Single table no limit poker tournaments

This section is on how to win the single table NL tournaments which are very popular at Party Poker. The buyins range from $5 to $100, so play whatever you can bank.

The goal is place 1st 20% of the time and 2nd, or 3rd 40% of the time. This yields a profit of about the entry buy-in over the long run. So if you play a 10 dollar buy in, you can expect to make $10 dollars every time you play if you achieve the goal.

The way I’ll write this strategy guide is by the blind size. Note: The overall strategy is to get ahead quick and stay ahead, or to not die and then quickly come back later. In other words, you’ll become the boss of the table throughout the game if you get good cards and get lucky early, or you’ll be hanging in there until the late rounds when you make a big move.

Blinds
10-15, 10-20 – regular game, aim to trap a big hand if possible and double up. Don’t be afraid to call or go to the flop with a marginal hand that has high implied odds. So, in an unraised pot, I’ll go in with 78 suited, because I know if I hit the hand well, I can get paid off quite nicely.
15-30, 25-50 – Tight aggressive play when possible, aim to win a big pot but avoid putting yourself all in or seriously depleting your stack. In layman’s terms, play only good hands (the top tier) but don’t be afraid to play them strongly.
50-100, 100-200 – You’re in three possible situations after the first 30 hands and into these blinds.
You’re shortstacked – can only afford about 4 big blinds at the level, and those big blinds are just gonna get more expensive. Go all in with A and a high card, or any pair preflop (provided another person hasn’t bet for a lot already). You want enough chips to survive and get into at least third place
Large stacked – you won a big hand in those first 30. Don’t let ppl double through though- try to continue to increase slowly, avoid a big confrontation unless you clearly have the best of it. Steal the blinds a lot when you have a decent hand- just put in the minimal raise. Your goal is to win, not to place.
Very short – like almost out. You gotta fight and fight quick. Take a couple long shots, go all in with KQ if you have it, etc. There’s nothing worse than being blinded to death. If you’re big blind and can only afford one to two more big blinds, go all in no matter what (so if you paid the big blind of 50 and have about 75 in reserve, go all in no matter what).

Playing Shorthand Texas Hold Em Poker

Shorthand (tables of 6 or less people) is very popular on the Internet; in fact, most of the higher limit games are played shorthand. Thus, to make any sort of of money playing net poker, you really should learn how to play shorthand.

What type of game should I look for? One of the most important skills at playing poker is simply playing the right game. Unless you just want to practice, there’s no reason to play against other pros! You certainly can’t expect to make money! The best way to tell if the game is easy or not is to look at the flop %. If it is 40 or higher, the game is good. If it’s 25-30, stay away. Some sites express the flop % as average number of ppl at flop. This isn’t as helpful, but generally go there if it says the average is 3 or more. More people going to the flop means that the quality of hands being played is lower. Thus, all you have to do is sit and wait to strike.

Preflop Starting hands
So what exactly are the good hands and the bad hands? Many books have been written about this, but I’ll summarize what I briefly believe are the ‘playable’ hands.

One thing to remember is that hand values are relative, so a hand can be good under some situations and total trash under others. For example, if there has been a lot of action, like a raise and a reriase and then someone calling the reraise, I would fold anything besides AA/KK and I maybe would even fold KK if I knew the players were really tight. Remember, hand values are relative, so always think about what the other guy has and guess if you have the better starting hand than him before going in.

Hands to raise with, non-raised flop: Paired cards, A10+, KQ,KJ, QJ, J10s

Hands to call a raise with: high paired cards, AQ, AK, AJ(maybe), KQ

Hands to reraise a raise: This depends on the raiser. Reriase a maniac with any pair or A9+ because you’ll probably be winning at the flop. Otherwise, reriase with made hands like JJ, QQ, KK, AA (although you may want to smooth call with JJ)

Hands to call and hope to build a pot with (early position) high suited connectors (i.e. 910s)

Flop Tips
When you have a made hand, bet it. If flop is AK5, bet with your KQ, maybe they’ll fold. If one calls, then you have a decision to make, if you think he’s drawing, continue to bet at him. If he’s the type to call with the second best hand. Maybe check to him to see if he bets (he probably has a pair too, it just matters if it’s ace low kicker or king lower kicker or a pocket pair).

When you pair but it’s not the top pair, DON’T call a bet. Either raise or fold. Find out where you are on the flop. If you just flat call, that’s a total of 5 small bets. If you raise and he comes back firing, you can probably fold and save yourself 3 small bets (unless he’s a maniac, in which case just call him to river).

Drawing hands and pot odds: Always know your number of ‘outs’ i.e. number of cards that will make you a hand that you are pretty sure will win. Number of outs X2 + 2 is the percentage of hitting at the next card. So divide the pot by that number and if the bet is smaller than that, call. So, for example, suppose you are on a flush draw in a 10-20 hand, you have two spades in your hand and there are two on the flop. So there are 9 spades out there. The chances of hitting on turn are about 20%. So if pot is 80 and bet to you is 10, call! When calculating the pot size, it is generally best to remember future bets. For example, even though the pot is 80, if you hit, you’ll win 40 more on turn/river bets. So all you really need is a 1/12 chance of hitting.

Bluffing
General rule of bluffing: It doesn’t work until $5-10 or higher.

Semibluffing: this is betting when you don’t have a made hand yet, but you can. For example, betting on a flush draw. Example: Flop is A64, you have KQ suited and there are two of your suit on your board. Go ahead and bet. Not only do you have a good chance of hitting, you also can steal the pot. Semibluffing is only effective at higher levels, because at lower levels you are just value betting because ppl will call you.

Pure Bluffs: These don’t work too well at limit, but they do work at times. At higher levels, if the flop is kinda scary, say AQ9, if the action is passed to you and there aren’t many in it, go ahead and bet at it if you had shown strength preflop.

Playing Limit Poker

Choosing which limit to play is a critical element when playing poker. Generally, you should choose which limit to play based on your financial situation, your poker ability, and your aversion to risk.

No matter how wealthy you are, it is often best to start out at the lower limits simply because the competition there is easier. Few ‘professionals’ play at the $1-2 games, so it is a relatively safe place to begin one’s poker career. Even if you are a billionaire, no one will know it when you play on the internet and think any less of you for playing at a low limit.

When choosing a limit, the major choices come when one decides to move up a limit or down a limit. Generally, you should only move up a limit if you think you are comfortable playing at that limit for seven sessions or more. Do not choose a limit so high that it makes you scared to play. Playing scared is a guaranteed recipe for losing. It is also not wise to ‘go for it’ at a higher limit. If you are making a run for it at a higher limit, you probably do not have the bankroll to survive there for long. Even if you win on two straight sessions, you will likely bust out and have to move down if you are not bankrolled enough at any given limit.

If you take a hit at a higher limit, you should generally move down. However, you shouldn’t move down so far that you are totally unmotivated to play. If you move up to $25-50 from $10-20, you shouldn’t fall back to $1-2 once you decide that $25-50 is too high. While people tend to play too scared at a higher limit, they also tend to play too loose at a lower limit. Play a limit that motivates you to play, but also at which that you are not scared to play.

Introduction to Omaha Poker

In Omaha Hold’em each player recieves 4 hole cards and everyone shares 5 community cards, similar to Texas Hold’em. The catch is that you must use exactly 2 cards from your hand and 3 cards from the board to make your 5-card poker hand. In general the winning hands in Omaha are much better than the winning hands in Texas; in a game of more than 3 people usually a straight or better wins.

When you are first playing Omaha, you should make sure you are actually using 2 cards from your hand, and not 3 or 1. For example, if the board is K Q J 5 4, and you have A Q 4 4, your hand is only three-of-a-kind 4’s. You do not have full house of 4’s over queens. If the board is A K Q 10 9, then your J J 5 4 is not a straight, since you must use two of your cards.

Why play Omaha?
Omaha Hold’em is not as popular as Texas Hold’em but is played by plenty of fish. Also, alot of good Texas players want to try out Omaha and are unfamiliar with the game but they may still play at high limits because they are good at Texas. These players generally play too loose.

Also, it is much more of a technical game because it is easy to see what the best hand is, since usually there is a flush or a straight on board and odds are that somebody has one.

Some good places to play low-limit Omaha are Party Poker or Empire Poker (they are on the same network). Another place to play is Paradise Poker but they don’t have as many Omaha players.

Multi table no limit poker tournaments

The popularity of No-Limit hold’em tournaments is booming. Fueled by the WSOP (World Series of Poker) and the World Poker Tour, many people are intrigued by these competitions and enter for a chance to win a ‘big score.’ In fact, most No-Limit hold’em is played in tournament form nowadays (which upsets someone like me whose favorite poker game is a No-Limit hold’em ring game).

While No-Limit hold’em ring games offer the lowest variation for a consistent winner (I probably win 80-90% of the times I enter a No-Limit ring games), No-Limit hold’em tournaments have crazy variance. This is because all the money gets shoved in preflop on near coin flip odds at the end of the tournament. For example, AK versus a pocket pair is a very, very common battle late in a No-Limit tournament.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t play No-Limit tournaments, but please don’t think that these tournaments are all skill and no luck. The famous quote from Rounders, “The same five guys make it to the final table every year at the WSOP” is the opposite of the truth. You MUST be lucky to win a No-Limit tournament because you must win more than your fair share of coin flip battles.

Strategy
That’s enough preaching about No-Limit tournaments. In terms of strategy, No-Limit tournaments are very different from No-Limit ring games. You simply can’t bluff as much because people’s stacks tend to be smaller in relation to the size of the pot. Also, since the amount of chips you win from a bluff is worth less than the amount you stand to lose, bluffing loses a lot of ‘value.’

Now, many of you may be confused. Suppose you bluff 1000 chips at a 1000 pot and figure you have a 50-60% chance of taking it down. Many of you would think it’s worth it to take that risk. However, those 1000 chips you win are worth less than those 1000 chips you stand to lose. If you have a 2000 stack, getting knocked down to 1000 has much more negative value than the positive value of getting up to 3000. The 1000 chips do not represent money. The only monetary value in the tournament is either losing all of your chips or winning them all (and losing them all is more important because you do get a prize if you lose them all in the late stages of the tournament). Losing those 1000 chips knocks you half the way out, but winning those 1000 doesn’t do squat for winning.

This is not to imply that you can simply fold your way into the money. The blinds will eat you alive. You must win pots so you don’t get knocked out most of the time. Towards the end of the tournament, you can think of winning pots to win the whole tournament. However, most of the time you must win pots simply so you don’t lose!

Thus, in the early stages of the tournament, you should avoid gambling much. Generally, the amount you win isn’t worth the gamble. If you can see the flop for cheap with a suited connector or someone goes all in preflop and you have AA, by all means go for it. However, I wouldn’t suggest bluffing all in as a wise move. In the early stages, you want to win a huge pot here and there because you hold the nuts. Target a bad player and make him pay you off.

Towards the middle of the tournament, you need to switch gears. Since the blinds get bigger, stealing the blinds will help you stay alive. Here, the ‘gap’ concept becomes more important. It takes a much weaker hand than usual to raise to steal the blind, but a stronger hand than usual to call a raise. The middle rounds introduce the ‘survival mode’ concept.

Again, most of the time you will be looking just to survive and increase your stack bit by bit in the middle rounds. You want to avoid confrontation without the nuts and just take down some small pots without controversy.

However, if you are a large chip stack (or even just a medium one), you may want to take advantage of this survival mode. Take control of the game by raising and frequently putting other people at a decision for all of their chips. After all, if they go all in, they’re risking it all but you aren’t because you can lose the pot and still keep on fighting. However, don’t do this too much. Steal some pots, but don’t be so obvious that people will call you all in with top or even second pair. Also, don’t do this against very bad players. They will call everything.

Towards the end of the tournament is when the coin flip decisions become very important. Frequently, the blinds are so high it makes sense for a player with a low or moderate stack to go all in preflop. Generally, when you go all in you want to have A(good kicker) or a pocket pair. If you have A(good kicker) you are an advantage to all non pocket pairs and may even have someone dominated. If you have a pocket pair, you are a small advantage against all non pocket pairs and at a huge advantage/disadvantage against other pocket pairs (depending on their size).

Generally, if you have one of these marginal hands, it’s best to just shove all of your chips in preflop. When you are a low stack, you cannot afford to be blinded away anymore. Once the flop comes, chances are it’s not going to be perfect. By shoving in all of your chips preflop, you have the added chance of stealing the blinds and can avoid being bluffed out.