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Big Stack University: Poker Tournament Tips for Beginners

Poker tournaments in comparison to cash games are tougher in nature. Most people, or let us say, beginners, in their first-ever experience of playing tournaments struggle through the game. In this article, Big Stack University is going to discuss some of the most amazing and secret poker tournament tips that professional players always keep in mind while being on the poker table.

Let us take a look at them quickly!

1. Pre-flop Ranges

The concept of ranges is very vast. A range is a number of hands that depend on the game situation and develops while the hand plays out. When the game begins the opponent can have all possible ranges. However, their betting behavior in an early position says a lot about them. The more observant you are, about your opponents’, higher will be the rate of determining their range. To learn and understand more about hand ranges, Big Stack Poker University is providing a course in which hand range is majorly covered explaining deep aspects of ranges pre and post-flop.

2. Use Maths to Crush the Poker Table

There are few players who believe that poker can be played with the help of intuition and manipulation. However, the best players believe that the secret ingredient lies in calculative decisions. How exactly is it helpful?

Pot Odds

Pot odds represent the ratio between the size of the total pot and the size of the bet facing you. Keep in the mind that size of the total pot includes the bet(s) made in the ongoing round.

3. Manage your stack

Your chips decide your future in a tournament. If you have chips you can go ahead in the game and if not, you definitely have to go home. Hence, it becomes important to save your chips throughout the game. By saving chips, we do not mean that you stop betting or raising your hands. What we mean here is to avoid any wastage of your chips. Strategize your game with the least amount of chips. Most beginners do not recognize the value of their hands and consequently, keep betting and calling. To save your chips, it is important to avoid unnecessary betting and raising.

Keep in mind – In tournaments, your ultimate goal is to survive until the end.

4. Be Patient and Play Tight

Poker is very much about the right timing. The reason why some players succeeded in the game is that they learned the art of timing in poker. They figured out when to take a certain action that it does the best damage to their opponents. And, this is why pros usually suggest beginners to be patient in the early positions and play tight. Entertaining a lot of hands at the beginning of the game might make you lose a good amount of chips which might later point towards your exit from the game. Hence, it is important to play tight in the early stages of the game and loosen up in the later streets. Though the condition may differ depending on your stack size and hand value. If you have a big or strong hand you must not hesitate to play it.

In case you only have a hand of mediocre value, there is no need to play it aggressively as you are just going to lose a lot of chips in the early stages only. This is often considered as one of the most important poker tournament tips by the pros.

5. Size Your Bets Right

Not just the tournaments, it is crucial to keep a close check on your bet size almost in every poker game. Many beginners make random bets paying no attention to sizing them appropriately which is the reason why they face maximum losses in the game. While sizing your bets, you must have some knowledge of your opponents. Ask yourself questions like:

• What is my opponents’ hand range?
• What is the board texture?
• If it is a wet board, whose range does the flop hit the best?
• What is your image in your opponents’ eyes? Is it passive or aggressive?
• Do I want to bluff, or do I have hands strong enough to bet or raise?
• Can I do this same action with a reduced bet size? If yes, do it.
• Asking yourself questions like these are going to help you properly size your bet.

Let us understand this better with an easy example:

Your opponent is on a flush draw for the river and the pot size is Rs. 10,000.  The probability of hitting a flush is somewhere about 20% (4:1). Therefore, we should give him below 4:1 pot odd to call, which requires a raise of almost over $3,500 (13,500:3:500 = 3.9:1).

6. Dominate your opponents when you are deep stacked

When you are deep stacked at the table, i.e. you have the biggest stack size, it is crucial you take advantage of it. Dominate those players who are low or medium stacked at the table.

Often when you are the chip leader, low and medium stacked players are going to be afraid of your stack size and will avoid getting involved in a hand with you. Consequently, this will make them fold most of their mediocre or weak valued hands which will thus increase your chances of making it to the final table of the tournament. The only possible scenario in which your medium or low stacked opponent will be comfortable playing with you would be when he/she has strong hands. And, this would again give you a hint about his/her range. In this case, you must contemplate their hand range and strategize your next moves.

7. Bankroll Management and Poker Discipline

No matter how successful of a poker player you might be, if you don’t possess the skill of effective bankroll management, you are always exposed to go broke in poker. Bankroll management is a poker skill which has no direct relation to how you play the game. However, it is when you set a limit to the amount of money you want and can afford to play poker. You set this amount of money aside to handle all your crucial poker affairs. Let us consider some successful tips that help players in saving their bankroll.

• Separate your finances
• Don’t dump your chips buying luxuries
• Don’t go overboard or play aggressively

8. How to build your Bankroll?

Now that you know how to manage your bankroll, it is also important to know how to build it in order to play more and win more. Let us take a look at some tips that have helped some successful players building their bankroll.

• Choose lower stakes
• Choose the most profitable game type
• Enjoy the welcome bonuses

To learn more about managing your bankroll Bigstack university don’t forget to keep with Big Stack Poker University tips.

9. Pre-plan your game for the forthcoming streets

Another reason why some successful players succeed in tournaments is that they pre-plan their game. Now, when we talk about planning, we do not mean that you have to always pre-plan your game and act to the plan. What we mean is to consider all the possibilities of forthcoming actions from your opponents’ sides and roughly plan your next strategies in advance.

For example, you were dealt with A♥ T♥. The flop came out A♣ T♣ 6♥.  You now have two pairs and you think of betting. However, before betting you must take into consideration, the possible actions that your opponent might take after you bet.

What if he/she raises? What should be my next action? Thinking about the future streets always helps players to avoid being in tricky situations. Therefore, it is always considered essential to have a rough plot of your future actions.

These are some of the poker tournament tips by Big Stack University that will help players while playing. Also, keep learning more such lessons and stay tuned GutshotMagazine.com !

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