Let’s say you’ve just made it through a good size field to get to the money. Now let’s say you’re a medium stack. How should you play that stack? Under what circumstances should you click your chips to the middle of the table?
First thing’s first – congratulations. Making the money is a player’s goal every time he or she sits down and you’ve accomplished that goal. It’s just like in any sport where teams just want to make the playoffs. Once you’re in the playoffs, anything can happen. Heck, you could end up winning this thing. Someone has to, right?
Of course, only one person can win. Everyone else is just vying for the payouts below the grand prize. There’s nothing wrong with that. Anytime you cash in a tournament, it’s an accomplishment that you should be proud of. While someone has to win it, not everyone can. That doesn’t mean you can’t climb the payment ladder and watch as others drop out of the tournament.
Here are suggestions for managing your tournament life once you’ve hit the money.
1. Patience after the bubble – Once you hit the money short stacks seem to start moving. Some of those players have been waiting 10 minutes or longer to play a hand for fear of getting knocked out before the cash. That might not seem like a long time, but 10 minutes in online poker can be an eternity.
2. Play tight – This goes hand-in-hand with the first tip. (Obviously) The less chips you put in, the less chips you lose. The longer you have chips, the more people will get knocked out. At least that’s how it plays out in my mind.
3. Attack the small stacks – If there’s a little guy in the blinds, make him make a decision. I always feel better if I’m the one making the other player make a decision for his tournament life.
4. Careful of the big stack – It’s always a good idea not to mess with someone who has nothing to lose. Unless you are prepared to put your life on the line, you don’t want to bet into someone who can call without even noticing the change in his chip stack.
So keep these tips in mind. I’m not guaranteeing results, but they could help you move up a spot or two in the payment structure. Don’t act like you couldn’t use a couple extra bucks.
Pot odds are certainly very useful in poker since they give players a good idea of whether or not they should call. However, pot odds only get you so far because you also have to know what your chances are of winning a hand; this is where equity comes in. Here is a very simple way to calculate your equity, and avoid lots of detailed math.
If you’re like most of the poker world then you spend a lot of time playing Texas Hold’em. And like most of the poker world, you probably light up when you have pocket aces in a Hold’em game. However, pocket aces don’t play as big of a part in other poker variations. So it is definitely worth taking a look at how having two pocket aces plays in other poker games.
The flush draw is one of the most exciting drawing hands you can get in Hold’em. That’s because hitting a flush could potentially give you a nut hand, and allow you to take down a huge pot. However, just because you’ve got a flush draw doesn’t mean you should play it every time. You have to look at a number of factors first to determine if playing a flush draw is the right move for you.
Those who play a lot of Omaha know that it can be a very risky game. After all, there will be plenty of times when you’re forced to put a lot of your money into the pot without knowing if you will get a made hand or not. Of course this is where the art of knowing which draws to chase and which ones to avoid comes into play. And doing this becomes a lot easier when you know what Omaha hands can fool you into chasing a bad draw.
A lot of strategy pieces like to focus on what to do when you’re one-on-one with an opponent. And this is certainly very useful since you’ll find yourself in a lot of situations where you’re pitted against one person. However, the majority of the time you will be dealing with several players in multi-way pots which require a different strategy. Here are a couple things you should be aware of when in multi-way pots.
If you have the biggest stack and are in command of a table, it’s very easy to be aggressive with big bets and raises. After all, you’re in no real danger of being pushed out of the tournament, and you have the chips to bully other people on the table.
When we hear of the concept of playing poker with a partner, the word cheating immediately comes to mind. That’s because some people who play with a partner engage in the practice of colluding. But the truth is that you can have a partner in poker without cheating; you just have to know all of the details of playing with a partner first.
