Five Winning Tournament Tips For Beginners

Be Able to Fold Good Hands Preflop in Tournaments

Although it doesn’t happen very often, there are situations in which folding good hands such as Q-Q, J-J, or A-K preflop is correct.

First let’s discuss the pairs. Early in a tournament, most of your opponents will be unwilling to move all in before the flop without one of two hands — A-A or K-K. So, if they raise, you reraise, and then someone moves all in, it is highly likely your Q-Q is no good. You will have plenty of time to find a better opportunity to gamble, so fold. You should be even more inclined to fold J-J, as this hand is trumped by Q-Q as well, a hand some players move all in with early on in a tournament (a play I don’t recommend you make). Sometimes you will fold the best hand when you lay down Q-Q or J-J to an all-in reraise. Most of the time the all-in player has A-K when this happens, a hand that is a very slight underdog (less than 6-to-5), so you aren’t giving up too much. Early in the event is not the time to “take a stand.”

Avoid Trouble Hands

If A-K has the disadvantage of winning small pots and losing big ones, other hands are even worse off. These trouble hands have the additional burden of being dominated by A-K. Examples include A-Q, A-J, and K-Q. Holding one of these hands, you now lose not only to sets when you flop top pair, but to A-K as well (or to A-Q if you hold A-J). It is going to be very difficult to win anything meaningful after the flop with these hands when they improve in the most common way (making a pair), but easy to make a second-best hand. There is a sort of “reverse implied odds” factor at work here. What seemed like a cheap opportunity to see a flop becomes an expensive problem when you improve to a second-best hand. Small pairs typically lose small pots and win big ones, but two high cards typically do the opposite.

The time that trouble hands do have some value is later in the tournament, when the blinds are high and you can get most or all of your chips into the pot before the flop. You still don’t have a premium hand, but you don’t face the sticky situation of betting after the flop. These hands fare far better in race situations, in which the money is all in and the boardcards are run out, than they do when the hand must be played on every street.

When You Flop the Probable Best Hand… Bet

Suppose it is early in a no-limit tournament, and four players have seen the flop, either for a call or a very modest raise. The flop is favorable to your hand; you are holding either an overpair to the board, or the top pair with a very good kicker. It appears that you are holding the best hand, and the action is on you.

Generally speaking, it is correct to bet close to the size of the pot if you feel you hold the best hand at this point. By making a healthy bet, you are likely to eliminate long-shot draws that may catch you by surprise, such as an inside straight draw. While flush draws may call anyway, you will know to be cautious if a third suited card appears on the board.

Although a pot-sized bet will eliminate most of the draws, anyone else holding top pair is likely to call. This is a good situation for you, as you have him drawing to three outs (should both of you hold the same pair, but you have the better kicker), or five (if you hold an overpair). Betting your hand strongly allows you to get full value for it from inferior one-pair hands while protecting yourself against drawing hands that are not getting the proper price to call. If you are first to act, you can consider the merits of betting out with a good hand versus check-raising.

In general, it is probably best to bet most of the time, for two reasons. First, you don’t want to give a free card to someone who can outdraw you with a hand he would have folded to a bet. This can end up costing you a lot of money on the turn if the turn card looks harmless. Second, if your hand is just one pretty good pair, you have a good but not great hand. If you lead out with a pot size bet, you gain considerable information about where you stand in the hand. You may gain the same information by check-raising, but you will probably have to invest more chips to do so, as you must call your opponent’s bet prior to putting in your own raise. Unless you are fairly positive your one pair is the best hand and that your opponent will bet, you should typically opt to just bet out.

Avoid Traps When Drawing

Paired Board

Don’t draw to a straight or flush when the board is paired and the paired card is likely to have hit an opponent. A good example of this is a flop of J-J-T when you hold K-Q. Yes, eight cards complete your straight, but there are no guarantees that your hand is live. Combinations such as A-J or J-T can easily be out, so you may complete your
straight and still lose the pot.

Overpaying When Heads Up

Don’t overpay when heads up. If an opponent charges you a high price to draw to a straight or flush, this hurts your implied odds, and you should be inclined to fold. For example, if the pot contains $200 and your opponent bets $400, you aren’t getting the correct price to draw to a straight or flush.

Overplaying Against Dangerous Boards

Don’t overplay sets or two pair on dangerous boards. Although these holdings are commonly considered to be made hands rather than draws, it is sometimes apparent on the turn that you are currently trailing to a straight or flush. You will need to improve to win; thus, your made hand is now technically a draw. Depending on the size of your opponent’s bet, you might have to fold. Don’t go broke with a set against an obvious made hand, and leave muttering to yourself “I had a set. There was nothing I could do.” There is — Fold! Unless the price is right.

Adding Value to a Flush Draw

When you hold a flush draw, there are nine cards that complete your hand. However, sometimes it won’t take a flush to win the pot. If you also have two overcards to the flop, you may be able to make a pair and win, for a total of 15 outs. This possibility makes your hand the favorite to win the pot over a small pair on the flop.

One Mistake Not to Make

This hand was observed at the opening $2,000 no-limit hold’em event of the 2004 World Series of Poker. With $25-$25 blinds, player A raised to $50 and was called by player B (who had KClub Suit QClub Suit). Both blinds folded.

The flop came T-9-5 with two clubs. Player A bet $50 and player B, understandably happy with the flop, raised to $100. Now, player A moved all in for $1,900 more. Player B shrugged and folded his hand faceup, stating, “I like my draw, but I can’t call that much.” Player B should have had his poker license revoked after this hand. His actions may well have cost him a big pot. Sitting in last position with a big draw, it is a huge mistake to give your opponent a chance to raise you off your hand. If it is bet to you, your best options are to either call or make a big enough raise that you are committed to the pot. A committing raise is fine, as you will either win the pot immediately most of the time, or will have a reasonable opportunity to win a big pot if called. A small raise such as the one made by Player B in the example is terrible; you probably won’t get
your opponent to fold, but you give him the opportunity to bet you out of the pot.

Steal the Blinds

Early in an event, defined as the pre-ante stage, the blinds are small. Although raising and picking up the blinds increases the size of your stack, this should not be your focal point. Yes, you need to steal some blinds to be successful in tournaments, but that comes later. It is simply a matter of risk versus reward. To justify risking a portion of your stack, there must be some potential benefits. However, when the blinds are very small, you are laying an unfavorable price to try to win them.

For example, with $10-$20 blinds and a stack size of $1,000, you risk somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 to $80 to win $30. Winning $30 several times isn’t going to significantly help your chances of winning the tournament, but losing a few of these pots by getting your hand caught in the cookie jar will put a crimp in your plans. Also, due to the cheap price and implied odds potential, you are generally more likely to get called early in the tournament. Later, the situation reverses itself: When antes are present, you stand to gain more by raising, plus play tends to tighten up.

One more consideration on this topic is your table image. How you are perceived by your opponents is a determining factor in how they play marginal situations against you. You are generally better off later in the tournament that they are inclined to fold to your raises, as there is enough money in the pot that unless you hold a big hand, you don’t mind winning uncontested. Too much early raising with inferior holdings hurts your credibility later on. Not only will you get called more frequently, but astute opponents will start coming over top of you with hands that may not merit it, as they won’t give you credit for a legitimate hand.

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