Texas Holdem Poker

With the WSOP coming up, it would seem to be the perfect time to start to discuss how to get deep into a tournament. Whether you are playing for a seat via an online qualifier or you are getting ready to make the trip out to Vegas to play in one of the dozens of tournaments that are listed in this year’s line-up, some tips on getting deep into a NL Hold’em tourney might be helpful.

The first stages of a tournament are often spots where you can gather a lot of chips with not so great cards, especially in a major tournament. You are going to have a lot of players that are in the live game for the first time and more than a few scared players. They don’t want to be the one to get knocked out on the first hand if you are a little looser and aggressive, you can take down hand after hand by applying pressure.

The early stages of the tournament are where you need to make the decision as to how you want to approach this tournament. Are you going to go for it or are you just going to try to survive. Those that sit around and wait for a hand end up getting short stacked and never have any chips to do battle with. Be aggressive in the right situations and take advantage of weak players and your stack will grow nicely in the first few hours.

Once you gather a stack, it is time to switch up gears and go after the really big hands. By this time, your aggressive play is going to be noted and you are going to have other big stacks coming after you. By switching your gears, you will now be able to set them up when you finally catch a big hand. You are looking for that one hand that will allow you to win a huge pot and show your hand. Do this a couple of times and everyone is going to start to slam on the breaks when they get into a hand with you.

This of course is when you go right back to the aggressive mode and take advantage of the fear that you have instilled in the rest of the table. Assuming the tournament director does not have you jumping from table to table, you are in a perfect position to pull off a nice bluff. Everyone knows that you are going to showdown with the best and unless they have a loaded hand, they are going to back off. You show the monster bluff and tilt starts to settle in on your table.

From there, you are going to have to play it by ear. If the table continues starts calling you down with anything again, you have to tighten it up and go back to playing big hands until you can show a few big winners. Remember, keeping everyone off balance is the best way to go deep. The moment people get a fix on you, you are walking right into their trap. You need to be the one setting the traps and scooping the chips. Regardless of the stage of the tournament that you are in, there are going to be weak and scared players that you will be able to take advantage of. Find them, take their chips and keep moving forward until you get to the final table.

When the bubble starts to roll around, the nerves start to settle in, especially in a larger poker tournament. You have been playing for hours and you sure don’t want to walk away with nothing. Now look around the room and see how many other stacks are being held onto with white knuckles and you will quickly realize that this is the time to make your move.

In order to make this work, you are going to have to have a table with some short stacks on it and you are going to have to be in position on them. If you are, you can turn up the heat and really increase the size of your stack during a period when most players tighten up.

The ideal situation will have a few stacks shorter than yours after you when you have the button or are on the cutoff. You want to be able to go hyper aggressive on these guys and not be in a position to be knocked out of the tournament if you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar. While you cannot push without a hand, anytime you see decent cards, you are going to want to put pressure on the smaller stacks and force them to either fold or put their stack in the middle.

You are obviously not going to have perfect hands every time, but suited connectors and just about any A will do in this situation. You don’t have to have the best cards to put your money in the middle, but they do. If they have been playing tentatively this point, what makes you think they are going to change with money on the line?

They won’t! If they have allowed themselves to get that low on chips and hung around this long, they are not all of a sudden going to turn into a kamikaze when they have a shot at getting their entry fee and a little bit of profit back. Are you going to get called at times, absolutely, but as long as you are not putting more than 30-40% of your stack at stake, the risk is worth the reward.

On the occasions that you do get caught, you can back off again and wait out the bubble. The more hands you win, the more aggressive you should get. This is a great time in the tournament for big and medium stacks to absolutely take over and build their stacks for a run at the final table. This situation may not come up very often, but when it does, you have to take advantage of it and make as much as you can before play loosens up when that bubble is broken and everyone is back in the money.

Limit hold’em get a bad rap in a lot of poker circles and it is actually quite a shame. You hear plenty of people talk about how this is the game for people that don’t have the guts to play no limit. I for one actually disagree with that and think that there is actually a lot more money to be made in limit poker if you know what you are doing.

In order to be a successful Texas Holdem Limit Poker player, you are going to have to have a very strong stomach. You are going to see some of the sickest beats that you can imagine, but if you are playing right, you are going to dish just as many of them out. This is a game of numbers and you better know them if you are going to be a successful player.

One of the main objects of Limit is to pound the pot every chance that you get. There are really only two times that you can take away any odds for literally any draw and then is pre-flop and then the turn bet when the betting doubles. You are going to hear people cry all the time about the suck out that they had to deal with, but the fact of the matter is that you are probably getting odds to hit just about any draw you have so how are you supposed to fold?

That being the case, you have to make them pay. An inexperienced limit player will be a little more tentative to make a bet if they have not hit their hand, especially when the turn bet comes around. This is where you skill and knowledge have to come into play and you have to force the action at every possible opportunity. You can NEVER give a free card when you think you are ahead or that your opponent is drawing.

Are you going to get beat sometimes? Absolutely, but sucking out is part of the game. It happens in NL just as much even though the purists will argue till they are blue in the face about it. However, by never missing a bet, you are going to take down some big payoffs when they do not hit their draw and more importantly, you are going to take down hands that you would not normally have won.

You see, when you are betting out all the time, people know that when they are in a hand with you, they are going to pay. Sure, you are going to see some check raising, but if you don’t hit you can let your hand go rather cheaply. Keep making people pay when you are in the lead and think you have a winner and you will not regret it. Your bankroll will grow. Just don’t go on tilt when some of those bad beats happen. It is part of limit and believe me, you are going to be dishing out just as much as you take.