10 Common Mistakes To Avoid When Playing No Limit Texas Holdem
(tournaments)
1. Early Position Raise : One of the biggest mistakes I see
players make is not respecting someone who raises in early
position. Remember he has another 8 people after him at the
table who he has to fade, so chances are that he is holding a
big hand.
2. When you have the nutz and someone betting into you : I was
watching a friend of mine play a tournament online and although
he made several mistakes that I corrected him on, the biggest
mistake he made was pushing someone out of the pot by re-raising
him on the turn when he should have slow-played the hand. Let me
give you the scenario. My friend Mike was dealt 10-hearts and
K-hearts. Someone raises preflop and there are 4 callers
including Mike. On the flop came K-diamonds, 10-diamonds,
K-spades. Yes, he flopped the dead nutz. The first player
checks, the second player who was the original preflop raiser
bets $100. Next player re-raises $100, the third and fourth
players fold, lastly its up to Mike. He just called the bet
which was the proper play. Next card on the turn was 3-spades,
no help to anyone. Original player in first position bets $200,
second player calls, and what does Mike do, raises the pot $600
and the other 2 players drop out. You need to ask yourself "What
am I trying to accomplish with this bet." What was Mike trying
to do, make everyone fold. Number one he has the dead nutz, he
already has position so it is imperative to give the other
players an opportunity to catch their card. The proper play was
to continue letting the player bet into you, then take him off
on the river. He might have had 2 diamonds and hit his 3rd
diamond on the river and you could have taken all his chips. You
want those players to get so committed to the pot that they
simply cant lay down their 2 pair or their flush or their set.
Remember in no limit poker you can always raise the pot or even
go all in on the river so its really quite simple. If your
playing NL Holdem and someone is betting into you when you have
the dead nutz and are in position, let him continue betting into
you and do the raise on the river as to maximize any chance you
have at getting most or all of his chips.
3. Protect Your Hand: Don't give players an opportunity to draw
out on you, make them pay for it. If your holding top pair and
there is flush or straight potential, don't let them get any
free cards to draw out on you with. Bet the pot or double the
pot as to thin the heard.
4. Thin The Heard: If your holding an average hand, say pocket
10s and there have been no preflop bets yet,, go ahead and make
a bet, I prefer to triple the pot. You certainly don't want the
guy next to you who has King Deuce to hit his King on the flop
and beat you. Your bet should thin the heard down and will
lesson your chances of getting out drawn.
5. Chip Lead: Listen people, if you have the chip lead tighten
up a little. There is no sense in getting involved in too many
pots. I see it all too often, someone has the chip lead and
calls a raise with crap. Then he catches one of his cards and
gets committed to the pot and ends up losing 20% of his chip
stack to the pocket rockets. You want to hold on to the chip
lead, don't play anything but good cards and let the other
players on short stack weed themselves out and you will find
yourself at the final table.
6. Common Sense: Common sense supersedes all the advice given to
me over the years. Use your head for crying out loud. My friend
Mike was on the big blind and there were no raises preflop, so
he got to see the flop for free. There were 7 people in the hand
and the flop comes A-hearts, K-diamonds, -10-diamonds, now Mike
was holding crap, 6-7 off suit. Well nobody bets and it comes
around to Mike and he triples the pot. It goes around the table
and one guy calls, another raises, then another goes all in. Of
course Mike folds but common sense tells me with a flop like
that everyone got a piece of it, whether its a gut shot straight
or 4 to a flush or just top or second pair. My experience has
been that usually players discard their low cards and stay in
with their big cards or pocket pairs. When a big flop like that
comes up common sense tells me when there are 7 other people in
the pot that a few if not all of them caught some part of that
flop. What a horrible time to try to buy one. Chalk another
mullet move up to MIKEY lol.
7. Play like a champion: Try to imagine yourself at the WSOP
final table playing for 1.5 million. Then ask yourself how would
Doyle Brunson play the hand. Take your time and you will
probably make the right call. Remember skill will only get you
so far, you also have to be lucky and not get too many bad beats
to snap a big tournament off so don't get discouraged if you
made the right play and lost the hand. If you played the hand
like Doyle would have played the hand and you get a bad beat,
well that's just part of poker so you might as well get used to
it now.
8. SURVIVAL . Your goal of course is to snap the tournament off,
but your first priority should be to get into the money. Just
use your head and play smart.
9. Study Your Opponents: Study your opponents and make note of
their tendencies. For example, if you have a player that calls
just about anything, obviously it would not be wise to try to
steal a pot against him as he will probably call you with his
low pair. Conversely, if you have a player like that and you
have a strong hand, bet more than you normally would as you will
probably get a call out of him unlike if your playing against a
good player that would probably fold his average hand.
10 . Realize The Amount Of Players Left In The Tournament And
Where They Stand In The Money: If your in a tournament that pays
the top 9 places and you have 11 people left in the tournament,
this may be a good time to steal a couple of pots if your in
position. They are trying to get into the money and wont risk
their chips unless they have a premium hand. On the other hand,
once everyone is in the money, if your going to play a hand make
sure it is one where you are willing to risk a large part of
your chip stack on. My experience is when it gets down to the
money players, you see many people on the short stack going all
in so although it may be tempting to play that 9-10 suited, it
may not be a hand you want to risk a large amount of chips on.
By Kevin Venclauskas Visit http://www.bonusgeek.com to read more
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