Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (48 page)

The main solution to this problem of getting close odds is to change the size of your pre-flop raise. If you raise less, you will be getting worse odds, so you can fold. If you raise more, you will be getting better odds, so you can call. Always pay attention to the stack sizes late in a tournament and vary your bet sizes slightly, especially if your opponents are unobservant. You can also just fold pre-flop. No rule says you have to raise 6
-5
from the cutoff. Remember that folding is an option, especially if you expect an opponent will either push or fold before the flop.

You don’t want to get near the correct odds against your opponent’s range, so if you are forced into the situation, consider your playing ability versus that of everyone else at your table.

You can pass up marginal spots if you are by far the best player at your table. Some players are unrealistic about their skills, assuming they can pass up situations where they have 50-percent equity and are getting 2-to-1. This is a clear mistake. If I need to win 35 percent of the time and I am getting 1.5-to-1, I am usually going to call, depending on the stack I will be left with.

If you are worse than the players at your table, you should call when you are getting even close to the right odds. Folding is a clear error if you think you are 40-percent to win and you are getting 1.5-to-1 odds. You may even want to call if you are 35-percent to win, if you think you are severely outmatched.

Think also about how the table is reacting to your bets and raises pre-flop. If you are constantly getting pushed on, you need to call to let them know you will not be pushed around. If you have stolen nine of the last ten pots pre-flop and you finally get pushed on, you should certainly fold marginal hands.

Think about how often the players to your right are raising, which will tell you how many times per orbit you can raise the pot. If they raise constantly and you never get to raise, you should probably be a little tight and wait for spots to push over them. If they fold often, you should probably fold, as you will be able to steal a decent number of blinds before the flop in the future.

Try to make your decisions easier than those that your opponents put themselves to. You’ll be way ahead in the long run if you make the correct decision 80 percent of the time and your opponents do so 50 percent of the time.

Know what you are Inducing

One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is to almost force their opponents to bluff, usually by acting weak, only to fold a hand that is most likely best. You must be keenly aware of what plays you are inducing your opponent to make. For example, if you bet the flop out of position with Q-J on J-9-2, and then check on a 5 turn, your opponent will usually bet a fairly wide range, assuming he is aggressive and capable of calling the flop with nothing with the intention of taking you off your hand later. When you check the turn, you should almost always call reasonably sized bets on the turn and river, assuming your opponent is either value-betting a worse hand or bluffing with a draw or air.

Another great example of this is when you have the same hand on the same board, this time with position. If your opponent checks and you make a standard continuation bet, it’s usually good to check behind the turn for pot control, as you usually don’t want to get a deep stack all-in with top pair, bad kicker. When you check behind, you must be prepared to call every river card, including those that complete straights. Checking behind on the turn almost tells your opponent that you do not have a strong hand and might give up on the river. Therefore, he will often bet his entire range, either as a value bet with hands like a pair, or as a bluff with busted draws. For you, this means that folding on the river is unforgivable.

Advertisement Plays

You have doubtless heard that you have to give action to get action. This is true in basically all forms of poker. If you sit and wait until you get A-A, and then raise, people will usually fold or call with a hand that does well against A-A, hoping for high implied odds. You will get little action even if you lower your starting requirements to 10-10+ and A-K.

In tournaments, especially once antes are involved, it becomes very +EV to raise basically any suited or connected hand when it is folded to you in late position. You will often pick up the pot pre-flop, and you will sometimes get action with a strong holding because your opponents will put you on a very wide range of hands. Sometimes you will actually wake up with A-A. The theory behind this is that you lose small amounts on weaker hands but more than make it up with your big hands. Let’s look at both ends of the spectrum, one where you play only 9-9+ and A-Q+, and the other where you raise every time your opponents have folded to you.

If you only play 9-9+ and A-Q+, not only will you get no action due to your tight image, but your hands will actually become fairly tough to play because you will not be able to confidently get all your money in with an overpair or top pair. Your opponents will tend to play hands that do well against big pairs and will usually only put a lot of chips in the pot with hands that beat an overpair. When you play hands like J-J, even on a 9-6-2 board, you never really know where you stand against a check-raise, whereas an opponent will check-raise with a wide range if he can put you on a fairly wide range as well. Playing only the top hands turns your easy hands into tough ones.

What happens when you raise too many hands? You will lose so many small pots that you won’t show a profit even after doubling up with your monsters. You should raise sometimes, but not all the time, when your opponents often fold to you. I will raise any sort of decent hand deep in a tournament unless there are numerous short stacks behind me that may push. I will raise with hands such as 5-4o, 7-4o, A-2, K-7,
etc.
I vary my play by folding hands that play poorly, such as K-2 and J-4. Once the antes get large, it is almost impossible to raise too many hands.

These advertising plays can help you in future tournaments. Some of the most aggressive players realize that making a fairly –EV play today can pay off huge years down the road. A great example is Faraz Jaka. He plays like an absolute maniac most of the time. I have seen him five-bet all-in with total air, most recently with J-3o, three times. While this play is almost certainly –EV in a tournament, when he decides to finally play a bit tighter, he will rake in the money until players readjust, which is when he will probably revert to being a maniac. I avoid these long leveling wars because I have a hard time remembering what I do in any individual tournament against a specific person. If my memory were better, I would consider it.

Remember that if you will never face a player again, there is very little value in making a play purely to advertise. Suppose you normally play local $100 tournaments but win a seat in a $10,000 tournament. Making crazy plays mostly for advertising value would be a huge waste because you will most likely go back to playing the $100 tournaments. Just play solid poker in the $10,000 event.

Fancy Play Syndrome

Fancy play syndrome can come into play when you think your opponents are so much worse than you that you can get away with basically anything. While I do bluff from time to time, I rarely try ridiculous plays because most opponents won’t figure out what I want them to figure out. I don’t try to put fancy plays on tough opponents because I doubt that they are so much worse than me that I can trick them often enough to make my bluff work. In fact, you will win most of your money from poker not because you are great, but because your opponents are bad.

A great example of fancy play syndrome occurred against a friend who constantly tries to outplay me. Someone min-raised pre-flop, he called on the button and I called in the big blind with J
-10
. I had the shortest stack with around 30BBs. The flop came J
-J
-9
. I decided to lead out for 4BBs. The initial raiser called. My friend tanked for a while and called. The turn was the 4
.