Early
in a Texas Hold'em poker tournament, learn to adjust your style
Early on in
an online Texas Hold'em poker
tournament, you have to adjust your play to reflect the smaller size of
the pots, due to very small blinds.
I
talked about taking on lunatics in the early stages of Texas Hold'em
poker tournaments. Here’s an example. You have TT. You raise,
the
lunatic reraises. Everybody folds, so you call.
The flop is only very slightly worrying:
Not a terrible flop for your hand, with
only
one overcard. Unless your lunatic opponent has 99 or 22,
you’re
probably ahead. In a cash game, you would probably check-raise from
first position, or raise from last position.
On the flop, there’s no reason
to behave any
differently. Note though, that in Texas Hold'em poker
tournament, you cannot risk your entire stack in such an uncertain
position.
Your pair of tens is probably good, but
you
don’t
want to talk yourself into losing a lot of chips here, especially
against such a loose player.
So
you check, the lunatic bets the pot, and you call. He calls. The turn
should not worry you:
I would suggest checking again. Note
that this is exactly the wrong way to play in a cash game!
You don’t normally give your opponent potential free cards to
beat you.
But you know that this lunatic won’t resist betting at you
again, and
in the very particular circumstances of a Texas Hold'em poker
tournament, you have to behave differently.
Sure enough, our lunatic bets the pot
again. Note
that by flat-calling, you put much less of your precious stack at risk.
The pot is already getting nice and big and you have not had to raise
since before the flop!
The
river is once more quite encouraging:
Now there are very few hands that can be
beating you. If the lunatic has a deuce, good luck to him. If he has a
genuine hand like an overpair, JJ, AQ or KQ (and in his mind, QJ is
probably genuine too), you’re beaten and have been behind
since preflop.
Otherwise, you’re ahead. I would
expect him to
show down a hand like AK, KJ or 88. The question is,
what’s
your action now?
Betting
first is going to hurt if he raises you all-in. You’ll feel
compelled
to call and if he has a hand that’s beating you,
you’re done.
Checking and calling is probably better.
You
risk him checking behind you, but with second-best pair, this pot is
probably big enough for your pair of tens. Losing one more chance to
get his money in this early stage of the Texas Hold'em poker tournament
is probably worth the gamble.
What
if he moves all-in once you’ve checked? This is the most
difficult
decision. It could be a bluff, it could be indication that he has you
beaten. However, remember the original plan was to check and call. His
all-in move should not deter you from this course of action, even if it
turns out you were wrong all along.
Lunatics
often think that their only chance of winning is to continue with their
bluff. If you fold now, it will have succeeded despite your bravery on
the flop and turn.
I’d
grit my teeth and call. There are many more hands that will lose to
your pair than beat it. Be brave. Remember that this kind of situation
can set you up for the entire Texas Hold'em poker tournament. An early
chance to double up against a weak opponent should be gambled on.
May I suggest you sign up to
PokerPrayer, the Church of Texas Holdem eZine? This will keep you
informed of new installments in this series, and allow us to offer you
loads of free benefits.
Next
time, I’ll look at the middle stages of Texas Hold'em poker
tournaments.
More
strategy for Texas Hold em poker tournament play...
