Three Big Mistakes Made by Tournament Novices

Thanks in no small part to what television has meant for poker in the last year, tournaments have never been as popular as they are now. The prize pools have grown so large that even many good money players who used to shun tournaments, fearing that their profitable anonymity might vanish, have decided the money is too big to ignore, and the ancillary benefits – matters such as endorsements – are now potentially huge.

I will continue to believe that winning consistently is more difficult in money play than it is in tournament play, mostly because of the tilt factor and the way many tournaments can turn into crapshoots when the blinds get big, but I like tournaments more. You don't have to crush someone else in order to have a good day, they don't give trophies away in money games, and there are all those increasing ancillary benefits.

Assuming, then, that you're also interested in tournaments, either as someone who has just recently made the switch or someone who has been playing them for a while, what are some of the most common errors you can expect the huge influx of new players to make, and what can you do about them?

Ever since a friend mentioned this to me in a conversation a few months ago, I have been watching carefully for it, and my friend was certainly correct!

Here's an example taken from an online tournament I was playing recently. I held A-J suited on the button, an above-average hand, to be sure, but nothing overwhelming, either; against good players, it's a trouble hand because you're almost sure to be out-kicked if another ace is in play, you're a small underdog to most pairs, and you're not that big a favorite when you are up against two other non-paired cards. For example, A-J suited isn't even a 2-1 favorite against 8-7 offsuit, even though it looks so much better.

Because the button so often tries to steal, though, A-J suited looks pretty good; people will play with you with inferior hands. I had $1,900 in front of me, and raised the big blind's $400 up to $1,200. The big blind moved in, I suppose thinking there was a chance I could let the hand go, but with $2,600 already in the pot, it's pretty hard to get me to throw almost any hand away. The big blind had two fours.

If I had moved in, would the big blind have played? Calling with small pairs is one of the worst plays in poker, but because there was almost no chance I would fold, this was in essence what he was doing. Nonetheless, because he was a player I didn't know, I shouldn't have assumed he knew the meaning of "pot-committed" and just moved my whole stack in.

If you have a hand with which your raise commits you to the pot, you might as well go ahead and move all in with it. If you're winning, you'll win more, and if you're losing, there's a bigger chance that your opponent will fold.

Earlier in this same online tournament, I had flat-called from the button with that same trouble hand, A-J suited; the player just to my right, the cutoff seat, had raised it from $30 to $150, and holding position on someone with whom I had played enough before to understand certain patterns, I decided this was one of those rare situations in which a call was correct instead of a raise or fold. The big blind also played along.

The flop came with small rags, something like 9-6-3. The big blind led out for $30. The cutoff called. There was $525 in the pot. For $30, I was going to look at another card. A deuce came off on the turn, and the big blind again bet $30. The cutoff folded. I just could not imagine what kind of hand could warrant a $30 bet, so even though I thought there was a decent chance I was getting milked (or set up for a trap) by top set, I called.

A queen hit the river, and here it came again: $30. I can honestly say that I called with 99.98 percent certainty I was beaten. For $30, I wanted to see what the big blind had been doing, in case I faced him again. He turned over K-10, and I was startled when the chips were pushed my way. This had been a pure curiosity call. I was not calling for the size of the pot. I just wanted to know.

I do admit I considered throwing the hand away, so the big blind was taking a very inexpensive shot at stealing the pot, but the pot was just too large to try this play. I had plenty of chips; $30 wasn't going to mean a thing. If he had bet just $100, my hand would have gone in the muck, unless (and I can't know without re-creating the exact feeling of the moment) I were to try a re-steal. I'm pretty sure I would have just given up. Faint heart ne'er won fair maiden. If you're going to try to steal a pot with a garbage hand, you have to make it expensive enough, so the other player can't call just for the information he'll gain.

I see tournament novices make this mistake again and again. We're in the same tournament, and this time I manage to get involved with something other than A-J, although not by much: A-Q, in the $50 big blind. Two players had limped in, and I decided to look at the flop without a raise, figuring I wouldn't be placed on this particular hand.

The flop came Q 5 4; pretty fair, except for the flush draw. The player to my left was fairly aggressive, and I figured he would bet my pot for me. I checked, and sure enough, he bet $100. The other limper called, and I moved in, a raise of about $1,000. I didn't want to give a flush draw the right price to play.

The player on my left called instantly, so fast that I assumed he had either the same hand or a small set. The third player got out, and my opponent turned over the K 9: a non-nut flush draw. There was about $1,550 in the pot with my raise, and he was going to have to put $1,000 in to go for the hand. There was a pretty reasonable case for him to think he had outs other than diamonds – that is, for him to think the other three kings were also outs. This gave him 12 outs and roughly 46 percent winning chances, although if I had been semibluffing with the nut-flush draw, certainly a realistic possibility, he was in very bad shape.

I suspect this fellow wasn't even thinking about his kings as outs; he was, as I see so many players, just too excited about having a big draw. Draws are just death in tournaments. They might be fine in your limit money game, where six people see the flop, but calling with a draw is just asking to be eliminated. There's no chance to win with your bet: Your hand has to hold up, and you haven't made a hand yet.

Naturally, if you recognize that someone will call big bets with draws, you face a double-edged sword. You may not want to bet if you don't really want the action. If you can make the drawer's price terrible, though, the play is worthwhile. You can really find an edge when you locate someone who will call with a draw with just one card to come, rather than two. Just hope you can get either of these guys on your left, and bet them for value until the cows come home.

Even if the pot had been large enough to offer my opponent fair pot odds, you're not looking for fair pot odds situations in tournaments, either. Chips are just too difficult to replenish. If you are a very weak player, yes, by all means gamble, but frankly, if you are a very weak player, you shouldn't have entered the tournament in the first place.

It can be tough to let your hand go if you haven't been catching cards or hitting flops, and if you want to bet with your draw – bet enough to stand a very good chance of winning with the bet. Calling for most or your entire stack with a draw is only slightly better than that play I so often call the worst play in poker: calling with small pairs. At least when you call with your draw, if it is the nut draw (another very serious problem with this player's hand), you don't risk running into a dominated hand situation, where you're a 9-2 underdog.

I wouldn't argue strongly with someone who thought calling a huge bet with a pure draw, even a draw to the nuts, is actually the worst play in poker. Whether it's actually the worst play probably depends on what kind of pot odds you're getting, because even if it is your whole stack you're putting at risk, if four people have already gone all in and you're holding the nut-flush draw (knowing you are up against at least one set, and possibly more, so suited cards that pair the board are no use to you), the play can be right. Realistically, you're not going to run into that sort of situation more than once or twice in your life. Big-bet poker is usually heads up, and when you can't replenish your stack, merely calling with a hand that isn't yet a hand usually spells doom.

Andrew N.S. Glazer, "The Poker Pundit," is Card Player's tournament editor, and he writes a weekly gambling column for The Detroit Free Press. He is the author of Casino Gambling the Smart Way (Career Press, 1999) and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Poker (Alpha Books, fall 2004). He is a consultant to www.PartyPoker.com, and welcomes your questions.