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 reraising him on the turn when he
should have slow-played thehand. 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
reraises $100, the third and fourth players fold, lastley 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: Dont 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, dont 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 adverage 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 dont want the guy next to you
who has King Duece 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 with his second pair. You want to
hold on to the chip lead, so dont 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 supercedes 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 yourelf 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 dont 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 thats 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 without getting involved in too many pots.
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 down with his low pair. Conversly, 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 more than likely fold his
adverage 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 J-Q suited, it may not be a hand
you want to risk a large amount of chips on.
Be sure to check out our other poker
strategies. Talk about this poker article at our friendly poker
discussion forum. Write a poker related article, and get it read by
thousands of poker players. Get credit for it. Click
here for more details on submitting an article to us.
10
Common Mistakes To Avoid When Playing No Limit Texas Holdem Tournaments
