Be sure to protect your chips in tournament play. This means don't raise marginal hands
out of position. Putting your chips out there in early position with a hand like ATs is not
protecting your chips. You're gambling that no one else has a better hand, or at least is
afraid to attack back, with the entire table to act behind you. What do you do if they slam
over the top of you? Fold and give up a large amount of chips? Or call and risk your
tournament life on a hand that is more than likely dominated? Not a decision I'd like to
make, so avoid putting yourself in this position.
You should never "just call" a large pre- op raise. If your hand is good enough to call,
then it is good enough to re-raise and put the pressure on the original raiser. If you don't
feel comfortable re-raising with the hand, you should probably fold it. The only exception
to this is if you want to slow play a big hand like AA or KK.
It may be correct to fold what seem to be good hands with a pre- op raiser in front of
you for the purpose of protecting your chips. For example, if player 1 in early position
pre- op raises a fairly large sum and player 2 in mid-position calls, do you really think
your pocket tens or even pocket jacks will be good after the op?
Since you have an early position raiser and a mid-position caller, the best case scenario
for you is that your opponents only hold over cards to your tens. And even then, you'd
have to hope for a board without any face cards to survive. So in this scenario, it may be
best to fold your pocket tens for the sake of chip conservation.
Poker professional Chris Ferguson suggests the best way to play tournaments is to play
consistent and tough. He says, “Stop trying to force things to happen. Just concentrate
on playing solid poker, and let the chips fall where they may.
Before you worry about adjusting for tournaments, concentrate on adjusting for the
other players. The most important skill in poker is the ability to react to a wide range of
opponents playing a wide range of styles. Players who can do this will thrive in both ring
games and tournaments alike. Many of the most costly tournament mistakes are the
result of players over-adjusting for tournament play.
Your play shouldn't change much as the tournament progresses. Gear your play to take
maximum advantage of your opponents, irrespective of how far along the tournament is.
Most players are too loose in the early stages of a tournament. Rather than become one
of these players, adjust for their play instead: Attempt to steal the blinds less often, call
more raises, and re-raise more frequently.
Likewise, when opponents typically tighten up later on, you should steal more often and
be less inclined to get involved in opened pots. Again, this should be a reaction to the
Online Poker Winning Strategies Revealed # 33