No-Limit Holdem Tournament Tips

Play the same starting hands in the limit tournament section but make some of the following adjustments.

  • Do lots of limping early, and try to trap opponents for all their chips. No-limit is the best game to play your small suited connectors. Call small raises with them, the more callers the better, and go for the trap. Traps are best set if you hit two pair, trips, or a straight. If you suspect your opponent has a high pair, just check and call. Then you can make a check raise on the river. If you feel the board may be threatening (i.e., could give an opponent a higher straight), you need to protect your hand with a big raise.
  • When you are going to raise before the flop, do so at least 3 or 4 times the big blind. Most players on the big blind will call one extra bet with any hand, but not 2 or 3 extra bets.
  • Think of every decision you make as the most important decision of your life. Take your time. You must make no mistakes in no-limit. That’s why it’s best to learn mistake-free limit hold’em before getting into tournaments.
  • If you hit the flop, set a trap and try to double up. When you get to the later stages of the tourney, you need to get aggressive by entering pots with good sized raises (at least 3 or 4 times the big blind). Try and keep your stack above 10 times the big blind. When you are 10 times the blind or less, if you are going to play, then your only move should be all-in before the flop, unless you want to trap someone with Aces or Kings.
  • You must steal to maintain at least 10 times the big blind. Stealing is about situations, not cards. If you’re one or two spots before the button and everyone folds to you, steal by going all-in with almost anything. As long as the blinds are very large and you’re in the later stages of the tournament, stealing will work most of the time. But you should mostly steal in order to maintain your stack at or above 10 times the big blind.
  • Late in a tournament when the blinds are very large, don’t call a raise when you’re on the big blind unless you have very few chips left and you’re just about all-in, unless if you have a big hand. Chips are too valuable at this point to be wasted when you have bad cards. Let the raiser/stealer get away with it.
  • Late in a no-limit tournament, you should only raise or fold. By raising you’re giving yourself two chances of getting lucky. One chance that your opponents will fold and give you the pot, and two, that you may hit the flop and have the best hand.
  • You must not waste precious chips by making stupid calls. If you call a raise of 4 or 5 times the big blind, you better have a hand that you’re willing to go all-in with. Otherwise, don’t call.
  • When someone makes a small bet at a big pot, they are just asking you to take their chips. If a player has raised before the flop and bets small once the flop hits, raise big. The small bettor has stated he has nothing by making that small bet. However, Be careful of tricky players who may be setting you up.
  • When a short stack goes all-in and it’s late in the tournament, if you have the short stack easily covered and there are not a lot of players left to act, and no one has called the short stacks all-in, go all-in yourself with any mediocre hand and isolate yourself and the all-in short stack.
  • Towards the end of a tournament, you must figure out how many times you can go around before being blinded out. This will tell you how fast or slow you need to play.
  • Don’t play with people that have enough chips to knock you out of a tournament, unless you have a big hand. You can challenge the short stacks with lesser hands.
  • The worse your position, the more likely you should just call before the flop with a mediocre hand.
  • Don’t waste your chips because of pride. If you sense you’re beat – you are.

Recent Articles

Comments

  • Samual Stoneham, 10.03.2012, 9:02 дп

    Unquestionably imagine that which you stated. Your favorite reason seemed to be at the internet the simplest thing to take into accout of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed while other folks consider worries that they plainly do not know about. You controlled to hit the nail upon the highest and outlined out the whole thing without having side-effects , folks can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thank you!

Leave a comment

About ePokerReviews.com

ePokerReviews.com is the world's largest online poker guide, offering in-depth online poker site reviews, exclusive online poker bonus deals and the most free poker content available on the Web. Inside you'll find expert reviews of major poker sites, daily poker news, over 450 free poker strategy articles, exclusive poker videos and live coverage from poker tournaments around the world.

follow us on social services: