For many players, poker is a game that is based on luck and chance. While there is no sure fire way to make sure you win every time, there are ways to increase your chances of winning. Some of this might include a greater understanding of your opponent, paying close attention to how they play in certain situations, and staying in the zone.
One of the best ways to avoid bad beats in poker is to pay close attention to your opponents and how they play. Here are some tips to help you do this.
Tip 1 – Pay attention to your opponents tendencies. Every player has a different style when it comes to playing poker. Some of these differences are very small, such as whether they raise or check bets, or whether they do this when holding a strong hand, or whether they chase a draw.
Other differences are larger, such as whether a player will call on the pre-flop when they have a lot of outs, or whether a player will raise when they have a lot of outs. Every player has their own style and that is what we want to pick up on.
Tip 2 – When you are in early position, you should not be raising unless you have a very strong hand, or a very big draw. If you are in middle position, you should occasionally throw in a raise when you have a good hand, or a semi-bluff. In late position, you should raise with a wide range of hands.
Tip 3 – Play towards the end of the tournament. When you are within the last 5 or 6 players of the tournament, you want to be playing on a more aggressive basis, bluffing less, and getting in more pots.
Tip 4 – Steal the blinds. When you are in late position and no one has raised in front of you, a wider range of hands is available and you are in a prime position to finally pick up a big hand.
Tip 5 – Don’t chase draws. Drawing hands have much more value late game, when you don’t have anything and your opponents have many outs. In early position, you should rarely draw against one opponent.
Tip 6 – Don’t misplay pocket pairs. Pairs are powerful hands in the right situation, but they are easily the worst hand in the holdem universe. Don’t chase flushes or straights or kickers. Plus, you are much more likely to be drawing dead than holding a strong hand.
Tip 7 – Play from position. Being in late position is important, but being in early position is even more important. You will win more pots in the later positions, stealing the blinds and ante’s, because players are generally in a hurry to hand over their blinds.
Tip 8 – Don’t tilt. Tilt is an emotional explosion, where you go on tilt for a minimum of 2 minutes and your every move is bad. You should never turn to look at your cards, only to realize you have a crack at the nuts. Don’t turn another player’s bet into a personal attack.
Tip 9 – Learn curveball bets. These are very strong bets that allow you to do some strange things with your opponents. You can go do do an inning Manny act for instance, and if an opponent doesn’t know the difference, you can make them fold. Or you can bet very aggressively with a very wide range of hands, and force a player with a weaker hand to fold, because they think you have nothing.
Tip 10 – Consider playing a tournament with no blinds. In tournaments, players often get a lot of chips, and find themselves in situations like this: you have a lot of chips, your opponents don’t, so you can push them all-in, or in many cases, you don’t.
Use these tips for poker tournament strategy, and you will immediately know how to win Texas holdem tournaments. This is simple to do, and when you stick with these tip at all times, you will win big money at the poker table.