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Welcome to Texas Hold'em Online Poker Tournament Tips. This site will provide strategy and tips for online poker players in order to be competitive in today's online poker world. If you have any questions not covered in this article, please feel free to email me at Luckyspokertips@gmail.com.
INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF ONLINE POKER
It’s no secret that Internet Poker is a huge attraction for many poker players and many first time poker players also. The poker world has grown leaps and bounds over the past few years primarily from the TV exposure it has generated. Recent World Series of Poker Champions Chris Moneymaker, Greg “Fossilman” Raymer among other recent newcomers to the poker pro scene all played online poker prior to their huge success, and were amateurs prior to their huge victory in the WSOP.
Becoming a great poker online poker player will not come overnight. Studying the game and exercising patience will become key on your path to success. Whether you are planning to become the next WSOP champion, or just want to make a little spending money by playing online poker, this article will hopefully be helpful to you. But remember, no matter how much you study the game of Texas Hold’em, you will need to put in your time at the poker tables.
STARTING HAND REQUIREMENTS IN A NO LIMIT HOLD’EM TOURNAMENT
This is probably the most asked question for a beginning poker player: “What hands should I be playing??!!” The answer is not a simple list of cards and charts like you would normally see on a few other websites. Your starting hand requirements will vary depending on the following factors:
-The amount of the blinds
-Your position at the table
-Your opponents playing habits
-The buy-in of the tournament you are playing in
-The number of players at your table
-The number of chips each player has at your table
There are a few more factors that will apply, but for now I will focus on the above factors for starting hand requirements.
Each and every hand you will need to consider the above factors to determine if you will enter the pot.
EARLY POSITION
Early position (1st or 2nd to act) can be a very difficult position. You are clueless as to what cards your opponents are holding at this point. If you get raised after you enter the pot, then you will have a better idea of where you stand.
In 1st or 2nd position you will want to raise with any high pair (AA-TT). You typically do not want to see 4-5 players calling your raise when you are holding a high pair as the chances of someone cracking your pair will increase dramatically. You typically want 1-2 callers in this situation, then hopefully all you have to worry about after your pre-flop raise is how to extract the most money out of your opponents. You will also want to raise with AK suited or unsuited, and possibly AQ (but be prepared to throw AQ away if you get a few callers and an ugly flop that misses you, but is likely to hit one of your opponents hands.
MIDDLE POSITION
In middle position you are a little better off. You now have information as to what your opponents might be doing who have acted before you. Here, if there were no callers or raisers ahead of you, you can start being a little looser. In addition to the hands we will raise with in early position, you will also want to include 99-88, AQ and AJ. Be careful playing KQ in this postion. If you raise 3 times the big blind with KQ, and you get re-raised, you might want to throw your hand away. (For example…you hold KQ. You raise 3BB in middle position. The small blind re-raises you (yes, the blinds are allowed to have good hands also), you call. The flop comes K 9 4. WOW! You hit the flop. Small blind bets the flop, you call only to find out your KQ was beaten by AK. You still had top pair with 2nd best kicker, but the small blinds actions preflop said he had a good hand also.
LATE POSITION
The best of all positions. You will have information on most of the other players at the table, and you will likely have position on them after the flop. Here you want to raise with 77, AT-A8, and high suited connectors.
Keep in mind the factors that I displayed earlier in this article. If you see that you have a few aggressive opponents at your table, you might want to tighten up your starting hand requirements. If you notice the table is playing tight, you might want to loosen up a bit, and be more aggressive and try to steal a few pots.
LIMPING INTO POTS
The purpose of limping is to see a cheap flop. Limping is contagious. For instance…lets say you hold 44 in middle position. A player in early position called, you call, 2 players behind you also decide to limp in. Flop comes A 4 9. Be prepared to win a big pot here!! Same goes for suited connectors. The purpose of seeing a cheap flop is to tackle the odds. See a cheap flop, hit a monster, get all your opponents chips….simple as that. Don’t make the mistake of limping in with hands like K2 , and J6. If you do this you will go broke very quickly.
THE TOURNAMENT BUY-IN FACTOR
In low buy in tourneys, you are surrounded by “fish” and “donkeys”. You will see them go all-in on a regular basis with a variety of holdings. Don’t fall into this trap. In low buy-in tourneys you will want to usually play tight. Sit back, be patient, wait on your good hands because your good hands in low stakes tourneys will almost always be paid off and you will win a nice pot. Don’t get into a shoving match with 2nd pair because you think your opponent is bluffing as your opponents are usually harder to read at these low buy-in levels. A lot of times you will find yourself staring at the screen in disbelief because your opponents pushed you all in with very meager holdings. So its ok to wait on good hands early.
BLUFFING IN LOW STAKES TOURNEYS
ADJUSTING YOUR PLAY TO THE NUMBER OF PLAYERS AT YOUR TABLE
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