Poker Help – Poker Tips – Poker Strategy

Gus Hansen
Team Full Tilt

Every Hold ‘em strategy guide talks about the importance of positional advantage. The standard thinking is that the player who acts last has more information than his opponents, so he’ll have a better sense of where he stands in a hand and can, therefore, make better decisions. There’s no doubt that this is true, but it’s important to understand that the power that comes with position is often granted to the late-position player by the early-position player.

To see what I mean, consider a pretty typical No-Limit hold ‘em hand. Say that I’m in the big blind with 7s-8s – a nice, flop-worthy hand. The player on the button raises to three times the big blind and I decide to call. Many players would check the flop under almost any circumstances. But, by checking, you give control to the late-position player. He can bet whether or not he has a hand, putting you in a tough spot if you don’t get a piece of the flop.

In a hand like this, I believe it’s best to look at the flop and ask, "Is it likely that these cards helped my opponent?" Once I have an answer to that question, I can decide how to proceed.

If the flop is Ah-Kd-9c, I’d probably just check and fold to a bet, as my opponent was likely raising with big cards and caught a piece of the flop. However, if the flop is 9c-5h-2d, I’d probably be more skeptical. I know that in Hold ‘em, two unpaired hole cards will fail to make a pair on the flop about 66 percent of the time, and this seems to be a flop that the pre-flop raiser might have missed.

If I suspect my opponent didn’t connect, I’m going to take the initiative and bet out about half the size of the pot. Betting here with my gutshot draw offers several advantages. First, I might take the pot down right here, and I’m always happy when a semi-bluff forces a fold. But even if I get a call from my opponent, I’ve forced him to react. That gives me a chance to pick up a read. If my opponent seems uneasy, I might continue with my semi-bluff on the turn and try again to pick up the pot. Or, if I feel my opponent is strong, I can check and fold to any bet on the turn if I fail to make my hand.

Stabbing at pots when out of position can be very lucrative. In tournaments, I’ll open-raise out of position fairly frequently because I think there’s a lot of power in being the first one to fire at the pot on the flop. I pick up a lot of small pots that way.

As you work on your Hold ‘em game, remember that you don’t have to give the advantage in the hand to the player in late position. Look for opportunities to bet out and seize the initiative.

Gus Hansen
Team Full Tilt

Gus Hansen
Team Full Tilt

This week starts the largest, richest tournament in poker history – the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. For anyone who makes it deep in the tournament, there will be several long, exhausting days of poker. So, going in rested is extremely important. Beyond that, however, there are ways to approach different portions of the event that could help you develop and maintain a healthy stack.

In the early stages of a large tournament like the Main Event, chances are you’ll be seated with nine players who are complete strangers to you. Most of them will probably not be all that strong. Also, at this point in the event, you’ll have a lot of chips compared to the size of the blinds. In these portions of the tournament, you should try to slowly build your stack. You don’t need to double up quickly and you don’t want to commit a lot of chips to the pot unless you’re pretty certain you know where you stand.

This is not to say that you should be tight pre-flop. Actually, when playing against weak opponents while holding lots of chips, you should try to see more flops as cheaply as you can. You can limp, call raises or even raise with a wide variety of hands, and then proceed from there. Most of the time, you won’t hit the flop very hard, but in those hands where you’re forced to fold, you won’t have lost much. When you do manage to catch a hand, you’ll pick up a lot of chips from players who don’t make very good decisions much of the time. You can use your skill advantage to balance your wins and losses, and slowly build your stack.

As the tournament moves along, many will bust and the fields will get tougher. The players you’ll encounter later in the tournament are more likely to make good decisions post-flop. Some will be excellent players – even top pros who are capable of very good reads. At these points in the tournament, you’ll have a lot of chips, but the blinds will be much higher; the average stack may only have 25 or 30 big blinds.

This is also the time when you need to be more willing to gamble. By "gamble" I don’t mean that you need to over-commit with a hand where you’re hoping for a race. Rather, there are some situations where you might be compelled to put all your chips in the pot, even when you’re not thrilled with your hand.

For example, in the early levels of a tournament, I’m unlikely to commit my entire stack with a hand like top-pair, top-kicker – it’s just not strong enough. But later in the event, I’m likely to have no choice but to commit all of my chips if I have Ace- King and hit a King on the flop. To me, going with this kind of hand is something of a gamble.

These are some general guidelines to playing large tournaments. By seeing lots of flops early, you’re likely to build your stack slowly by taking advantage of your skills post-flop. And later, you’ll do better to tighten up and look for opportunities that require a little more gambling.

If you’re playing in the Main Event, keep these thoughts in mind and good luck!

Gus Hansen
Team Full Tilt