Betting your Postflop Monsters for Value

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 As we dig deeper into the realms of the online poker world we realize that there are an increasing amount of players in this game who have absolutely no clue what they are doing. Now I am definitely not here to brag, but I have put in my time when it comes to learning about the game. And now it’s time to round up all the donkeys and break down to everyone how to take their chips, take their money, and send them packing. Now if you are the ones complaining about the donkey who caught a 7 high flush on you and sent you packing, maybe its time to stop pinning the tail on the donkey, and start analyzing your own play.

Well if you have been paying attention to your table you will eventually pick up on a few things. The first instinct is to recognize and remember the most active players at the table. You want to pay attention to them and remember  if they are limping, calling and folding postflop. If they are raising,  getting called, and folding to postflop continuation bets you can also make notes on that as well.

Poker Tip #1  The best way to extract chips from a loose player is to catch a hand on them postflop and bet, bet .. bet!! If  they have ANY piece of the flop they will usually talk themselves into calling your bets if you size them properly. Using the PokerBetter Bet Sizing Calculator, you can assure your bets are perfect and able to extract maximum value out of your hands postflop.  Always remember, they aren’t thinking about your hand, pot odds, implied odds, how their table image is to you, or what they beat with their hand. They are the ones calling you down with bottom pair and doubling you up. Its very important to quickly note these players and try to get in as many postflop confrontations as you can with them in attempts to stack em!

 Poker Tip #2 – Don’t always get Fancy. Some players are addicted to FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome) and it ends up costing them valuable opportunities to chip up in their  poker tournaments.  Don’t make mistakes at the poker table when you hit a  huge hand postflop. When I say huge hand I mean one  that is reasonable at showdown if the turn and river hit blanks.  Sometimes when you flop a set, straight or flush, the simplest most efficient move is to just bet. Pay attention to the few  key factors into determining whether you should bet your made hand or not.   Take note on how many players are in the hand postflop. If you hit a huge hand like a set on the flop, setting a trap bet instead of checking will increase your chance of getting called compared to checking in attempts to disguise the strength of your hand . Keep in mind if you bet it always opens up the opportunity for your opponent to reraise you and build the pot himself, while hes drawing dead. Pay attention to how your players are playing. If they are seeing a lot of flops and playing real loose preflop, they might have a tendency to call off their chips with a very weak holding.

The Money Bubble in No Limit Texas Hold Em Tournaments

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       It kind of sounds a little humurous. The money “bubble” what in the world could that be.  The money bubble  is the part of the poker tournament where you either end up “in the money” or you walk away with nothing at all. If you lose all your chips before the money bubble bursts, you get no money and walk away empty handed. Every poker player knows at the end of a  tournament there is a tremendous profit to be made relative to the buy-in that you spent. Otherwise what is the fun in playing?! Most of the times a lot of novice players will play ultra tight and fold all of their hands just to ensure a cash.  This is a weakness that can be exploited for huge value. Most of the time a poker player might get scared or nervous on the money bubble for fear that they will lose their stack and be left with nothing. If there is a time in the tournament where being aggressive might pay off this is that time! Using the knowledge of knowing which opponents are playing tight on the bubbe will allow you to try and exploit them by raising or re-raising their bets. You don’t necessarily have to pick up a premium hand to do so. By simply betting and putting pressure on other players who might be scared to go bust, you can build yourself a huge chip stack.

Poker Tip # 1 -  Making it into the money should not matter. As a serious online tournament player, you need to realize that all the real money is the top three payouts. Cashing or getting 19th is really in the long run all the same thing. If you can take advantage of the players who actually do care if they make it into the money, you can add to your chipstack significantly and increase your chances of getting deep in the tournament.  Just rememebr, you are playing to win and not to just cash.

Poker Tip # 2 – Making it into the money gives back your buy in to the tournament plus a little extra which does not pay for your hours of play. Why do players sit there on the money bubble and wait for other players to bustout so they can at least cash? Its a weakness and this is exactly why I am revealing these weaknesses to you. Pay close attention and you will be able to pick up on who is folding a lot and you can raise their big blind with nothing.  Adding to your stack now will serve as a cushion to survive the drastic increase in theblinds as well. If you raise with a garbage hand and get called, don’t be afraid to continuation bet a.k.a. “C bet” the flop. Some players may call your raise preflop but be too afraid of losing more chips once they don’t hit postflop. If you get caught stealing and your opponent calls your postflop continuation bet, its your best bet to shut down with the hand and look for differant spots.

  So to recap,  insert into your brain that the goal while playing on the money bubble is to put fear in the hearts of your opponents by betting and raising with a looser range of hands. Stay aggressive and take advantage of the tight players in the tournament.  Unless of course all you want to do is cash and get your money back….

Postflop strategy

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         As most No Limit Texas Holdem tournament players know there are four windows of opportunity to get your chips into the pot.  Preflop, postflop, turn, and river.  In this article I will be discussing postflop strategy and the various tactics you can use to give you more information on what to do when the flop comes out.  The three cards dealt across the board are known as “the flop”. 

It is extremely important to have post flop skills if you expect to take down an online poker tournament!

      If I didn’t emphasis this enough go back and read that sentance again!  You can’t  rely on the flop every time to improve your hand.  The flop can come out and signifigantly change the strength of your hand.  Being able to read the flop and decide whether to bet or fold to a bet is a valuable skill.  You have to take into account your position throughout the course of your hand as well.  If you started  in the small or big blind you will have to act first for the remainder of the hand.  Pay attention to the amount of players in the hand as well.  If there is more than two players in the hand and a scary flop comes out relative to what you’re holding, you might consider folding and saving your chips. 

Poker Tip #1 – Sometimes a good fold is better than continuing with the hand and losing more chips.

Remember, if you decide to lead out and bet, always bet for a reason.  If you hit the hand you were looking for, bet for value.  If you miss you can have the PokerBetter size a bluff and bet that.  Either way, it’s generally better to come out firing  a strong bet as opposed to just checking.  This way you can gain information on your hand. 

Poker Tip # 2 -Checking for deceptive purposes- Sometimes if you pick up a huge hand in the tournament such as a flopped set or straight, you can actually check and act like you have nothing.  This might spark the other player to fire out a bet  in an attempt to steal the pot from you.  If you hit your hand super strong and your opponent has absolutley nothing, a bet might scare him way.  You really have to have a good read on the hand as well.  This is where paying attention will reap its benefits.  Check raising is a strategy in which you check the flop and then when someone bets, you raise their bet.  This can be used as a stone cold bluff when you miss the flop and you think your opponent is just betting to steal it.  You can also use this tactic to build the pot if you hit a relatively strong hand like a set.  Building the pot on the flop is important so you can get maximum value out of your hands and possibly avoid a bad beat by going all in preflop.

  Build the pot! Sometimes a poker  players lose site of the initial goal inthe tournament. Get chips. They spend so much thought trying to trick their opponents and forget that they should be firing out bets to build the pot. Knowing how much to bet is extremeley important in becoming succesful online poker tournament player.

Position, Position.. Position! 

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     The importance of position is something often overlooked by most online poker tournament players. Some players will bet and raise their hands and have no clue why position is important.  Since the dealer button moves after every hand is finished, your position at the table is consistently changing. In No Limit Texas Hold em there are four positions at the poker table. These consist of early, middle, late, and the blinds (small and big). Early position is when you are the first one to act preflop. This is also known as under the gun or UTG.

  Poker Tip #1 -  Only premium hands should be played from under the gun. If you raise with trash, there is a higher likelihood someone can pick up a hand since there are so many people left who haven’t folded. Not knowing what the other players are going to do is enough to fold most marginal hands and sometimes even low pocket pairs. You will be wasting your chips if someone re raises you or you get a lot of callers and flop nothing.  Playing hands from middle position could get tricky as well.  If the first couple players in the hand fold, you are in

Poker Tip # 2 – Middle position.  When Playing hands from middle position  you have to  pay attention to how close to the dealer button you are. You can loosen up your raising range from middle position but don’t get too sloppy.  Sometimes you can get caught in a tough spot if you raise with garbage from middle position and getreraised by the button and the blinds. Late position is a good place to steal the blinds when the anties kick in later on in the tournament. If you raise and get called by the blinds, you can usually continuation bet the flop if it is checked to you. Either way you get to see what he does before you make a choice to either fold, re-raise, or call.   The dealer has the best position on the table because you get to act after the other players for the remainder of the hand.  Seeing what the other players do before you decide to act gives you a significant advantage over them throughout the rest of the hand. This gives you the opportunity to raise or reraise the other players and see what they do on the flopPlaying out of the blinds is generally a bad idea because no matter what, you are going to be first to act for the entire hand. Don’t get caught up playing a hand that you normally wouldnt play just because you already have a small amount of chips invested. You want to try and avoid tough spots where the opponent has position on you.  If a player has position on you, they will have information on you based on your actions. Lets say for example you raise out of position and get a caller. You check the flop and he bets. Now is he just betting that flop because you checked and he really has nothing? You will have this same problem on the turn and the river. This makes it harder to win hands because you not only have to act first on the flop, but also for the entire hand.  Your hand may actually change strength based on the position you pick up that hand at the table. For example If you pick up KQ from early position, you might even be able to just fold it since you know ahead of time if you raise and get called you have to play that hand out of position for the entire hand. Paying attention to where you are at on the table and adjusting your raises based on your table position is an important piece of knowledge that can make or break someones tournament.

Bad Beats Hurt

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     So you just grinded for 4 hours and had all your visions of you at the final table stripped by the guy who decided to shove all in with 78 off when you just happen to pick up KK. When the flop peels off  9 K 3 you are already counting your chips, ready to take on the final table. But wait a minute, turn 6, river 10! Are you kidding me! Yet another bad beat and your final table dreams are over. So how do we avoid these horrendous bad beats. Well if you want the honest truth, you can’t. The fact of the matter is you will never be able to completely avoid bad beats. My advice if you are running into a lot of bad beats is to try and veer away from risking your entire stack preflop. The fact of the matter is when you go all in before the flop there will always be a chance that your opponent will hit that miracle card and send you to the rail.

You can’t avoid the fact that there is always the element of luck involved in poker tournaments. Even the top ranked pros in the world get hit with bad beats. The difference is most of them can control their emotions and move on to the next tournament. So here’s a few valuable poker tips you can use as a serious tournament poker player after you got demolished by that one outer. 

 Poker Tip #1 - Controlling your emotions is key! Obviously when there is money involved people tend to get a little edgy when they lose it. When you get down to the final few tables of the tournament, a bad beat can temporarily cripple your love for the game. But if you can learn to just brush it off and move on the next tournament, you will find yourself in a better place mentally. Sometimes I think to myself, what would Phil Ivey do in this situation. I once saw Phil Ivey lose a $184,000 pot in a cash game on Full Tilt Poker. He then proceeded to type in the chatbox, “Time to go play some golf.”  If you can control your emotion and avoid any angry feelings at the poker table, your tournament game will skyrocket.

 Poker Tip #2 - Analyze your play! If you break the entire hand down from beginning to end, was it even proper for you to risk all of your chips at that point? Some players will get nervous and not know what to do so they will just go all in. In some cases this is correct if you have a short stack and are in desperation mode. But I have seen a ton of players lose a big stack because they unnecessarily went all in and took a horrendous beat. If you are walking away from the tournament wondering, “why me”, don’t feel bad it happens to every poker player. The best thing to do at this stage is focus on how well you played and try to recall as many hands that you won as possible. This will keep positive thoughts in your head and banish the tough feelings of losing. 

Poker Tip #3 – Avoid all ins preflop. The best part about using PokerBetter’s poker tournament software is that you are able to play smaller pots using well sized bets in an attempt to outplay your opponents postflop. It doesn’t matter if you have been playing for an hour or for 15 years no player on the earth has control over what cards come out. With that being said, instead of complaining about bad beats, educate yourself and try to breakdown why and when they are happeneing. Adjust your emotional state and always be willing to accept bad beats. Be open minded and willing to learn the game of poker instead of just blindly shoving your chips all in. Tournament poker is about survival and well timed aggression, not blindly shoving your chips and complaining about bad beats.

There are countless amounts of spots at the online poker tables where utilizing the three bet properly will allow you to chip up hopefully without going to showdown. When I say without going to showdown I am talking about making a bluff move with a “nothing hand” such as 45 off-suit preflop. Before I discuss this theory in detail, I’d like to explain what a three bet actually is.
Here is a few more ways to get chips when you are deep in a tournament. I recommend using these moves ONLY when you have acquired reads on your table and adjusted to your opponents’ tenancies. If you are at a super aggro table, you might want to skip using these steal moves. But let’s face it, if your a good player you can tell when players are just trying to fold to make the money and protect their stacks. Now have you ever sat at the table with that guy that always re-pops you when you raise taking the action away from you preflop? They always seem to be raising your blinds and you are folding because you pick up 29 suited. But let’s face it, poker tournaments aren’t won by sitting back and waiting for pocket aces. Turning your nothing hands into a situation where you can potentially represent that you have a hand even when you don’t and get your opponents to fold is what will catapult your poker tournaments to the next level.

So What Exactly Is A Three Bet re-steal?

The phrase pretty much dictates the action that you must take. You are stealing a pot from your opponent by re-raising their raise when the situation allows you to do so. These moves are usually used deep in the tournament once you build your stack. This is where the fun starts! The antes are high and the blinds are going up. This means you are closer to the money! So now is the time all the weak donkeys who went crazy in the beginning should shine right? Wrong. Deep stack poker with the pressure on is about playing without any pressure on you and making sure you put the pressure on the other poker players by raising and re-raising. You must also be fully aware aware that you want to control the table. There are things that you can do such as; 3bet, under the gun steal, button steal and re-raise a raiser in an attempt to defend your big blind. In carrying out these moves you need to understand that performing tricky moves like this leaves you vulnerable postflop. Players have a tendency to tighten up and make a lot of mistakes when the tournament is deep and they have invested a time commitment. Throw in the fact that this might be their first deep run in a tournament. Keep the pressure on! If you use your best judgment and act as a selective aggressive poker player, you will succeed.

So What Is The Three Bet?

Utilizing the three bet is a necessity and a huge part in advancing your tournament game. So what exactly is a three bet? When someone raises the pot and you re-raise their raise, you are three betting your opponent. Now three betting can spark a tournament player’s creativity because you generally don’t always need a hand to three bet. Using the three bet as a steal move is a way to get chips in a tournament hopefully without going to a flop. Three betting gives you a higher chance to take down the hand whether its preflop or postflop. Since you took the initiative to put the pressure on your opponent, if they call you but miss the flop you can continuation bet (c-bet) and have a good chance to take down the pot right there without showdown. Three betting light is when you are re-raising your opponent with any two cards utilizing the three bet as a steal move. Now when I say “light” I mean any two cards. You have to make sure there are no short stacks in push-fold at the table that are capable shoving on you because they are getting desperate. This move is based on the thought process that most people raise when its folded to them and they will raise fairly light in an attempt to get in the action. Keep in mind it takes a pretty strong hand to raise and call a re-raise as long as your three bet is sized properly. There are a few solid positions at the table that the three bet can be used to your full advantage.

These positions include:

• Three betting to defend your big blind -

  How many times in tournaments have you gone completely card dead and someone consistently raises your big blind and you fold because you’re not calling with 45 offsuit? Instead of just folding in those situations, you can pick a good time to three bet your opponent’s open raise. The ideal situation would be when it’s folded to someone in late position and they raise your blind. Let’s say the button and small blind fold, leaving you heads up with your opponent preflop and a rag hand. Now faced with a raise, most people might just throw away their cards as a garbage hand. But if you are mixing up your play and taking chances you want to be picking up these pots to increase your chip stack. Again, remember this move is a steal move so your cards are irrelevant. You are not playing the strength of your hand. You are playing the situation.

  Another benefit of three betting your opponents out of the big blind is if you do it enough players might stop raising your blinds light since you are defending them and this might lead to more walks. You are just playing the fact that you are taking the lead in the hand and being aggressive preflop allows you to take down pots without going to a flop. The best situation to re-steal is when you are pretty deep in your poker tournament and your opponent has a medium sized stack and is raising into you. You don’t want to re-steal someone who is desperate and will most likely come over the top of your re-raise. Try to pay attention to who is raising a lot and if the person raised and folded to someone’s re-raise. You can pick up valuable pots and turn a hand that most people will fold into a hand where u can ship chips into your stack.

• Defending The Button -

  There are a few things to pay attention to when trying to defend your button. Before you decide to re-raise your opponent, make sure they have enough chips left behind if they decide to fold. The same thought process goes for re-raising your big blind. The value of three betting your button with any two cards as a steal move is the fact that you have position postflop and if you get called you can possibly continuation bet or check-raise the flop and take down a pot with a nothing hand. The problem with three betting on the button is that it is sometimes and obvious steal move. Good players might pick up on it but you generally don’t have to worry about it if you are good with your postflop play. The beauty about three betting your button is the simple fact that if you have position on your opponent for the remainder of the hand. Think about the hand your opponent must hold to continue on with the hand. Sit in your opponent’s chair for a second and look at the situation you are putting him in. It is folded to him and he puts in a raise with any standard opening hand. Let’s say for instance he’s raising with KJ. Now he’s probably thinking, “I can take down the blinds with this hand”. Now someone re-raises him making him think about the strength of his hand. When faced with a re-raise, most opponents will downgrade the strength of their hand. Now a good player will fold the KJ just because they don’t want to play out of position. However, the donkey calls you to “see a flop” which is an excuse used by donkeys from the beginning of time. Flop drops 2 5 Q rainbow. He checks and you continuation bet. Little does he know you hold the 78 off suite and he is actually ahead! If your opponent hits the board, most of the time they will check to you so if he check calls or check raises you, obviously dump your hand. But this is a little trick that can be used in your tournaments. So go try it out and see how many nothing hands you can turn into opportunities to ship chips to your stack.

So…you have been sitting at your poker tournament online and haven’t picked up a hand in an hour! What else is there to do?! You start talking on AIM or facebook and next thing you know you’re out of the tournament and wondering where your chips went!

If this is happening to you then you are completely selling yourself short as a tournament poker player. There are tons of things you can do can do at the table to increase your chance of winning hands and getting chips. Here’s some advice on how to obtain reads on other players and how you can use those reads against them to exploit their weaknesses and take their chips. If you have no reads on your opponents you are playing your hands blindfolded and are handicapping yourself big time. A lot of players overlook the fact that they are sitting next to a bunch of other players who all have completely different strategies. Your job as a serious poker tournament player is to pay attention to everything your opponents are doing and try to figure out how to exploit their weaknesses and take their chips.

A very important thing you want to look for when playing your poker tournaments is your opponents’ timing. You want to pay attention to the time it takes for your opponent to either check bet or raise.

So let’s list a few useful poker tips you can use in your no limit Texas holdem tournaments

Poker Tip #1

Most of the time if you raise preflop and get called by one opponent, he will check rather quickly on the flop. Some of the time this quick check represents them taking a peak at the flop, missing, and giving up on the hand. Using the Continuation Bet option on the POKERBETTER software will help you size a bet and hopefully take down the pot without going to the turn. So in this case, you are paying attention to your opponents’ timing and using it against them. You are reading a quick check as weakness and you are betting even if you do not have a hand.

Now the counter to this would be when your opponent quick checks and then either raises you or calls you. In this case your opponent has quick checked on the flop representing to you that he is weak and then calling your bet. In some cases this will represent a trap, otherwise known as slow-playing a hand. Proceed with caution!

Poker Tip #2

Another way to get a read on your opponent is by paying attention to the hands they showdown on the river. This can be done even if you are not in the hand with them. If your opponent shows their cards and you have been paying attention to how they played the hand, you can try to figure out how they think and try to exploit their weaknesses in future hands. Try to make notes to yourself about hands that player showed and how that particular player played that hand. Did they raise from early position with a weak holding like A3? Did your opponent call on the river with a weak hand like bottom pair? Try to pay attention to things like this and you will find yourself having an extremely easier time playing your hands with these players because you will already have the advantage on them.

Poker Tip #3

Getting a read on how your opponents play their hands postflop is often a crucial note that a lot of poker tournament players overlook. If you can pay attention to the players calling preflop but folding most of their hands on the flop, you will have a significant advantage over the table. Think about that piece of information for a second…..If you were at a table and you noticed someone calling other players raises and then just checking and folding the flop, wouldn’t you attack that weak player? You could fire out a continuation bet at that person on the flop even if you missed and they will most likely fold so you will win without showdown.

And that my friend is a few great ways to get reads and steal chips from the weak players at your online poker table.

If you have been doing your homework and studying up on no limit Texas holdem tournament strategies I am almost certain you have heard the term “floating” being thrown around. Believe me, when I first heard this term I was just as curious as you are to learn about it. I defiantly wanted to try “floating” my opponent even though I wasn’t too sure what the term actually meant. When you float an opponent you are literally calling his bet on the flop with any two cards with the intentions of bluffing the turn. This move is much more of an advanced move and should only be done after you have obtained reads on the opponents at poker table. You also want to wait until the poker tournament has progressed and your opponents have invested a significant amount of time the poker tournament. Most amateur players will tighten up as the blinds and antes progressively raise in the tournament. This gives you a great opportunity to float your opponents to attempt to bluff him on the turn and take down a nice pot with a “nothing” hand. Pay attention to your chip stack as well. If the float bluff does not work and cripples your stack, you should probably just throw the hand away before you get in trouble. Most of the time a player will raise preflop and if called by only one player, will fire out a continuation bet (c-bet) on the flop. The way to defend against this is by using the floating technique.

So to break it down again if your opponent raises and you call them and miss the flop, you can call their postflop bet (float them) and then lead out and bet the turn. Most of the time if your opponent doesn’t have much of a hand by the turn they will throw the hand away. This will represent to your opponent that you have the best hand and assume his hand is now weak.

The float is a relatively simple move but it is imperative that you are getting reads on your opponent before you attempt this move. You want to also pay attention to the texture of the board. If the flop comes out
7 – 8 – 9 you might want to hold off on trying to bluff a board like that. You want to also make sure you only try this move when you are heads up. If there are two opponents in the hand postflop you will rarely pull this off. If you assume your opponent did not connect with the board on the flop you can pull this maneuver off and steal valuable chips. Don’t do it too much because you run the risk of getting called on your bluff and end up having to play a huge pot with a hand that has no showdown value.

When playing No Limit Texas Hold em tournaments, a player can bet as many chips as they want when it’s their turn to act. A lot of beginners have problems with not knowing how to much to bet in their online poker tournaments. They either bet too many or not enough chips. Being able to make the correct size bets at the poker table is what separates the winning players from the losing ones. Since every chips counts, you do not want to throw away chips when the pressure is on by not knowing what to bet.

How Can You Loose With Pocket Aces?!

If you stick to using properly sized bets in your online tournaments, opponents will be less likely to get a read on your hand. Have you ever seen a poker player fold every hand for an hour and then raise too many chips only to win the blinds? When they show their cards they revealed they had pocket aces! They did not get maximum value out of the hand because they bet too much. Have you ever seen those AA’s cracked by someone who stayed in the hand and got lucky on the flop? It happens all too often in online poker tournaments every day regardless of the buy-in level.

So What Is The Goal in Online No Limit Texas Hold em Poker Tournament Play?

The goal to winning tournaments is to win all the chips and be the last one standing. So the trick is maximizing your profit when you have the best hand and minimize your losses by making the correct sized bets.

So how do you determine the size of your bets?

Pre-flop

When it’s your turn to act and your the first one in the pot pre-flop, you want to base your raises on the size of the blinds. Once the flop comes out your bets are usually made based on the size of the pot. Knowing how much to bet, raise, reraise, continuation bet and even bluff is just as important as the cards you are getting dealt. When deciding to raise pre-flop and if it’s folded to you, you want to be raising around 2.5 -3x the big blind. Keep in mind if there are limpers in the pot you will have to adjust your raise based on how many limpers.

Limpers

If there is one limper, you can make your raise 3.5- 4x the big blind. Two limpers 4.5 -5 x and so on. Once the flop comes out and if you hit the flop and think you have the best hand, most of the time betting is the best option.

Build the Pot!

You want to keep the bet sizes around 1/2 to 3/4 size of the pot. If you over bet the pot, you run the risk of scaring off all your opponents. Some people will check and try to trap the other player by appearing weak, but it is important to build the pot. The idea is to get chips! So why not build pots when you actually have a strong hand?

Vary Your Game-Play

It’s important not to make the exact same bet in every situation because your opponents might pick up on it and this will make you easy to read. Sizing your bets properly throughout the entire poker tournament will give you that edge the other players who just bet random bets don’t have.

This should give you newbie poker players a good basic grasp on a few of the fundamentals of Online No Limit Texas Hold em Tournament play. But the best way to learn is to play! Keep posted as we will throw up some more knowledge bombs for all you poker junkies.

So your online poker tournament has just started. Your buy-in is paid, the chips are in and all the players are dealt their cards. Now what?! Truth be told is that every poker player has a different strategy on how then intend to utilize their chips. It is the players that are unsure of how to utilize their chips through placing their bets who are weaved out of the poker tournaments. If you pay attention to the tournament lobby, you will notice the numerous players who are eliminated within the first few minutes.

This brings up the next question.

How Do You Stay Alive In Your Online No Limit Texas Holdem Poker Tournament?

They key to staying alive long enough to where you can start making moves is by using a simple yet imperative technique not known by most newcomer Texas Holdem poker players. This is the technique of preserving your stack. Preserving your stack is almost as important as winning chips. If you do not preserve you stack then other players will gladly take your chips since you are so giving.

Poker is not a charity. You goal is to take other poker players chips. Not to have your chips taken! Do not be that player who plays every hand because it is only 50 chips to call the big blind in high hopes that the odds will turn in your favor. This is especially true if you are doing this with garbage hands such as J, 2 off suite. Playing in this manner will easily get you labeled a “Donkey” by other players. Nobody wants to be labeled a donkey.

It is understandable, however, why so many online Texas holdem poker players throw their chips away. It is incredibly easy to play a hand because all you have to do is click a button if you want to call or raise. You will often see an abundance of players calling each and every single hand in order to see flops.

In reality, if you take a close look at what is in the pot before the blinds and antes kick in you will notice that the tournament is not worth throwing away for a few chips. You can loose all your chips or only win a small amount. The risk does not outweigh the reward typically during early online no limit Texas holdem tournament play.

For example, let us assume a theoretical scenario by placing a few variables. Let say the blinds are 25/50, you have a 2,900 chip stack, and you have a crumby hand such as A, 8 off suite. You then raised with this hand hoping you can see a flop and hopefully connect. The flop comes out giving you trip aces and you win the hand only to get 75 chips. 75 chips and you risked your chip stack and didn’t even get paid off even though you won the hand. The moral of this story is that poker tournaments are not won in the first hours of game play.

Think of your online no limit Texas holdem poker tournaments as if they were a marathon. The last poker player standing is going to be the one who will make the most profit. Early no limit Texas holdem poker tournament play is about survival. You can not survive if you are throwing away all your chips to see cheap flops or are always getting involved in the action. Your results will be much more efficient if you wait to pick up a hand and only play small pots. As previously stated, “Donkeys” are the poker players that limp with J, 2 off suite.

However, DO limp with small pocket pairs. I would much rather loose small pots by not raising pre-flop and then build the pot if you hit the “nuts”. If you don’t hit your hand, then just check/fold with a minimal loss. If you do happen to catch big pocket pairs (aces, kings or queens), then you do want to be firing off bets to make sure you get value out of those hands in hopes another poker player will call you. When you are raising and re-raising pre-flop, you will have a much better chance of eliminating all the lesser hands that may have a chance to crack your big hand.