We are going to look at some tips on how to play tournaments for new poker players. We run over some big tips that will help new players make better and more profitable decisions.
Stop Bloating the Pot with Mid-Strength Holdings
Too many players will just hit a piece of the board and just begin betting, however, this can be one of the biggest downfalls in a players game.
We are going to want to use our Mid-Strenth hands to bluff catch rather than to bloat the pot for value, for instance,
If we have A♣ 3♣ on a board of A♠ 8♥ J♥
Great we have hit top pair, however, if we start betting for value, what hands are we going to have calling us that we beat?
Jx might call one street of action, but after that, any hand calling us twice is going to be beating us.
Fast Play Big Hands and Make the Pots Larger
Too many new players hit a big hand and then think they have to trap their opponents however this causes a problem that we don’t get the pot larger and we allow players to hit free draws.
When you have A♠ K♠ on a board of K♣ T♣ 4♠ For example
Just start betting for value, we will get calls by much worse hands and draws and can get multiple streets of value from worse one pair hands.
When Choosing Bluffs, Pick Hands with Good Backdoor Draws
Why should we do this?
Well, we allow ourselves a few ways to win, we can pick up good equity on turn cards if called that will allow us to double-barrel our opponents off their hands.
Let’s look at some examples:
We 3-Bet the Button with 9♠ 8♠ and get a flop of: A♠ 7♣ 2♣
So why is this a good board of continuing our bluffs?
We have a nut advantage as we have more AA, AK, AQ in our range, so we can just win the pot a good deal of the time by betting once, if we get called there are many good turn cards for our hand, any spade will give us a flush draw, any 6 or T will give us an open-ended straight draw, any 9 or 8 will give us a pair and any J or 5 will give us a gutshot straight draw.
3-Bet Wisely
If you are playing with players that are making a lot of raises then don’t be scared to 3-Bet wider for value…
As with all types of game plans though, be flexible and if your opponent is a tight one, then have a tighter 3-Betting range that might look like QQ+ AKo+ as well as some other hands like A2s-A5s to make your range polarised between nutted hands and very playable hands with good equity.
Play Multi-way pots with caution
Against just one player we can look to get multiple streets of value from hands like strong top pairs, however against multiple opponents our equity is going to be decreased.
- Look to make smaller % size bets so we lose less when we are going to be raised off our equity.
- Check a stronger range and look to get to showdown.
- Fold our bluff catchers more often as continuing with hands like second pair multiway can be a recipe for disaster.
Bet a lot in position
Many weaker players will simply lead out at pots in Poker games even when out of position. To combat this when checked to in position look to make a lot of stabs at pots even with poor hands, you will find yourself winning a lot of pots that you might never have won doing this!
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