No Limit Holdem Advice

If you’ve ever read any poker book before you will undoubtedly have read about how it’s better to bide your time and play only premium hands. For a long time I subscribed to that school of thought but I came to realize that the theory is flawed, particularly in a No Limit Hold ‘Em tournament. You might get through the first few blind levels without ever putting your chip stack in danger and you might also outlast several of your opponents, perhaps even enough to make it in the money. However when the field has dwindled down to just a handful of players who have been playing more aggressively during the last few levels stealing blinds and antes have now accumulated a large majority of the total chips and you’re left with only 3-4 rounds of BB + antes. You’ve now become

prey for the bigger stacks at the table who will wield their stacks around and you will eventually be eliminated. So how do you avoid this situation? By being the increasing your aggressiveness as the blind levels start increasing.

You’re registered in a 90 player tournament, the starting chip stack is 1500 and the blinds are at $10/$20. The first 14 players will be paid.

You played conservatively through the first 7 levels, you picked up a few pots with some strong hands, made a bluff here and there.

Now the field looks like this:

Remaining players: 24 - 4 tables of 6 players

Blinds: $200/$400

Antes: $25

Average chip stack: $5,000

Your chip stack: $4,375

You sit down at the table and these are your opponents

Player 1 $8,675

Player 2 $5,340

Player 3 $6,220

Player 4 (You) $4,375

Player 5 $1,125

Player 6 $3175

With just 24 players remaining if you want to make it to the final table and increase your chances of winning the tournament you must switch into hyper aggressive mode. When a tournament gets so close to the money the majority of players will guard their remaining chips with their life and will become super tight and that’s when you swoop in and steal their blinds in antes.

You are in the dealer position and everybody folds around to you holding Q♠ 4♣. You make it $1200 to go, the small blind gets out of the way and the big blind calls.

The flop comes K♣ 8♥ 4♣

You picked up a backdoor flush draw but you didn’t connect.

Player 6 (BB) Check

Player 4 (You) ?

The BB called your preflop raise but checked on the flop. He could either be slow playing a K or he could be on a flush draw.

You bet the pot, $2750 enough to put the BB all-in. He ponders for a second but reluctantly folds.

In a situation like this, the only way the BB was going to call you is if he made the nuts (the best possible hand) and because of his check on the flop you know he didn’t.

Now you pickup a pot worth $2600 and your chip stack is now at $5925. In one hand you went from 4th largest stack at the table to 3rd.

I can’t stress this enough, when you are close to the money players will rarely risk a large

percentage of their stack. Instead they’ll play ultra-conservative just to make it in the money.

By constantly raising and re-raising pots you will rapidly build your chip stack, and the more your stack grows the more aggressive you should become. There is one instance in which this type of play should be avoided and that is when another big stack is involved in a pot. You should never butt heads with another player that can put you all-in unless you’re holding the nuts.

Keep in mind that playing hyper aggressive doesn’t mean going in with any two cards either. There are very few instances in which you should play hands like 7♥ 2♣, but once you get a feel that the players around you fold to any substantial raise your cards don’t even matter anymore.

If you have ever watched a professional poker tournament you will have noticed this style of play by several players, the most notorious of which is The Great Dane Gus Hansen.

Stu Ungar perhaps one of the most famous poker players of all time once said that he never put a single chip in the middle of the pot until the ante came into play and that playing before that level was not worth it and just asking for trouble. Then there’s the other school of thought that says that coming out firing and raising every pot is the way to go.

There is no right and wrong strategy. Professional poker players such as Gus Hansen prefer a more aggressive style of play and will raise with any two napkins while other players such as Phil Helmuth prefer to stay low key in the early rounds of a tournament.

Let’s take a look at both sides and see the pros and cons of both styles

Playing Aggressively In The Early Rounds

The idea of playing aggressively is to steal the blinds and small pots with the second best hand or sometimes even nothing at all. The advantage of this strategy is that it allows you to quickly build up your stack and command the action at the table. Having the big stack at the table further enables you to steal the blinds and small pots and cruise your way to the final table. Of course this course of action isn’t without its risks and perils.

Let’s imagine this situation.

You’re sitting one away from the big blind and first to act before the flop. You’re holding Q♣ 8♣ which is a marginal hand under any circumstance but you decide you’re going to try and steal the blinds. You raise the standard 3 times the big blind to $150, everyone folds around to the big blind who calls.

The flop comes 8♥ 4♣ A♣

The big blind makes it $150 to go. By now you have to assume the big blind has you beat with an A versus your middle pair and flush draw. What you need to do is establish a range for your opponent’s kicker and then raise accordingly to push him off the hand. It is unlikely that he is holding A-K, A-Q or otherwise he would have bet more than half the pot. So you put your opponent on A-9, A-7. You re-raise to $500 to represent the A-K and your opponent folds. You take down a $450 pot and become the big stack at the table thus allowing you to continue your aggressive play. When you adopt an aggressive style of play it’s crucial to know when to back down. If your opponent had re-raised on top of your $500 raise you have to lay it down otherwise you’ll be faced with an all-in decision on the next street.

Playing Conservatively In The Early Rounds

Playing conservatively during the early rounds of a tournament is the more commonly adopted technique and this is how you should approach a no limit hold ‘em tournament if you are still relatively new to the game. The advantage of playing premium hands of course is that you are minimizing the risk of exiting the tournament early. The disadvantage of this technique is that you are allowing the more aggressive players to build their chip stacks to a point where your only defense against a raise is an all-in.

For example say you are in the BB and you make it $1000 to go which represents 30% of your chip stack. The player to your left re-raises an additional $1000. At this point your options are very limited; you are pot committed but that additional $1000 would mean 60% of your chip stack is in the middle. To the raiser that is only 10% of his stack so even if you call he will call you all-in on the flop regardless of the cards that come. That is the downside to the conservative approach, you surrender all control of the pot over to the aggressive players.

In the end the best poker players in the world, the ones that go on to win a World Series of Poker bracelet are the ones who learn to adapt to the situation. Sometimes being aggressive is the right move because the players at the poker table are weak and will fold to any substantial raise. Other time you’ll be playing a table with hyper aggressive players and conservative is the way to go until you hit that monster hand and double through.

If there is one aspect of your poker game that will always need improvement it’s your heads up game. Unfortunately the majority of us do not get enough practice with the mano a mano situation and when we reach that elusive stage in the tournament we seem to forget the most crucial aspect of playing heads up: be aggressive.

In heads-up play your starting hand requirements diminish drastically and suddenly any two cards are good enough to raise. The reason behind this logic is pretty straightforward; if you have a mediocre hand there is an 80% chance that your opponent does as well. That is why it is important to take control of the betting. Of course there will be times when your opponent has a premium hand preflop, or made a hand on the flop, but you will find that the majority of hands in heads up play poker are determined before the flop is dealt.

In heads up play your position at the poker table is still one of the most important aspects of your play. Only both positions now have their distinct advatanges. Pre-flop being in the dealer position means that you are first to act which is when you want to take control of the betting and not give your opponent a chance to push you off your hand. On the other hand if you both agree to see a flop being in the BB gives you the chance to take back control of the betting. Let’s look at an example to illustrate.

You are sitting in the dealer position with K♣ 3♥. (In heads up any K or A regardless of your kicker is an excellent starting hand because it reduces the odds of your opponent holding one in their hand.) This is definitely a raising hand and you should raise three times the big blind.

Your opponent calls and the flop comes:

9♦

9♥ Q♣

You didn’t connect and you’re now holding K high. Your opponent bets ¼ of the pot.

Based on the flop you know the odds of your opponent holding a 9 is approximately 2% so it’s safe to say you’re not up against three of a kind. The odds that he has a Q is approximately 10%. You figure that your K must be good at this point and you reraise the pot, and your opponent folds.

In heads up poker you should always raise the pot on the first hand regardless of what two cards you’re holding. This will give you very useful insight about your opponent. If your opponent immediately releases his hand you should note that he is reluctant to call with any random cards. Alternatively if you raise a pot and your opponent constantly re-raises you must tread carefully and pick your spots.

Remember the key to successful heads up poker is to be aggressive. 8-% of the hands you are dealt neither of you will be holding a premium hand and the odds of connecting with the flop are about 60%. Most of the time the player who raises first will take down the pot uncontested.