, in this hand my opponent raised pre-flop and I called with J-10 suited on the button. We took the flop heads up. It was A-7-4 rainbow. He slid his chips into the pot as a c-bet. Clearly, if my tell was right, and I raised him, he could only call if he had an Ace. I re-raised. To my chagrin, he did not fold right away. He thought for a while. I guess he had a pocket pair higher than 7's. He mucked and flashed his pocket 9's. Phew!

Overall, though, I was picking up a lot of small pots at this table and I was happy that we would not be breaking up the table for a long time....no! The director came over and decided to break up our table first....what's up with that!

I got moved to a new table, where there were two opponents I played against before. I sat back and waited for a round to get a read on the other players.

The blinds were up to $100-$200. The players at this table were very different than the first one. For some reason, a few players here liked to limp with premium hands. The player with the big stack was one of these players and he sat to my left. And no one would bet the flop unless their hand improved.

I decided to raise pre-flop and never limp. I wanted to clear out the pretenders before the flop. I started to win decent sized pots as I would raise a few limpers, and get one caller. Follow-up with a c-bet and win. My stack just kept growing. It was nice. I would even bet into a pre-flop raiser if the flop was a picture-rag-rag, since I represented top pair.

A key hand: I was dealt pocket 4's in middle position. One player raised, I called, as did the player to my left, and one other opponent. The flop was A-7-4. The first player checked. I thought one of my opponents must have an Ace, so I bet 2/3rds of the pot with my set. The player to my left moved all-in. I called. He had A-7. How he calls a pre-flop raise with A-7 unsuited is beyond me..

I was now up to about $15,000 in chips. I was dealt A-J suited, and a tight player moved all-in. It was only $1,500 more to me, so I called. He had pocket Kings and I lost.

I was up to over $13,000 and decided against the rebuy.

Middle Stages

Not too long after the rebuy period, I was moved to a new table. The players here were aggressive and much better. Again, I sat back to get a read on my opponents. It was interesting. The players to my right were aggressive, but the three players to my left were tight.

Given the image of my opponents, and my image of being tight as well (not having played a hand) I started to play against my image. I was able to win with pre-flop raises first in a hand as my opponents on the left were so tight.

I wasn't getting any cards. I was just playing the guys to my left so I could stay alive. I raised with K-5 suited, I raised with A-2, and I raised with Q-8. I won all of them uncontested.

Everything was going well, until the guy to my left got knocked out and a new player took his seat. The new guy was the chip leader and very aggressive. He was a little crazy as well:

Example: He limped in an early position (the first time he limped). A player on the button moved all-in for $12,000. The limper insta-called. I thought he would show pocket Aces. Instead, he showed 5-4 suited. The button had A-10. The flop came with a 4 and this gut won even more chips.

Yeah, I had to tighten up my play. And my image was clearly of a very tight player now.

In fact, the player to my right--who thought he was a genius--would move all-in on me as the small blind whenever everyone folded to him. He did this 3 times and I folded each time since my cards were so bad.

Late Stages

We were down to 3 tables. I was in survival mode. I was waiting to be the first in a hand in a late position or to call the small blind all-in move.

Since I had a tight image, I knew that making a rare pre-flop raise would allow me to win uncontested, unless someone had a big hand.

Example: I raised with pocket 2's. Everyone folded as I expected...except the big blind called me. Uh oh. The flop may have an overcard. The flop was 10-9-5. We both checked. The turn was a J. The big blind checked, so I had to bet. He folded.

As we got down to 7 players at the table, players were pushing all-in and/or raising. I was card dead and would just have to be patient.

The blinds were now up to $400-$800 and I was down to $3,200 in the big blind. Everyone folded to the small blind and for the fourth time he moved all-in on me. I found the K-J and beat his 5-3, doubling up.

The next hand, he made the same move from the button. I found A-Q and called. He had 10-8 and I doubled through him again.

The next hand, he tried again and I called with K-J--taking him out of the event.

Now, I was up to almost $30,000 in chips...it was a big turnaround.

It was down to 2 tables of 6 players each. Only the final table would get paid.

I was in the big blind and a player moved all-in for $12,000. I called with A-Q. He had K-10 and won when the flop came K-10-x and no Jack appeared.

Final Table

With the loss holding the A-Q, I went from being one of the middle stacks to one of the low stacks. We were down to the final table. Players were aggressive and I was card dead. I would only last about 2 rounds.

Two players got knocked out, and the blinds were so high, I had 2x's the big blind--as I took the big blind. I was going to be all-in with any two cards.

A player moved all-in, I called. I had A-2. He had A-6. It looked like a chop until the 2 hit the flop! The turn was nothing. The river was a 6! Ouch.

I finished 8th and won $300.

Looking back, there was just one hand I misplayed. When we were down to 2 tables, I threw away pocket 4's since both players in the blinds were so low in chips, they would be forced to call my raise. Sure enough, they both moved all-in--but a 4 flopped....oh well.