The 1, 2, 3 of finding a poker table or poker table top

The first thing you’ll want to do is to get your hands on a real poker table. Texas Hold’em simply isn’t the same without one. It’s frictionless and its design is such that you’ll have a whale of a time. But simply having a poker table isn’t where this story ends. Let’s get into the specifics such as what colour the felt on the table should be. Typical Hold’em tables range between green, purple and even red. I quite enjoy having cup holders in my poker tables and whenever I go to a home game, I’m always chuffed when these are in place. But the clincher for me is whether or not there are chip racks, or even a full-on dealer area. Now of course it all depends on what type of game you’re playing. You may be wondering where you’ll find such tables or even how much they’ll cost. The good news is that there are myriad options and you’ve only to run a query in your preferred search engine.

If you’re on a limited budget then you don’t need to buy the full table. You can actually make use of another option which is significantly cheaper – it’s called a poker table top and it’s all the rage. It’s what I’d call an add-on because it’s able to accommodate multiple players – and separates them too – in addition to keeping dibs on chips. But the biggest bonus of using it is that it’s affordable and ubiquitous at both online and bricks and mortar poker outlets.

Here’s the set up. I was playing at a casino that has a $60 buy-in tournament. If you go broke in the first hour, you can buy back in as a new player. Often times they will let you have your same seat back. Though, I don’t know if they are doing you any favors there. Because of the rebuy rule, it’s not uncommon to see short stacked players play crazy for the last 10 minutes before the break period in order to double-up or rebuy back to a full stack.

On the first hand of the tournament I had A/A against K/K and won a big pot. 10 minutes later I had K/K on the button and won another big pot against a guy who hit a Jack on a Jack high flop. Things were going along great. I was by far the chip leader at my table. A short time later I limped in with K/J. The flop came A/Q/T, with 2 diamonds. I made a healthy raise on the flop and got called. The turn was a diamond. It got checked to me and I made a bet. This is where things started to fall apart. I had put the guy on 2 pair. A/10 or Q/10, something like that. Or, perhaps we even had the same hand. But since I had the J of diamonds, I felt I had a nice re-draw with the second nut flush draw if a 4th diamond were to hit. The guy check raised the flop and at that point there was too much money in the pot and I felt like I still had outs, even if I was behind to a couple of diamonds. Instead, the guy turned over K/6 of diamonds for the nuts. I was drawing dead.

The combination of losing a large portion of my stack, plus being completely wrong about where I was at in the hand sent my reeling. Here is where I made my biggest mistake; rather than sitting out a few hands to cool off, I dove right back in 2 hands later by calling a raise with K/Q suited. I missed the flop and folded to a bit. The very next hand I called a raise with 6/6. I failed to improve and folded to a bet on a flop with an ace and 2 face cards. A few hands later I called a raise with 10/J suited. Missed the flop and folded to an all-in bet. By this time, I had gone through quite a few chips.

As the time was running out on the rebuy period, I made yet another mistake. I decided to “gamble” since I could just rebuy before the end of the round. After several players had limped in, the player from the small-blind pushed all-in. I knew if I called I would be heads up with him so I would only need to get lucky against one player. I didn’t get lucky and I was now out of chips. I went to the desk, did my rebuy and went to my new table just as everybody went to break. I got back from the break and had 5000 chips with blinds at 100/200 and I folded for 2 complete orbits getting dealt no playable hands. I felt like I had gotten over my tilt and I was back to thinking clearly and was going to give myself a chance to win the tournament. Oh, how wrong I was…

3 players limped in to a pot and I check from the BB with J/7 of diamonds. The flop comes with all diamonds, 8 high. The player on my left had been pretty aggressive against flops with all small cards, and with 5 players in the pot I fully expected him to stab at the pot. I planned to check raise him all-in against any bet he made on the flop. My plan went downhill when everybody checked the flop. To make things worse, the turn was another diamond. I hate my hand now. To my complete surprise, everybody checks again. On the river, the board paired 6s. I thought it was possible that I have the best hand. I bet out 500 and the player to my left thinks for a minute and then flat calls. After everybody else folds, I say “You probably got me” and turn over my hand. The player says, “I got you” and flips over just a 6. He then waits about 5 or 10 seconds (felt more like a minute) and turns over the ace of diamonds and laughs. I was livid. I asked him why he slow rolled me. He laughs again.

It’s at this point where my tilt meter went haywire. I calmly folded the next two hands against all-in bets before me. But on the first hand that folded to me I raised with J/7 suited. I got re-raised. I pushed all-in and was called by 6-6. I made 2 pair and doubled up. That would be the last pot I would win. My bust-out hand was completely uneventful. I pushed with A/4 and got called by K/5 and 10/8 suited. It didn’t hold up and I was on my way home.

I can’t say that the night was without it’s lessons learned. Mainly this: don’t consider doing a rebuy if you have been on tilt for the past 30 minutes.

I consider a micro-limit tournament to be anything under $5.00. In tournaments with this low of a buy-in, you can expect to see some extremely loose play. Many players will play any two cards in an effort to either win a large pot or get knocked out early to avoid wasting time in a tournament where the payout is going to be relatively low.

For the sake of this article, we’re going to assume that your goal is to win the tournament. This means you aren’t going to play like a maniac while trying to get lucky in order to accumulate chips or get knocked out trying.

Your first task is to make it past the first three levels. Here are some tips to do this:

• Play tight and fold all but the premium starting hands.
• Try to avoid race situations for all your chips
• Don’t overvalue hands like A/Q, A/J, A/10, K/Q or pocket pairs 9s or lower
• Don’t try to steal the blinds (during the first few levels, they are so low, they aren’t worth stealing)
• Identify the overly aggressive players and avoid them early on

Getting dealt some premium hands in the first few rounds can be a large benefit. Since many players are playing really loose, it’s not usually a problem to get paid off by lesser hands. Of course there is always the chance that you will get unlucky and have somebody draw out on you. This is a part of poker and there is nothing you can do about that.

After these first few rounds are over, it’s now time to change gears and accumulate some chips. Since you have been playing tight, you should now be able to use the tight image that you have portrayed to your advantage. When you enter a pot with a raise, other players, if they are paying attention, should take notice and give you credit for having a big hand. I would still suggest you avoid playing against the overly aggressive players, especially if they have accumulated a sizable stack. Many times these players will choose to play back at tight players thinking that they can get them to lay down most hands with a large bet on the flop. Unless you start with a monster hand or flop a big hand, you are going to be hard-pressed to play back at a player with a much larger stack than your own.

The number one most important rule for playing micro-limit tournaments is to remain patient. By picking your spots, getting your money in with the best hand and with a little bit of luck, you are going to find that these small buy-in tournaments can produce a profit for you on a consistent basis.

There are several ways to set traps for an opponent, and they all require you to take some sort of risk. A great example is when you are in early position and you are dealt a hand like A/A or K/K. By limping in with a monster hand from early position, you are inviting an aggressive player behind you to raise the pot allowing you to re-raise when it gets back to you. However, the danger in limping in is that you are making it more inviting for sub-par hands to enter the pot because of the extra money you have added to it. If nobody raises after you and you are forced to see the flop against several opponents, you need to proceed with caution as it’s going to be difficult to determine the strength of an opponents hand. If you are willing to limp in, you are going to need to be ready to fold your premium hand if the flop misses you and the betting dictates that you no longer have the best hand.

While it may seem like setting a trap would always mean slow playing a big hand, that’s not always the case. In some cases, I prefer to bet my big hands depending on the situation. For example, here’s a hand from a recent online tournament. An aggressive player raised roughly 3x the BB from middle position, the player on the button called and I was in the BB with 4/4. The SB folds and I call. The flop came out A/9/4 rainbow. Being first to act with 2 players behind me, my first instinct was to check and let the pre-flop raiser do the betting for me. But, given the players aggression in previous hands, I decide to make a small-ish bet (about 1/3 the pot) which would invite the original raiser to re-raise me. As expected, he did exactly that. He made a healthy raise and I pushed all-in and he eventually folded his hand. After the hand, he claimed to have had K/K and felt unlucky that the Ace hit the board However it was me that was unlucky that the Ace hit as I would have won more chips if the flop had been Q/9/4 instead. Regardless, I made more money on the hand by betting out and letting him raise me than if I had checked and called the flop as he would have bet far less than the amount of his raise of my flop bet.

Setting traps depends greatly on how well you know your opponents. Keep your eyes open for spots where you can play a hand differently than you might normally play it in order to set up an opponent to pay you off.

With all the poker-mania, there’s an amazing shortage of quality information to help people learn how to play properly and become great players quickly. This is the first in a series of Texas Holdem strategy articles aimed at helping players learn how to win at Texas Hold’em poker. Tournament play is a popular, fun sport. These articles will help players understand how to approach tournaments, which differ greatly from regular “ring game” play.

This installment deals with the most-asked question: “How do I deal effectively with aggressive players?” Many players struggle against “maniacs”, the aggressive, wild players who play most every hand, somehow seem to pull cards out of thin air, and often manage to dominate the table.

Here’s what actually happened in a recent poker tournament. I entered a tournament at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, about 20 minutes from my home in South Florida. This weekly $300 entry-fee tournament fills the poker room with 220 players every Monday night.

The blinds start at 50/100 and go up every 15 minutes. I spent the first 30 minutes just hanging out and occasionally limping in to see a flop. The reason for “treading water” was to study my opponents and their playing patterns very closely. There were a number of solid poker players, but right away I spotted the aggressive ones.

I was sitting in the middle, directly across from the dealer. There were two “wild men” to my right. These two participated in most every hand, and agonized with themselves whenever they had to throw a hand away. This was hilarious to me, and it was also very telling. I knew these dudes were doomed from the onset, yet they were extremely dangerous if they caught something with one of their trash hands. These types are great targets, but only when you know how to play them correctly. If you do, you’ll end up with most or all of their chips in your stack. The key is to get to their chips before someone else does.

There were some squeaky-tight and solid players, as usual. Finally, there were two other players to my left who knew one another very well and spoke what sounded like Russian. These two played very aggressively. They rarely called or checked. They would bet or raise the pot significantly, so if they played a hand, you knew they were going to bet it big and you’d better be prepared to push a bunch of your chips into the middle. As a result, the table became tight overall, except for these four players who controlled the early action and dictated the table tempo for the first hour or so. They gambled with wanton abandon, trading chips with each other as the rest of us just observed and wished for a real hand to materialize.

It became apparent that our maniacs were playing mostly garbage hands, and using assertive chatter in an attempt to intimidate everyone. They were enjoying pushing everyone around with their aggressive betting and raising style. Humorously, they got into a number of showdowns, causing all of their trash hands to become openly exposed; e.g., 69 off-suit, Q3 suited, etc. I definitely had these guys pegged now – if only I could get a strong hand…

Later, one of my Russian “friends” came in over the top of a bet I’d placed with a huge raise, then smiled at me as he leaned his head back as if to say “Go ahead. I dare you”. My middle pair just wasn’t strong enough to engage with him, but I remembered this little “lesson” and my mistake. He’d used this tactic many times against the others and I should’ve expected it. I also realized that we had not seen any of his supposed “big hands”, as he always mucked them. Whenever you see an aggressive player dominating, and then mucking all those supposed “great hands”, you know you’ve spotted a target.

We played on, with the two maniacs to my right getting busted out by the Russian contingent. It’s been an hour and fifteen minutes – and I still haven’t seen even one decent hand yet! This is, unfortunately, typical poker.

After about an hour-and 45 minutes, I finally pick up a pair of wired 9’s (99). Now I was hoping the flop would yield a set (trips). Sure enough, it came: 9, K, 5. I was elated and jumping up and down (inside). I was finally in a position to make my move, and hoped it would be against one of my aggressive Russian friends with their big stacks.

To prepare my trap, I delayed and muddled around for about ten seconds, and then casually “checked” verbally and using my hand in a chopping motion, with a slightly disgusted look. Next, the younger Russian moves in with a big bet of 3,000 chips. I was sure I had him now. As expected, everyone else quickly folded and got out of his way – except me. This fellow had pushed everyone around and I was finally properly armed and ready to do battle on my own terms. Note that this had been my “battle plan” all along. I was deliberately targeting these aggressive characters, knowing that when the time was right, their ill-gotten stacks would become mine!

The action came back around to me, so now it was just the two of us heads-up. The two Russians said something to each other that the rest of us couldn’t decipher. I delayed and bobbed my head around as if to be struggling with my decision. Then, I motioned with both hands and uttered “I’m all-in”. I knew this series of actions would likely trigger an aggressive reaction, since my “check-raise” made it appear as if I was trying to steal this pot! A check-raise almost always triggers a full-tilt response from an aggressive player.

He immediately called me – he was so aggressive (and pot-committed) that it was like a fish taking the bait and running for deep waters – hook line and sinker! I threw my pair of 9’s over, revealing the trip 9’s. There was a low murmur around the table from the other players. My young Russian friend reluctantly flipped his five/trash hand over – he had a pair of fives (with a King over-card showing on the board!). He was definitely angling to drive me out of this pot with his ascertive play – one too many times…

You see, no one actually gets that many great hands in poker – nobody. If someone plays 30% to 40% or more of the time, they’re just “gambling” and bluffing. This guy thinks he has a “good” hand, because he actually had a real pair – something he doesn’t often have when pushing everyone around with mostly aggressive betting as his only real weapon.

The turn came and it wasn’t a five – then someone pipes up and says “he’s drawing dead”. Believe me, you never want to hear that when you’re in a showdown! I looked over as he said something in Russian to his buddy – another violation of tournament rules, as everyone is compelled to speak English at the tournament table. It wouldn’t matter, as he stood up, grabbed his jacket and left after receiving some consolation from his friend.

His older friend glared over at me and uttered something derogatory in Russian. I had no clue what he said, but I knew from his tone that I didn’t like it. I also knew I’d gotten under his skin by taking down his buddy and raking in all of his chips. I responded with “what’s that, I don’t understand what you’re saying since you’re not speaking English?” loudly so everyone at the table could hear me.

He mumbled something about his friend…I smiled and said politely with a smile “I deliberately laid that trap for your friend and he fell right into it!”, pushing the knife in deeper, knowing he’d be gunning for me anyway – might as well make sure my next trap was fully set. This also signaled to everyone else at the table that whenever I checked or limped, it could be extremely dangerous if assumed to be a sign of weakness – something I’d leverage later as the blinds and antes rose and the proper time to bluff and steal blinds actually arrived.

After a slight pause, my Russian friend noticed that everyone was now looking at him. He looked down at his chips and said “nice play” with a reluctantly polite tone.

Boy, I was elated! My battle plan was definitely becoming field-proven here – and my next target was clearly sighted. It had taken careful observation, planning and a lot of patience to wait for the right hand, and then play it correctly to take this highly-skilled, aggressive player out and rake in all of his chips.

About ten minutes later, it was tournament break time, after two hours of play. I counted my chips, which totaled 14,900 (we started with 5,000 each), then grabbed a quick bite to eat, reflecting on what had just taken place.

Within ten minutes of returning from break, I finally picked up a serious starting hand: Cowboys (KK). I knew it was time for my new Russian friend and me to tango, so I fired out a bet of 3 times the big blind: 3,000 chips, bait that I was sure he couldn’t turn down. Sure enough, he bit – big time. His all-in raise came almost instantaneously, before I could even get my bet onto the table. He was totally ready to engage, and had been laying in wait for me – just like I had planned. I had set him up by taking out his friend and then challenging his poker ego in front of everyone. He just had to retaliate against me – it was a totally predictable “full-tilt” response from this kind of player.

This is what the game of poker is really all about – having a well-defined strategy, the patience to wait for the right hand, and then executing properly. It’s what makes poker a game of strategy instead of a game of chance (for some of us).

He raised by going all-in with around 8,000 chips to my roughly 14,000. I quickly called his all-in bet. Everyone else quickly folded and got out of our way.

I flipped my pocket kings over, then looked him straight in the eye and just smiled. Then someone says “Yeah! Now we’ve got some action!” He sighed and flipped over QQ – he actually had a real hand for a change. That’s one of the problems with these kinds of “semi-solid, aggressive” players, like my Russian friend here, and other poker greats like Gus Hansen. You never really know exactly what to expect from them. Of course, my opponent could’ve held pocket rockets (AA), but I’ll play those KK cowboys strong each and every time I get them, since there’s only one hand that can beat them heads-up. I also knew this aggressive player on tilt was likely to be overplaying his hand, improving my odds significantly.

The flop, turn and river came and went without another Queen and it was done – my cowboys stood up and I had all of both Russian’s stacks, which included most of the other two poor maniac’s chips (who lost to the Russians earlier). This instantly made me by far the chip leader at our table with well over 22,000 chips!

I went from having an average chip stack to being the table chip leader, against tough, aggressive opponents, within less than half an hour by:

a) Playing solid, reasonable tournament poker,

b) Not taking big, undue risks with weak or “drawing” hands,

c) Studying my aggressive prey and where the chips were sitting,

d) Formulating and refining a battle plan while observing the game progress,

e) Remaining patient while waiting for the right hand to make my move, and

f) Executing this plan with precision against a predetermined opponent, and on terms of my choosing – not the opponent’s.

There was no luck involved at all – except that my opponent didn’t hold AA or pull some lucky cards with a trash hand – which was simply playing the odds in my favor.

I started out with a high-level strategy to target aggressive chip leaders, and go after them with strong hands from the right position. I planned this before I ever arrived at the casino that day, or knew who these players would be. Then, I refined my plan once I knew for certain whom the evening’s targets would be and how I’d provoke them. It certainly helped that I caught two decent hands during those first hours of play.

Unfortunately, I later lost to a legitimate full house, but made it into the top 40 – it happens…

The key to playing against aggressive and maniac players is having a viable Texas Holdem strategy you can profit from when you get some good hands. If you have a good plan, you can convert it into a formidable stockpile of chips – a stack that you‘ll definitely need as the blinds and antes increase and the tournament field narrows in the latter stages.

This is how I approach Texas Holdem strategy for tournaments now – at least when the tables are full with 8 or more players, some of them aggressive and maniacs. So, the next time you encounter wild and aggressive players at your poker table, get ready to have some fun! It’s like Tae Kwon Do – using the opponent’s own energy and momentum against them.

In the next installment, we’ll detail this Texas Holdem strategy more formally, along with exploring some other tournament tips for playing better Texas Holdem poker.

Until then – good luck!

Rick

In this article, we’ll examine the techniques that were used more closely to best these players, along with stitching a Texas Hold’em tournament poker strategy together with some good poker tournament fundamentals.

Let’s begin with some foundational elements of any winning tournament poker strategy – clearly understanding our priorities. In poker tournaments, each player’s primary objectives are:

1. Survival – first and foremost, surviving to play at the final table, and ideally to be the last surviving player (the winner!) is of paramount importance.

2. Building and Protecting that Chip Arsenal – to survive increasingly large blinds and tougher competition at the latter and final tables, a player must build up and sustain a “chip arsenal” – a substantially large stack of chips – early enough in the competition to be capable of surviving and taking various necessary, calculated risks from time to time.

This must be accomplished without risking the entire tournament and building that chip arsenal in the process. Failure to build an early chip lead is a sure ticket to being eroded away once the blinds and antes increase, chewing away at your stack until you’re cornered or dead.

3. Sustained Focus – concentrating on your game plan, attacking when the right cards and situations present themselves and converting those opportunities into “profits”, while avoiding killer momentary lapses of reason (i.e., making occasional mistakes by not paying close enough attention). Focusing like this over an extended period of time is much more difficult than it seems, requiring a constant vigil, self-awareness and self-discipline.

4. Adaptability – as the tournament progresses, it’s critical to recognize when the game dynamics change and quickly adapt to new conditions such as:

• Number of players at the table

• Style of the players

• Size of your chip stack vs. opponents’

• Odds the pot is giving you, especially as blinds and antes increase

• New players arriving that are initially unknown quantities

• New table you’ve been moved to and avoiding mistakes.

Since Texas Holdem tournament events are specifically designed to progressively eliminate players, your foremost objective must be to survive and protect your stack of chips. Taking unnecessary risks is a formula for disaster and an early trip home…someone can always get lucky against you.

Demonstrating the patience to hold back and attack at the most opportune moments, when the odds favor your success, and with a proper battle plan in mind is critical. While others are visiting and socializing, daydreaming, watching the waitresses, and otherwise taking their eyes off the ball, when you’re at a tournament table, it’s time for your focused attention on the game at hand. This kind of extended attention span becomes increasingly difficult to maintain, so rest up before playing in a tournament – do not play when tired if you can avoid it.

I also recommend against alcohol while playing, as it leads to impaired judgment and fatigue.

Here are some basic guidelines to use when playing in poker tournaments or at any table where there are many players that you don’t know well:

1. Prepare and Refine your Battle Plan – when you enter a tournament, you’re going to be fighting a “battle” for survival – against the blinds, the antes, fatigue, as well as against the other players. Would any good military commander go into battle without having first surveyed the battle field, understood the enemy and its tactics, and without having a well-conceived battle plan which takes these facts into account and ensures success? Of course not! If they did, they probably wouldn’t live to tell about it.

You shouldn’t go into a poker tournament without having completed some pre-planning for the battle ahead either. Think about your plan and several things you’ll do in each typical situation ahead of time. Refine this once you’re at the table as your battlefield unfolds before you.

2. Start out slowly. Be patient. Use the early tournament period, while the blinds are still low, to study everyone at your table, identifying the most likely prey, understanding their habits and play styles. Use this time to mentally prepare and refine your “battle plan” for transferring their chips into your stack. It’s best to formulate several strategies during your pre-tournament planning, and then refine each one as you see how the game is actually shaping up, the types of players at your table and how you’ll approach each situation.

3. Set the Stage – play a few “ugly” hands early, limping in occasionally and feeling your way around the table with the other players while the blinds are still low, playing a few hands you wouldn’t normally even consider. This prevents you from starting out with a table image as a solid or tight player; otherwise, you may not get the action you’ll need when you do get those pocket rockets (AA) and great opportunities later.

4. Know Your Own Table Image – Everyone develops a “table image”. Be aware of your own table image, and be careful to mix your game up along the way so that you can’t easily be “typed”. Once others can predict your behavior and your likely reaction to a given situation, they’ll definitely use it against you. For example, if you play mostly premium hands and fold at the first sign of trouble, other players will quickly type you as “weak” and will steal you blind, taking advantage of that knowledge by representing hands they don’t actually have so you’ll fold. If you project that image, know it, so you can trap them with a good hand – make the most of it, since that will definitely destroy your weak table image…

In the first article, I let several aggressive players push me around a little early on, then limped in and dropped out on a few draws, so they all thought I was a tight, weak player and a good target for their aggressive style of play. Letting them push me around some, while not losing much to them, conditioned these aggressive players to push me even harder when they absolutely shouldn’t have – a huge error on their part that I converted into a chip leadership position.

5. Be Careful, Protect Your Stack – You must protect your stack and survive until you get some good hands you can use, so be careful to expend that chip depot deliberately and judiciously – always with purpose. When a player raises you significantly, you must think: 1) how much of my stack can I afford to invest in this one hand, 2) can I win this hand if I play it fully, and 3) what kind of play will yield me the most chips and give me the best overall odds to win against this particular player.

6. Get a Real Hand and Extract Its Value – don’t go up against maniacs and aggressive raisers without a real hand – and definitely, do not challenge them while you’re chasing a draw! Their strength is their bravado and wild, aggressive betting style – it’s also their biggest weakness. When you do get a real hand that you believe is a winner, you must get the most value for it by extracting as many chips as possible from the other players:

• Hit aggressive players head-on, triggering their aggressive response systems, and be willing to stick it out with them, re-raising them all-in if necessary since you know you’re likely in top position, or

• Trap them with a check-raise play. You can often just let aggressive bettors take the initial lead, betting into you and thereby become pot-committed, leading them to putting many or all of their chips at risk. That’s another reason you’d better have a real hand whenever you challenge the aggressive players – they typically just will not fold or back down, and

• Bet enough to extract a significant chip “profit” from the opponents, without forcing them to fold, if you’re sure you have the winning hand.

7. Pay Attention and Focus Outwardly – watch everyone and everything that’s going on at your table. Don’t daydream, and for Pete’s sake – do not focus on your own hand! As a general rule of thumb, spend 3 times as much energy and time trying to determine what other players are holding (especially when you’re not in a hand), gauging their play and betting styles, and refining your battle plan – than you do thinking about your own hands and play. You won’t be playing that many hands if you’re a good poker player, so use this available time wisely.

8. Play the Pot Odds – most people think too much about their own hand and what they might draw next. That’s because calculating and playing the pot odds isn’t yet second nature to them. If that’s you, then you definitely need to get the poker odds ingrained into your subconscious mind, so they’re second nature and you don’t even need to think about them while you’re playing. Find yourself a good Texas Holdem poker odds calculator, practice with it, and you’ll learn the odds of drawing each type of hand and find that you don’t need to think about them.

9. Bluff for the Pot from Good Positions – as the blinds and antes increase, the size of each hand’s pot becomes substantial. Bluffing for these pots from proper positions (e.g., acting late with a big bet, acting first with a semi-bluff hand and bigger bet) is a good way to hold your own while everyone else struggles against the blinds.

10. Play the Player – the key to winning in poker is to get other players to make the wrong play, which you then profit from. To do this, knowing your opponents, understanding what kinds of hands they play, whether they’ll fold when bluffed, and knowing when it’s time to lay down your hand to simply survive and play another is crucial.

The alternative is to do what many players do – just leave most everything to chance and play the game in a random, unpredictable fashion with whatever hands you’re dealt; a.k.a. “gambling”.

They say “those who fail to plan, plan to fail”, and that “hope is not a strategy” – a couple of my favorite sayings that come to mind…have a plan, and execute it.

You must be prepared to mix up your play enough that players aren’t sure what to expect from you. It’s helpful to “shift gears” from one mode of operation to another from time to time. It’s also recommended to play the opposite from everyone at the table; e.g., if most everyone is playing tight overall, then loosen up your play and take advantage of them by overplaying some hands, going on some draws, and a few semi-bluffs. If the table becomes loose, tighten up and attack with a good hand or trap them.

Remember, aggressive players’ egos usually can’t handle being overtly raised or publicly challenged. They expect to be the preeminent raisers and dominate the game, so they’ll often re-raise or go all-in in order to leverage their aggressive position against you. Be ready! You can just about count on it. When they push you at the wrong time, sock it to ‘em! You can use these types of players to build up your chip arsenal and possibly earn yourself a seat at the final table.

There aren’t any absolutes in no-limit Texas Holdem tournament strategy, which is one of the things that make it so entertaining and challenging. These are just a few good tips and techniques that will help you get started and do reasonably well against some good players and some aggressive ones.

Finally, it’s been said “if you can’t spot the sucker at your table, it’s probably you!” I love this saying, because it’s so true. If you do your pre-planning and have confidence in your game plan, along with an ability to observe the opponents and apply the proper techniques against different kinds of players, you’ll go far in Texas Holdem poker tournaments.

So, there’s your first set of Texas Holdem poker tournament strategies. I sure wish someone had condensed things down like this for me when I first started playing. It would’ve saved me years of learning it the hard way. Enjoy.

Good luck!

Rick

When I first started playing in Sit and Go tournaments, I was beginning to think they called it “sit and go” because you sat down, played a little, then it was time to go do something else since you’d just been whacked and knocked out of the tournament! These tournaments can be really tough, since they’re effectively like being at the “final table” of a regular tournament.

The recent popularity of playing online Sit & Go tournaments sometimes amazes me. On any given evening, you can try to jump into a Sit and Go (SNG) table on Party Poker, for example, and easily find yourself competing just to get into a seat before that table fills up, forcing you to go find another table (especially on lower-entry fee tables). I’ve seen times when it can take up to 10 attempts to get into a Sit and Go tournament table during prime time. That’s because there are literally thousands of players across the world who are hungry to get into these tournaments and hopefully win some money.

All of the major online poker rooms now offer Sit and Go format games now, so you can find a place to play just about everywhere. You can think of these games as being very similar to small “satellite” tournament games that surround the bigger poker tournaments at traditional poker tournament venues. They also somewhat resemble play at a final table in a regular tournament, with one key exception – nobody at this table earned their way to this tournament table – they simply paid their entry-fee to play there. Because of this, the broad range of players and skill levels you’re likely to encounter varies wildly – one of many challenges you’ll face in Sit and Go play.

Generally, there are two types of Sit and Go tournaments offered. Single table and multi-table tournaments. Nowadays, there is also a faster game, sometimes referred to as “Turbo” mode SNG tournaments. In these games, the tempo of the tournament is much faster (blinds go up every 5 minutes instead of 15 minutes), with the blinds increasing much faster and less time allowed to make your decisions. This is a very challenging game format, but it does move along much faster than a traditional Sit and Go tournament.

You can also get into 4-player and heads-up (2 player) games, which just effectively puts you into the poker tournament final table, short-handed mode of operation immediately, so you can play the end-game out from there. I don’t really prefer these games, though, since there are far fewer players and therefore the pool size available to win is much smaller and not as worthwhile.

In general, two-table Sit and Go’s are much more profitable, since they begin with more players (18 to 20), making the prize pool larger and more attractive. Once you know how to play and win in these Sit and Go tournaments and can adjust your play appropriately, the number of tables and players really doesn’t matter as much, since you’ll be able to adapt your play quickly as the situation changes around you.

Some of my favorite places to play Sit & Go tournaments include Party Poker, Poker Stars and PrimaPoker’s Captain Cook’s poker rooms. There are many awesome poker rooms out there, with a wide range of players frequenting each of them. They are all very similar.

There are a number of different entry-fee levels to choose from, typically ranging from $5 up to $5,000. There is very little difference in playing in the lower limit games in the $5 to $30 range. When you get above the $30 threshold, the level of players you’ll encounter improves dramatically. The poker room site typically takes a “rake”, a fee of around 10% for hosting the tournament, and the balance of the funds go into the prize pool. In single-table SNG tournaments, the payout goes to the top 3 finishers. In two-table games, the top 4 places are generally paid.

In higher entry-fee games, you’ll be playing against some very good players. In these high tier games, you’ll encounter some of the best, most dangerous players around. If you’re interested in getting into these high stakes games, one way is to win enough at the lower stake games so that you earn, or leverage, your smaller entry-fees into the bigger games, a traditional way that satellite games work and a good approach to take.

I play in a lot of Sit and Go tournaments and regular tournaments, both online and in casinos and poker rooms. Throughout all of this, I have finally learned how to win consistently at Sit and Go tournaments. There are some key areas that you must focus on and shore up in order to properly “shape” your play and end up in the money.

You’ll need a well-rounded approach, though, to place in the money consistently at Sit and Go tournaments, including:

* Playing Position Correctly – you’ll need to know how to use position in the Sit and Go tournament to your advantage, which hands to play in which positions and how to keep from losing your chips from poor positions. Earlier in the tournament, it’s best to be more conservative with your play by only playing the best hands from the best positions.

* Adjusting to Changing Conditions – the key to winning Sit and Go tournaments is adjusting your play style and approach as the blinds and number of players increases. Done correctly, you’ll end up in the final 3 in the money up to half of the time (no approach you can take will allow you to win all of the time). As the game progresses, you must adjust or the blinds will eat you up.

* Winning Heads-up Play – arguably one of the most misunderstood, yet most fun part of any tournament, is playing heads-up against another good player. Learning to play winning heads-up poker means the difference between being the Winner and 2nd Place – a huge difference in payout in all tournaments goes to the winner, along with the recognition as the champion, so you must learn to play great heads-up poker. In general, you must play much more aggressively heads up than you would otherwise.

* Beating Aggressive Players – see my article on playing vs. aggressive players, which will definitely make a difference for Sit and Go play, as it explains how to take advantage of aggressive and wild players, without losing all of your chips in the process.

* Online Tells – there are many different special tells that you can use when playing online. Do you know them? Do you use them? If not, chances are they’re being used against you! For example, when players use checkboxes online and make a lot of their decisions ahead of time, then suddenly they’re not using the checkbox (because they’re taking longer), that could be a tell that they’re having to think things through more, which could be a tell. If they use checkboxes and act instantly, chances are they don’t have a very good hand, so didn’t even need to think about it (just clicked the checkbox and now waiting on the next card).

* Successful Bluffing and Blind Stealing – one of the most important moves in poker is bluffing the opponents, and in tournament play, you must be capable of successfully bluffing in order to survive the blinds and antes and to win heads-up. You can’t bluff weak players, so don’t even try. You’ll need to learn how determine the style or type of the players, so you’ll recognize who to bluff.

The next time you’re thinking about playing a poker tournament, give the Sit and Go a try. It’s a fast-paced tournament, where you’ll have the opportunity to experience first hand what it’s like to play at that Texas Holdem poker tournament final table. You’ll go through a sequence of fast play and changing conditions, starting from a full table of 10 players, progressing rapidly to only 5 to 6. Then, if you’re a good enough player, you’ll find yourself in the most dangerous position of all – where you’re one of only 4 players remaining, so you’re only one seat out of the money. The key goal is surviving to the heads-up phase, so you get a shot at being the tournament winner, who receives the bulk of the prize pool.

So, you can practice for bigger tournament events by playing in Sit and Go tournaments and that way you’ll be very comfortable when you do make it that final table in a big Texas Holdem poker tournament, and you’ll have a lot of fun and gain some great Texas Holdem tournament poker experience along the way.

Let’s have a closer look at online poker tells in online games like Texas Holdem. These online tells differ quite a bit from traditional ones, as we’ll soon see. If you don’t know about these particular poker secrets and you play online poker, then you’re at a significant disadvantage vs. your competition. Chances are, experienced online players have been using these against you for quite some time without you ever even knowing it…

What is a “tell”? A traditional poker tell is any habit, behavior, or physical reaction that gives other players more information about your hand. In offline poker, a shaking, nervous hand is often an indication of a player with a strong hand. Another common poker tell would be looking down at my chips when I first see my pocket cards or the flop – a sign that I’m thinking about betting and have a good hand, so I’m seeing how many chips I have to work with.

Several of the poker tells listed here are useful for both online and offline poker. However, since we lack the ability to read opponents physical expressions and reactions when playing online, the number and type online poker tells actually available to us are much more limited, and so the ones we do have available become that much more important to be aware of and recognize.

Caro’s Book of Poker Tells is the classic treatise on the subject. Most of the poker tells that work in offline games rely upon physical observations of how a player reacts or behaves, so these kinds of tells don’t help online since we can’t observe the player physically. So when playing online, there are other telltale signals that we can watch for that give us an edge.

According to a recent survey, the top three online poker tells are:

* Quickness to respond, reported by 76% of respondents – a very fast check can indicate a weak hand, quick bets on the turn or river can often indicate a strong hand.

* Slowness to respond, reported by 73% of respondents – a pause followed by a check can often indicate weakness, while a delay followed by a raise often indicates strength.

* Automatic play, reported by 68% of respondents – a lazy approach to the auto buttons lets a player slip into a set pattern of play. Any breaks in this pattern are clear tells.

So, what can we actually use as online tells?

Using Check Boxes to Gain Information

Online poker rooms offer the use of check boxes for actions such as “Fold”, “Check/Fold”, “Raise”, or “Raise Any”, etc. While convenient for those of us who lack the patience to focus on the game for extended periods of time, the use of checkboxes can be very damaging to your overall winnings. You can determine when a player has used a check box, because their action comes immediately after the player before them acts. You can use this knowledge to your advantage if a player consistently uses checkboxes.

When a player has pre-selected “Check” or “Check/Fold”, it should be obvious that he doesn’t have a strong hand that he cares much about, and is likely on a draw or just waiting to fold, so you can determine the player likely has no hand or a weak hand. If their hand is immediately folded after the prior player acts, you know they are using checkboxes and can begin watching this more closely. When they don’t use a checkbox, then they’re taking more time to consider how to play a better hand…

Similarly, a player who uses the “Call Any” check box is likely to be on a draw and not yet made a good enough hand to bet or raise with, but is definitely not ready to fold at this point.

Poker tells are not 100% accurate, yet they often provide us with enough additional information to help us confirm what we may already suspect. Over time you can get a sense for how these players use checkboxes and begin to draw conclusions about your opponents hand strength and mode of operation as a result.

If you detect that someone is on a draw, for example, you can often bet or raise the pot a bit and push them right out, since it’d be too expensive to continue with their draw without free cards or calling minimum bets.

The fact that a player feels so strongly about a hand (good or bad) to make a decision before even seeing the how other players will bet or act is a poker tell about this person’s inexperience with online play and often about their hand strength.

If you use checkboxes, be highly self-aware of how they’ll be perceived by the other players and use them to your advantage. If you have a good hand that you’re wanting to slow-play, use a check-box to quickly “Check” or “Call” with, feigning weakness. If you have a weaker hand, are on a draw, avoid using the checkbox altogether and act like you’re really thinking about how to play that hand.

If you’re bluffing, make a raise quickly and confidently (using a checkbox, if applicable), to signal confidence in your hand. Of course, it’s always best to mix things up a bit so players can’t predict your actions. The idea is to keep opponents guessing or throw them off in the wrong direction so you can profit from their mistake – that’s how winners operate, through carefully orchestrated deception and mixing things up constantly.

Speed of Play

Online poker rooms limt the amount of time each player has to take action. Often, the speed at which a player responds can be a good poker tell. Generally, a quick bet is a sign of weakness. A delayed bet or action can be a sign of strength since the player is spending time calculating how best to play what is perceived to be a good or strong hand, how much to bet, etc.

Keep an eye on how much time it takes players to make their decision and take action and remember it at the end of a hand. Then, when you get a chance to see their cards in a showdown, verify what kinds of hands they act on slowly and what kinds of hands they act quickly upon. Speed of play is the most common and easiest online poker tell to spot.

The instant call after you bet: Most players who call your bet immediately have a weak calling hand. These players want you to believe they have a stronger hand and hope that you will not bet into them again.

The delayed check: Most players who take longer than normal before checking to you do not want you to bet. They are attempting to display strength because they want to see the next card for free.

The delayed bet: When an opponent thinks for a long time and then bets, they will usually be holding a strong hand.

The instant bet/raise on the river: The player who utilizes this move will usually be holding a very strong hand, often times it’ll be trips. By raising or betting so quickly, they are trying to make you think they are bluffing. This move can also be used on the turn and generally, though not as frequently, denotes strength.

The bet into on the turn: When a player has checked and called on the flop and then bets into you on the turn, it can indicate weakness or that they’ve made their hand. This type of bet often means that they picked up their draw or that they are semi-bluffing with a draw they picked up on the flop. Strongly consider raising if you have a decent hand.

What about your online play style? Do you exhibit these kinds of online poker tell play behaviors and patterns? If so, be aware of it and deliberately mix things up so that you’re decision-making processes aren’t so easy to spot and lock onto, or simply take a similar amount of time for each action you make, preventing people from drawing any kind of conclusions at all based upon timing.

Opponents Starting Hand Fold-to-Flop Ratio

Keep an eye on whether or not a player folds a lot of garbage starting hands (a ‘tight’ player) or is playing at just about every pot that comes along – a ‘loose’ player. This information can be used to help determine the strength of a players overall game. If the players folds most of the time, beware since this player is pretty tight or solid and only plays good hands.

If the opponent plays most every hand, then you can probably take advantage of this and win if you play good cards consistently against such a player. These kinds of loose players like to gamble, and sometimes they’ll get lucky and pick up some cards. It’s best to just remain patient and wait for your opportunity. You’re better off just playing the odds and good hands in order to take advantage of this player’s aggressive, loose style when you land a good, solid hand.

Chatting

Just like in offline games, the “chattiness” of a player can be used as a tell. Generally, a player who is highly chatty that suddenly goes quiet is now busy thinking about playing some good cards, figuring out how best to play the hand.

Alternatively, a player who suddently becomes antagonistic may be bluffing and hoping this demonstration of exhuberance will add to the strength of his bluff and cause you to fold. When you recognize a tell, generally do the opposite of what you think the player is trying to cause you to do.

Self-Awareness

It’s important for you to remain aware of your play style and table image at all times. It’s best to keep everyone off balance by mixing things up. Become suddenly aggressive and play looser (and risk the minimum amount you can, usually early in the game before blinds go up if it’s a tournament), then become tight again. Keep everyone guessing.

Being aware of how you use check-boxes, the timing of your decision-making and action-taking, and controlling your play style deliberately instead of going into “auto-pilot” repeatitive mode will help you avoid providing others with the advantages of the tells discussed here.

I hope these insights into online poker tells have been helpful. Keep them in mind as you play in your next online game or tournament.

Until next time – - – Good luck!

Rick

We humans are very perceptive creatures. We are able to communicate in many different ways with one another. By saying something, by saying nothing, by shrugging our shoulders, by winking, delaying, etc. These are all forms of communicating.

Do you realize that when you place a poker bet you are actually communicating something to the other players? Understanding what you are communicating with your betting, and understanding what the other players are communicating with their bets is one of the cornerstones of good poker play.

By mastering this form of poker communications, you will find yourself becoming a truly formidable poker player. If you ignore this betting language, you will consistently lose – it’s as simple as that.

When a player calls, it often just means they’re limping to see the next card with the hope of improving their hand. When a player checks, it typically means they’re not too happy with their current hand, and would like to see another card before making any move. Yes, they could be trapping, but that’s the exception, not the rule.

When a player bets, they’re communicating that they like their hand and they want some action, so they’re risking more chips in order to take control of the action or just take the pot. Whether this communications is “real” or not depends – upon what style of player they are: tight, solid, loose, maniac, etc. and how this player communicates.

If you’ve been paying attention (like you should be), you’ll have a pretty good idea of how “honest” this player typically communicates (bets/plays). Aggressive players who play a lot of hands and raise a lot to drive people out of pots can be generally considered “dishonest” and can’t be trusted to communicate (bet) honestly.

Tight/solid players are relatively honest, usually betting more in accordance with the true strength of their hand, making them easier to read most of the time. Learn to read these different player’s betting signals and you’ll be amazed at how much your game improves.

Decide how “honest” or “dishonest” you want your betting signals to be that the other players are reading from you. Try mixing these signals up a bit so the other players can’t quite tell what to expect from you and it’ll help by causing them to make more mistakes against you, resulting in bigger winnings.

Now, let’s have a look at an example situation. Let’s say you’re in a game with 9 people at the table, and on the button, so you’ll get to act last and have the most information to work with. Your starting hand is good, but not great, such as a 67 spades-suited connector. The action comes around and half of the players have dropped out, and several players have limped in. You go ahead and limp in as well, wanting to see the flop like everyone else. The flop comes: 4s, Jc, 9d – not exactly what you’d hoped for. The first three players check. The 4th player throws out a bet of 3 times the big blind. So, where are we?

Ignoring your hand for just a moment (since we’re talking about betting and communicating – right?), everyone except the 4th player communicated that they didn’t really like the flop, then the 4th player placed a decent bet. Is he trying to steal the pot or does he now have a pair of Jacks? Since we’ve been watching these players’ style of play all along, and we quickly realize that this is a fairly tight player, we would correctly conclude that this basically “honest”, tight player has hit that pair of Jacks.

On the other hand, if the 4th player had instead been playing loose with lots of bets and raises, stealing many pots and pushing people around quite a bit, then they can’t be trusted since they’re fundamentally “dishonest” with their betting communications patterns.

See how this works? Now, about your hand. You need to fold either way here, since the odds of you making a flush or straight aren’t good, and there’s an overpair of Jacks that’s possible and likely based upon what’s being communicated (and someone could also be trapping that checked, too).

So, what are you communicating with your bets? Are you even thinking about that? Before you fire out a bet, you need to consider what “message” you want to send the other players, and make sure your intended message gets through, in order to affect the other players’ actions and control the outcomes more often.

What are the others communicating to you with their bets? What kind of “communicator” are they? Honest or dishonest? Consistent or variable? How much do you believe what they’re telling you? Are you really listening, or just looking at your own hand too much?

So, Betting Is Communicating. Become truly fluent in this “poker language” and you’ll be amazed at how much it boosts your winnings.

Good luck!

Rick

So, what is this X Factor? It’s an abbreviated name for your
stack-ratio. OK, that really clears things up, doesn’t it?

Here’s a simple equation for calculating your X Factor:

X = STACKSIZE / INITIALPOT

where, STACKSIZE is your current stack size, and INITIALPOT is the
size of the pot at the start of the hand, once all blinds and antes
are in the pot.

For example, let’s say the blinds are 100/200 with antes of 25, and
there’s 8 players. That’s a total pot of 500 (100 + 200 + 200).

If your stack size is 5,000, then your X value is 10 (5,000 / 500).

If your stack size is 3,000, X = 6, Stack size 1,000, X = 2, etc.

When calculating your X, just use estimates (don’t worry about the
fractional accuracy). For example, stack size of 2,800 is “5 to 6″.

So, why does this X factor matter? Basically, X represents how many
“rounds” we have remaining against the blinds and antes. It turns
out to be a very useful rule of thumb for making some important
tournament decisions. Here’s the general guidance X provides me:

X greater than 20

At this point, we’re on easy street, in great shape and can hold out,
take a few calculated risks, become aggressive when we have a good
hand, good position or good oppt’y to bluff. We can afford to take
more chances, play a bit looser when appropriate, mix up our play.

X of 15 to 20

At this point, we’re in OK shape, can hold out for better hands,
better bluff opportunities and run some good trap plays. However,
we must try to avoid playing more than 5 X on any one hand, in order
to remain above an X of 10 (and avoid placing ourselves at undue risk).

X of 8 to 14

At this point, we should be tightening up some, protecting our stack
(and X), waiting for a good hand or bluff opportunity to come our way.

X less than 8

At this point, our stack size relative to the the blinds is becoming critical.
When our X reaches a value of 5 to 7, it’s time to shift into “push/fold”
mode (described below).

So, we should be constantly tracking our X value, and taking the X
value of our opponents into consideration as we track our situation
in the game (to predict opponents better, as well as to guide our
own play).

The rules I present above are how I play, given my solid
to tight/aggressive style (feel free to experiment and come up with
your own X Factor rules, but these will get you “in the zone”).

Now, when our X value drops below 8, I said we enter “push/fold”
mode. Here’s what I mean about an X of 7 and less and push/fold…

Push/fold is where we do one of two things: All-in or Fold. We go
all-in in order to push the other players out of these pots by
giving them poor pot odds and forcing them to either fold or enter
a showdown with us.

When I think about Push/fold mode, I treat it as much like
aggressive heads-up play as possible. That’s because if I do
end up in a showdown, it’ll likely be against one other player
who has a strong enough starting hand to call with bad pot odds
anyway (watch out for weak players, they’ll call you anytime).

At an X of 5 to 7, I’ll play any hand with an Ace in it, and
any pair that’s 5 or higher.

At lower X’s, I’ll add all pairs and any two face cards. If I
don’t pick up a decent starting hand, then it’s an instant fold.

No limping in, no calling – there’s no halfway – it’s either all-in
or it’s a fold (there’s only one exception, which I’ll discuss
below).

Every time the blinds go up, I immediately look at my stack size
vs. the new pot size and figure out where my new X = 10 stack
size boundary will be, and whether the new blinds/antes put me into
push/fold mode risk.

For example, if the blinds go up and my new X Factor is 7 or less,
I silently begin my shift into push/fold mode.

Push/fold is basically a super-tight, super-aggressive extreme mode
of operation. This strategy provides the best opportunity to get
back into the tournament by using your remaining stack and the NL
Hold’em all-in move to your advantage (provided you pick your shots
properly).

If your X value drops and you don’t go into push/fold mode, you’ll
just end up having your stack size eroded by the blinds and antes to
the point that going all-in will change the behavior of your
opposition from having a “fold unless I have a great hand” to a
“let’s pounce on ‘em!” mode of operation (probably too late for
you now).

By waiting too long to enter push/fold, you’ve lost your No Limit
power – you can’t damage or threaten anyone with an all-in move
any more… a very dangerous place to be in this game… like a
shark with no teeth!!

Of course, if you don’t get some decent starting hands, at some
point you’ll be forced to take your best shot anyway (something
that was coming no matter what).

I recommend taking that shot while you still have an X of 4 to 5
and can inflict some damage, and preferably when you’re in later
position (dealer button or the cutoff). This will give you the
best shot at stealing the blinds.

The only exception to going into push/fold mode at an X of 7 is
if I’m on the bubble (almost in the money), and other players are
in push/fold mode. By riding things out a round or two (down to
an X of 5, ideally), you have a higher liklihood of getting in
the money by letting the other short-stacked players get knocked
out first (since they’ll likely also be in push/fold mode).

If you don’t see that kind of opportunity, you’ll likely have to
take your best shot when the next big blind arrives, and see if
you can reconstitute your position.

Of course, the X Factor is only one of many factors of the game you
should be taking into consideration, but it does provide a general
framework that will help you manage your tournament play better.

I hope this information is helpful to you in your next tournament
encounter.

Until next time, may the poker force be with you!