Monday, January 01, 2007

If you're saving up your money to play in one of the big $10,000 events on the poker circuit, these five tips will help make you a winner. Don't lay odds on your pre-flop raises. In these big tournaments, after about level four, antes are introduced to go along with the blinds. For example, if the blinds are 400-800, the ante will be 100. With nine players at the table, there will be 2,100 in the pot before the cards are even dealt. If you have a hand that you want to raise with, I suggest making it 2,000 to go. The so-called standard raise would be to 2,400 (three times the big blind), but you can get away with a smaller raise and accomplish the same objective. With a smaller raise, say 2,000, you risk less to win the 2,100; the standard raise costs you 2,400 to win that same 2,100 pot. Protect your chips before protecting the pot. When you're involved in a pot, the first thing to think about is protecting the chips that you already have. Then you can focus on protecting your hand and not losing the pot. In other words, in marginal situations, where you probably have the best hand but could easily be wrong, err toward the side of caution. Yes, this approach will cause you to get outdrawn by your opponents more often, but when they do, you'll lose the minimum rather than all the chips in front of you. For example, you hold pocket aces and the board reads K-K-7-2. If your opponent checks, play cautiously and check as well. If he bets on the river card, you should usually just call and hope that he doesn't have the third king in his hand.