MICRO STAKES TOURNAMENT NO-LIMIT HOLD'EM STRATEGY FOR BEGINNERS
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CHAPTER 1 - ABOUT ME AND THIS GUIDE
CHAPTER 2 - HOW DO TOURNAMENTS DIFFER FROM CASH GAMES
CHAPTER 3 - SURVIVAL AND DEATH WISH
CHAPTER 4 - PLAYING WITH FEWER CHIPS
CHAPTER 5 - PLAYING WITH MUCH FEWER CHIPS
CHAPTER 6 - PLAYING WITH A TINY STACK
CHAPTER 1 - ABOUT ME AND THIS GUIDE
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Hey I'm Jelle (GroT was my starcraft ID) and I've been playing poker for about a year. After writing a guide for beginners with some tips on how to start playing poker, I got the idea of making a similar article about tournament strategy. This time, however, I'm writing it mostly for myself. I've been making a whole bunch of plays in tournament poker that I wouldn't make in cash games (ever since I started playing in tournaments, really) without really knowing why I made them. It just felt like the right thing to do.. even though they'd conflict with my normal strategies. I'm the kind of guy who doesn't really feel confident making a play when having no reason for it. When I make a big bet while a friend's watching me play and he asks me afterwards "Hey Jelle, why'd you bet so much on that one hand?" I really hate having no explanation. I hate having to say "I don't know, it just felt right at the time". And that's the real reason why I'm going to write down my "reasons" here so I can ask myself: "does this make any sense?"
If you're a beginner, you'll have to read my earlier guide to money games here, because you won't understand some of the things I talk about here if you don't. If you're not a beginner, then this guide probably can't help you much.
There's two more things I've got to mention before I get going. Firstly, I'm not claiming to be a great player or a "poker authority" here. I'm just a random guy trying to get his head straight and help his own (and hopefully some other people's) game. Where I was pretty confident about my advice earlier when I wrote the beginners' guide for money games, I'm not as confident now. Don't hold it against me if I give you a bad tip. Always trust your own judgement over mine and if you read something you disagree with in the guide, let me know!
The second is that this article won't be getting into normal poker strategy. I'm just trying to talk about how you adjust your normal game in a tournament. I'm also ignoring rebuy tournaments because well, I simply don't seem to like them. When I saw a really good player (I think it was raszi!) going all in preflop every hand in the early stage of a rebuy tournament (and rebuying every time) I immediately knew rebuy tournaments just weren't my thing.
CHAPTER 2 - HOW DO TOURNAMENTS DIFFER FROM CASH GAMES
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In a poker tournament each player pays an entry fee and sits down with a fixed amount of chips. When you lose all your chips, you're out. Unlike a cash game, you can't spend some extra money and sit right down with a healthy stack again. This affects the way you and almost all of your opponents play the game. For one thing I've always found it easier to bluff a man in a tournament than in a money game. The simple fact is that pretty much everyone (in his right mind) is afraid of going broke. This is not really a big factor in micro stakes tournaments however, because peoploe are too foolish to be afraid. One thing I love about tournaments is how the blinds (and sometimes antes) keep going up, making it more and more expensive for everyone to just sit around. Makes things more exciting in my opinion, too. One effect this has is that it's more easy to win a big pot at the end of the tournament, than at it's start. It's simple really.. at the start everyone might be throwing $20 chips around.. at the end they might be throwing $800 chips around.
Another effect it has is that you spend most (sometimes all) of the tournament playing with a shorter stack than you're used to. In a money game, since I'm still a micro stakes player I usually sit down with 10β¬ in a game where the blind is 0.10β¬, which means I've got a stack that's a hundred times the size of the blind. However, when I sign up for a 45 player micro stakes sit&go on the internet, I'll start out with $1,500 in tournament chips, while the blind is already $20 at the first level and will increase quickly. That's a stack 75 times the size of the blind.. already 25% shorter than what you're used to. When the tournament really gets going, you'll be happy to find yourself with about 25 or 35 blinds.
CHAPTER 3 - SURVIVAL AND DEATH WISH
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I get dealt pocket aces more often in poker tournaments than many really bad players. You don't believe me? Here's why:
Imagine you were selling an old baseball card. The thing seems worthless to you now and you're pretty much happy to take whatever you can get for it. Some guy shows interest for your card and offers you $50 for it. You are stunned. Here is a living, breathing, thinking human being about to offer you $50 for something you could at best use as a booklet indicator. You immediately accept (before he changes his mind) and are already pondering what to purchase with your new $50. But the next day, your neighbour walks up and tells you he wonders if you still have that old baseball card.. he offers you $500 for it. Suddenly selling the card for $50 seems like the dumbest thing you ever did...
Fortunately, this kind of thing almost never happens in real life. It's against the odds. But in poker tournaments, this situation comes up all the time.. so don't sell your baseball card for a good price when you can get a great price.
What I'm trying to say is, the reason many bad players don't get dealt their fair share of pocket aces, is because they're often simply not around to catch them anymore.. they're already broke. They've already sold their baseball card. Going broke early in a poker tournament is a double disaster because not only do you lose your chips, you don't get to see all those great cards you might have gotten had you still been in. You won't be making any of those profitable decisions you would have made. This is why everybody always talks about survival in the early stages of poker tournaments. The more convinced you are that you are one of the better players in the tournament, the harder you should try to keep from going broke.
Let's say you were dealt pocket Queens early on and you, being the awesome player that you are, pick up a great tell on someone who's favourite hand is Ace-King and reraises you. You know beyond any doubt that he has that Ace-King and he puts you all-in with a ridiculously oversized re-raise. Since you're so awesome and your read on him is so great, you can now call knowing that you are a tiny favourite to win the pot and double your chips. After all, how can it be a mistake to make a play that will win you chips on average? This is one of the extreme cases where you wouldn't think twice about mucking those queens. I mean.. you can just throw them away and maybe lose $80 of your $1500 stack and keep playing with a healthy $1420. There's no need to risk going broke on close to an even money shot.. so you'd ditch those queens quickly.
Maybe it's me, but I think most people who understand the survival concept take it way too far... The better a player you consider yourself and the worse you consider your opponents, the more likely it is that you'll be able to outplay them later on and therefore the harder you should try to avoid going broke in marginal situations. However, if you're a humble man and you know you make mistakes very often, that's one reason not to take this thing too far. But even if you think you are the king of all poker and you can get your money in as a 65% favourite to double up, you should still go for it. Because that's the edge you're looking for in the first place, and because no-limit hold'em is a game where you just have to be willing to gamble it
up, and you don't want to play "scared" and give your opponents the impression they can bluff you out at any time.
That baseball card thing I tried to talk about works the other way around, too. Sometimes, it's best to sell your baseball card for a pretty bad price just because you know you'll have to sell it for even less if you don't take this chance right now. In poker tournaments, sometimes it's okay to make a losing call/bet just because you know your time is running out and you'll have to make an even worse play soon if you keep folding now. When I get really short stacked, like when I've got seven times the size of the big blind, I get so aggressive you'd think I had a death wish. It has nothing to do with giving up. I'm really trying to win a tournament until every last chip I have is gone.
CHAPTER 4 - PLAYING WITH FEWER CHIPS
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When the tournament starts, you'll notice you'll have less chips to play with than in a money game. In the micro sit&go's I've played on the internet, each player generally started with 50 or 75 times the big blind. In a money game I usually buy-in for about a hundred times the big blind. If you've read my no-limit hold'em for beginners guide and play the hands I recommended before the flop, you'll be fine even with just half as many chips. So basicly I want you to play your normal game, while avoiding big pots in which you feel you have only a small edge.
If you're used to making pot-sized bets all the time, a quality I can only applaud, I really kind of want you to slow down a little in these tournaments. If you bet about 3/4rd the size of the pot when you bet (but remember to do it all the time, don't give away information about the strength of your hand by the size of your bet) your results will be almost the same. I just happen to prefer making really big bets.. but not in a tournament. Since both are perfectly viable, you're not helping yourself nor your opponent, but you are making sure that you'll have some chips left if someone draws out on you. This helps the better player in the tournament, as it's more likely that the better player will come out on top if you play 5 pots with each other, than if you play just 1 pot. If you're a starcraft player, making big bets in tournaments is kind of like cheesing in brood war: it increases the luck factor in the game. So if you think you're one of the better players, you should try to decrease the luck factor and make skill play as much of a role as possible. You can also use this trick by raising less than usual before the flop.. if you're used to raising 4 times the big blind, try raising it to 3 times the big blind instead. This will have a huge impact on the average size of your pots. Don't take it any further than that, though, otherwise your raises will become too puny and weak.
Another thing I'd like to mention is that these three chapters about stack size don't just apply to your stack size, but also to your opponent's. If you're playing a pot heads-up with one other player, the shortest stack (among the two of you) will dictate the right way to play. So, if you've got 75 big blinds and your opponent has only 19, use the advice in chapter 6, not the advice in this chapter. This means that even if you're doing great and your stack grows very fast, you'll still have to play differently when the blinds increase (as everyone else will have way fewer big blinds).
CHAPTER 5 - PLAYING WITH MUCH FEWER CHIPS
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Before you even reach level 3, you'll probably find that you or someone who's playing a pot with you has less than 40 big blinds. If you play the way I recommended in my beginner's article, well, you're going to get ran over. Your clueless (and therefore fearless, they are often too ignorant, for example, to realise that their kicker is bad, so they don't fear a bigger one) opponents will take pot after pot as you fold and wait for a hand, and when you finally get a hand they'll be calling your bets with your own money, making it impossible for you to win.
Let's talk about our fictional friend Puppy500, who is a recreational micro stakes player that doesn't really know or care about poker strategy. He just likes the excitement of playing and who can blame him? Here's what will happen if he sits down in a $0.01/$0.02 NL game with $2 (100 big blinds):
Puppy500 gets dealt the Queen-Jack offsuit in early position and is eager to call. He has two illustrations and is ready to take his pretty hand to victory. Now here comes the flop and it falls Q-5-2. In Puppy500's mind, there is no consideration to the fact that he has only the third best kicker. In fact, even if he does consider his kicker, he might feel that it's actually a good one (after all, it's an illustration). So Puppy500 feels he has a good hand and bets right out. And you know what? And here's where I might surprise you: our friend Puppy500 takes the pot! Everyone folds and he proudly collects $0.08. He remembers how great that Queen-Jack is and the next time he gets it, you can bet your boots he'll play it again. Now, here comes the flop and Puppy500 makes another pair. Yet again he proudly collects the pot! And he might win another pot with the Queen-Jack and even another one, until GroT comes along and shows him the better kicker with A-Q for all his money, making his Queen-Jack a loser overall even though he won four pots with it and lost only one. "Just my luck!" Is what he'll say, not telling anyone about the four pots he did win with Queen-Jack.
So what does this have to do with tournaments and having few chips? Well, it's simple: Our friends Puppy500 can't lose a big pot if he doesn't have a lot of chips. Therefore, when you have few chips, it's better to regularly win small pots than it is to win few really big pots
For this reason, a hand like Queen-Jack becomes less terrible (don't get me wrong, I still think it's bad) and a player like Puppy500 is actually playing better without knowing it. A hand like 4-5 suited however, dramatically decreases in value. Even though it's a hand that's never dominated and can lead to safely winning big pots, who cares? It won't win regularly enough. The same is true for small pairs such as two wired fives. Since you probably (hopefully) won't play with the fives unless they flop a set, you're only in there gambling once every eight flops.. So these hands are a little less valuable than in a deep stacked game.
Since you should now be trying to pick up pots regularly, I'm going to dismiss another piece of advice I gave in my beginner's guide to money games. When I talked about straight and flush draws, I was always recommending you to play them weakly. That is, I wanted you to check them, see how much the other guy bets, and then decide if it's profitable to call. If you have such a draw in a pot where you (or the other guy) have less than 40 blinds, and nobody has bet yet, I want you to bet. And not some puny tiny bet or whatever.. it should be a reasonable bet. The kind of bet you'd make if you really had a good hand. If someone raises you, decide wether it's worth to call by judging your pot odds. But the beautiful thing is, bad players will almost never raise you.. their action is usually to call or fold. If they do call, hope you make your draw, but don't bet again. Firing a second bullet (bluffing twice) against a bad player) is useless and a good way to throw money away.
Another change I like to make is that I'll start check-raising here and there. Let's say someone raises it to three blinds, and you're the big blind with 25 blinds left in your stack and you find 8-8. You call, and the flop comes 8-7-2. Now in a money game, i'd almost always lead out and bet, hoping the raiser would raise it so I could reraise... this is good because it gets way more money in the pot than a checkraise. However, since you now have very few chips, you might want to check it to him. He'll probably bet, and if he bets anywhere near the size of the pot it will be a very significant amount for you (unlike in a deep stacked game). So it's easier to win a big pot this way. Since I'm checkraising now with good hands, I might also try it as a bluff with a good draw.
Remember that if no one shows any interest in a pot, you've got a flush draw and bet, and suddenly some guy makes a huge raise.. you've got to be willing to give it up. I know it's tempting to call and go for that fifth heart that will give you a flush, but if you don't have the pot odds, fold.
Because draws allow you to bet out and steal the pot, I really love playing big suited cards such as the King-Jack suited when I have 40 big blinds or less. Sometimes you'll even flop a draw that's definetly worth putting all your money in with, such as a pair with a flush draw or an open ended straight plus flush draw. Just keep raising and raising with a flop like that..if he folds, good! You've won another pot. If he calls, good, you'll probably win all his chips. Since you're hopefully not used to playing a hand like King-Ten suited, I'll add a chart at the end of this chapter that shows what it can flop and how often you can expect each flop. King-Ten suited is really the weakest hand you should consider playing. It's very hard to win consistently with such a weak hand, so don't let uncle GroT down!
In addition, if you hit something on the flop (like the top pair for example) your hand is much much stronger. You must be prepared to fold way less often. If you fold too much.. they'll run over you. If you've got an overpair on a crappy looking flop and somebody beats you with a set, well, you're probably just going to have to lose all your money. If you've got the second best kicker, you've just got to go with it and hope that nobody has the best one. Similarly, Q-Q and A-K may very well be worth putting all your chips in with before the flop sometimes, while in a more deep-stacked game they surely aren't.
CHAPTER 6 - PLAYING WITH A TINY STACK
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I'll now try to discuss playing when you have less than 20 times the size of the big blind as your stack.
I see so many of the terrible players at the pokerstars $1.2 45 player sit&go's who start out and gamble really hard in level 1. If they've got a hand, just about any hand, they're ready to call whatever the bet is and risk their tournament life. Then, later, at the end of the tournament, some of them have gotten lucky and have made it to the final 15 or whatever. Strangely, they are suddenly very timid and scared to risk any chips of their small stack (almost everyone usually has less than 20 big blinds in their stack at this point). Their gambling attitude is gone. This is because they didn't care about the $1.2 they paid to sign up in the first place - they're used to losing and at the start, they're there to put chips in the pot and have fun. But now that they've gotten so lucky (and believe me, it's taken quite a few miracles to bring them here despite what they say) and gotten so far, they suddenly care about the tournament... so they're trying their honest to god best to play as good as they can. They're not calling with J-8 anymore. Ironically, they are wrong both at the start of the tournament and at the end. It's amazing how their instincts manage to steer them in the wrong direction consistently, because even a broken clock should be right twice a day.
Basicly I think you should be making even less laydowns. If you feel your hand is good, just go with it. You've got to be really really certain that you're beat to fold a big hand, because the risk of getting ran over is too great if you play timidly. Since timid is exactly what your opponents are, you should be playing brutally aggressive with your medium strong and strong hands. So if you find an Ace-Jack or even an Ace-Ten, the osrt of hand you go broke with in a normal game, you should raise it up when you're the first player to enter the pot. More than likely you'll pick up the blinds - something that almost never happens at the start of the tournament. Let's say you raise an Ace-Ten and the big blind calls. If the T-9-2 falls, your opponent's going to have to show you a hand, because you're not folding no matter what he does. Good luck to him, because hands like two pair or a set are hard to get. If he waits for big hands, you'll be paying him with his own money when he finally gets one(if he ever gets one). Similarly, don't go off and fold A-K before the flop.. keep raising. If someone shows you aces or kings, oh well, too bad.
If you're the kind of guy who's always looking for that opportunity to slow-play his big hand, well, here's your opportunity. The truth is, on the $0.01/$0.02 tables where people are deep stacked, wired aces and kings are more often played slow (called with before the flop) than they are actually raised with! I keep telling people to raise their wired kings before the flop, they keep telling me "hm, you make a good point" and then they run off and call the blind with two aces, see the flop, and proceed to make a huge bet regardless of what falls so that they won't get action from anything except the hands that beat them. Well, if you've got 13 big blinds or something, limping in with a pair of aces or kings is really a good play. Especially if you mix it up (don't do it all the time) so that you're not too predictable. Don't do it when somebody has called the blind already before you, though. Take this person to war, he's already shown interest in seeing the flop and it's very likely that he'll call you. It's also much too dangerous to let him see the flop for free. But if you're the first to enter the pot, you can limp in and hope someone raises it behind you. If they do, reraise them all-in and you've already won a good pot even if they fold. If nobody raises behind you, you've still concealed the strength of your hand while not risking much (you only have 20 blinds to lose) The same holds true for flopping big hands and slowplaying them.. it's a little bit more viable when everyone has so few chips. Just remember to do this only occasionally (you're still going to do it too often no matter what I say, but whatever, haha).
If you're getting very very close to the money and your opponents are playing crazy you should try to sneak into the money by folding. Only do this if you have fewer chips than the others and the other short stacks are playing reckless. You've really got to pay attention to what the other short stacks are playing like, because folding away your big cards is exactly the opposite of what I want you to usually do and it will cost you alot of chips on average if you use this strategy. Often people will bully you when they see you are waiting for another, shorter stack to go broke and therefore can't afford to gamble, and there's not really anything you can do about it. I often see people try so hard to sneak into the money, that they actually completely destroy their own chance of completely winning the tournament.. so try to use good judgement and don't take it too far.
Generally when your stack becomes so small that it's less than 10 times the size of the big blind, you shouldn't try to see any flops anymore. It's too advantageous to just move all-in before the flop and guarantee yourself that you'll be able to see every community card. Be prepared to move all-in more often when you're the first to enter the pot and you think the blinds might fold. (having everyone fold is very profitable for you) I always love this part of the tournament because it really is possible to come back and end up winning the entire thing. Remember that good hands to race with are the pairs, an ace with a jack or better kicker (ace king is just fantastic) or a suited ace (even if it has a small kicker).
Finally, as promised, here are some stats on flops for King-Ten suited. Other big suited "trouble" cards such as King-Jack suited compare pretty well to this one.
You hold KTs. The flop brings you:
Quads or Full house.
................0.1% Includes the small full, Tens full of Kings, which could lose to K-K, but otherwise you have the nuts
Straight. The board is not all the same suit.
................0.6% Always the nuts
Flush.
................0.84% Only behind vs the ace high flush
Two pair.
................2.02% Includes some unfavorable two pairs (on a suited board or bottom two pair)
Three of a kind.
................1.35% May cause kicker trouble
Top pair. The board is not all the same suit.
................15.64% Kicker is trouble, especially if you make a pair of kings
Two way straight draw plus flush draw.
................0.51% Very favorable even though you have nothing yet
Inside straight draw plus flush draw.
................1.47% Favorable.
A pair plus a flush draw.
................1.68% Favorable.
A flush draw, no pair, no straight draw, and two overcards to the flop.
................2.29% Favorable, especially in a short-stacked game, where you are unlikely to face a set.if you are called. This is another big reason why big suited cards are better in short stacked games.
Flush draw with 1 overcard (your king), no straight draw and no pair.
................1.88% Even just one overcard is a nice addition to your flush draw, especially in a short-stacked situation.
Flush draw with no overcards, no straight draw, no pair.
................1.28% These flops all contain an ace, so you may be in trouble. Far less reliable than the other flush draws, but still a helpful flop.
Open ended straight draw or double belly buster straight draw on rainbow board
...............1.35% Some of these flops give you a pair and a straight draw. For example, Q-J-T rainbow would qualify. 7-8-9 rainbow is also included even though you only use one of your hole cards on that, and may be dominated by QT if the Jack falls.
All in all the flop will help you more than a third of the itme, which is much more than for a small pocket pair and that's why I like these hands when everyone's on short money. Some flops have not been mentioned, such as a flush draw when there's a pair on the board, a straight draw when the board is suited or even an inside straight draw. This is because I consider these to be poor flops to your hand in almost any situation.
I hope I've at least sent you in the right direction a little bit, and that you've enjoyed reading my guide.
Good luck.
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Netherlands. Dec 01 2005 03:14. Posts 7080
