Playing No Limit Hold Em Tourneys

BY: Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

It's the recent rage. Everyone wants to play No Limit Hold Em tournaments. And why shouldn't they. They see them on TV. They see world class players playing what seems to be awfully and winning millions of dollars. So they think that they too can win these things. Who can blame them?

Yes. It's true. Everyone and his sister wants to be a No Limit Hold Em tournament champ. So how can you profit from this?

I've had some experiences in the past few months that you might find useful on your path to poker glory and riches. Not that I'm promising you that - far from it. But, having started out as a home game player, and having learned to win at 7-Card Stud, I think I've also learned some valuable lessons about how to win money in these tournaments. Let me share a few observations that have helped me win that might help you. If nothing else, I'll give you something to think about.

First of all, I'm talking about low limit tourneys. I'm not a world class player on the World Poker Tour nor do I pretend to be. I'm just one step removed from most of you who play in home games and want to win but who may not have found a successful way of doing so. So don't take this advice and buy into the $10,000 event in your nearest poker room. Well, you can if you want, but that's not what I'm suggesting.

Rather, I'm giving you ways to approach the $10-100 weekly or daily tournament either on line, among your buddies or in a brick and mortar casino. These tournaments are springing up everywhere these days - even my synagogue hosted one as a fundraiser. So you should be able to find a place to play this game without too much difficulty.

Some simple things first.

Understand the structure of the tournament before you sit down. This is simple and easy but many people don't do this. Here's a list of questions you need to have answered before you play your first hand.

1. How much of the buy-in goes into the prize pool. Ideally, you want a tournament that isn't heavily raked. You want to make sure that the house isn't taking too much of the action for themselves. 20% is about the most you should be willing to pay, unless the tournament is part of some charity you want to support. So in a casino, online or otherwise, don't be too eager to pay $40 if only $30 goes into the prize pool.

2. Are there rebuys or add ons. This significantly changes the nature of the tournament. If, as in many tournaments, unlimited rebuys are allowed the first hour or so, then players tend to play very aggressively until the rebuy period is over. You need to know this and adjust your play accordingly. How many rebuys make sense to you? Best to decide beforehand - at least to give yourself an idea of what you're willing to do, rather than leaving it up to the impulse of the moment when you run out of chips. You can always leave yourself some flexibility, in case the field is very weak and you've just suffered some very bad beats, but best to have some limits in advance. In any event, you need to know what your options are before you get started.

3. How long are each of the stages. Some tournaments favor very fast and aggressive play because the limits go up quickly and steeply. Others favor a more patient and careful approach, with long stages that only go up 30% a stage or so. Know this in advance and think about what general strategy you want to follow.

4. Similarly, what is your starting amount of chips and how do they compare to the beginning blinds. If you're starting with $200 in chips and the blinds start at $25/50 with 15 minute rounds, doubling every stage, then you're going to have to gamble it up quite a bit if you're going to succeed. Know this before you start playing, giving yourself a chance to think through the general strategy adjustments you want to make to maximize your chances of winning. If you're playing a careful tight brand of poker while the blinds and eventually antes are escalating like crazy then you're doomed to be eaten up before you play a hand.

5. Know how the winners get paid. Some tournaments are very top heavy. Others pay out a high percentage of players compared to the starting field. How the prizes are paid affects how you will play. Similarly, it can't hurt to get a sense of whether players tend to make deals when they reach the final table or whether they don't. It makes sense to take some risks to maximize your stack if the tournament is very top heavy and if deals are generally avoided. On the other hand, just surviving to the final table makes sense if the payouts tend to be flat or if everyone tends to just chop up the final prizes among all of the final table finishers. Know this first, before you start, and plan your strategy accordingly.

Here are some general strategy tips that have helped me win and place in some of these No Limit tournaments. I'm deliberately oversimplifying things to give you some handle on strategy considerations. Don't treat this as the last word on tournament play. It's aimed more to get you started than to chart out a specific path to tournament victory.

After the re-buy phase if there is one, going all in is a very serious matter that many of your less experienced or wilder opponents won't appreciate. I've found it very helpful to avoid the temptation to just fling in all my chips when I sense weakness or when I desperately want to salvage a hand that may very well be second best. Though others will go all in with abandon, I find that it is generally a mistake to do so unless I am reasonably certain that I am at least in the lead at the moment. Similarly, if I have a hand that is probably a 50/50er (like a pair against two overcards), I will often concede rather than go all in.

When I want to show strength, whether to bluff or to value bet, I will generally make a bet of three times the blind or so rather than shoving all in. Conversely, if I am going to raise, I will raise by more than just the last bet. I want the dual opportunity of winning by either forcing out my opponent with a strong bet or having/improving to the best hand. I generally don't want to give my opponent a chance to improve cheaply on the next card. I make some exceptions if I have a monster hand and want to trap my opponent by making a small bet, but for the most part I want to bet strongly, happy to win the pot right there, but not risking my entire stack on one betting round.

I take more care than in a limit tourney to figure out the general style of my opponents. Are they generally tight or loose or aggressive or weak? These are extremely important to me especially as the tournament progresses. I need to know whether they tend to fold under pressure or call or even raise. This knowledge comes from observation and memory. But it starts with intent. I intend to figure this out from the very beginning. At this level, nearly all of my opponents will have a general style and will not change gears well or often. So my observation and recall are critically important.

Don't be afraid to push around the weak players and the short stacks. You've got to accumulate chips by taking some risks and making aggressive plays when your position, table image, and your opponents make it likely that they will concede. You can't just wait for very strong hands to do this. Again, don't get carried away by betting too large a percentage of your stack to achieve these bluffs. But make them even when you're not certain that you'll get your opponent to concede. It helps to have at least a fairly strong hand with some outs to improve to a very trong hand. This gives you two ways to win. And make sure you're picking your spots carefully - though not too cautiously.

Respect the all-in bet and the reraise. True, some of your better opponents will come over the top and go all in because they are just bluffing with nothing. But, for the most part, it still makes sense for you to fold your hands that aren't very strong in the face of these kinds of bets. You accomplish two things when you fold to these bets. You preserve your stack for another day. And you encourage them to make this move in the future - when you may well have a hand that is strong enough to withstand their pressure, In other words, they may be convincing themselves to make this move once too often.

If you are at a passive table, where players raise the blinds little or not at all, it is OK to also call along with your mediocre hands for the small amount of the blinds. You are trying to see the flop cheaply. Don't be so tight that you fold that have even a small chance to improve to monsters. But be careful with hands that play well heads up in a limit game. K-Jo, Q-10o, A-Jo, A-Q0 - these are hands that can end up trapping you for your entire stack if you hit them but run up against someone with a higher kicker. Again, beware of that re-raise if you play these hands. Frankly, unless my position, image and opponents are all perfectly aligned, I stay away from these types of hands even for very short money.

Resist the temptation to just go all in because you have only a few chips left. Think seriously about what type of hand you'd like to have to make your last stand, taking your position relative to the button into consideration. If you're very short stacked but have just posted the blind that gives you about 8 hands that you can see for free before you have to put more money in the pot. What are the minimum standards for a hand that is worth gambling your last remaining chips on? Think about this before you just throw in your last chips. I've seen many players come back from only a tiny stack to finish in the money.

There's much more to be said about playing in these tournaments - thoughts for another day: relative stack size, letting others knock each other out as you get closer to the money, final table aggression and patience. But for now, this should get you started and thinking.

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