The world of poker tournaments is a world of its own, and it takes a lot of effort and experience to conquer it. Even those who are experts in cash games cannot be sure of winning a poker championship game. So, if you ever dream of winning the world championship of online poker, then make sure you read a lot of tips and tricks like in this article.
Even though poker championships are hard to conquer, there are many tips that can give you an edge if you follow them at the right time and in the right way. We are here with a list of tips that will help you reign supreme at the tournament tables in no time. So, keep reading on.
Poker championship tips
Choose your hands
When you are playing against opponents that are weak, raising small but often is a good strategy. This is especially good to use when you are playing in a late position.
In early and middle positions, on the other hand, most hands are easy to decide. In these positions, it is easy to decide whether you want to fold or open, you can decide pretty easily. Even the amateur players know that they can open with an ace to queens regardless of any position and fold seven to five without thinking twice.
When there are only a few opponents left to pass, you can widen your range provided you have a good idea of how the odds of the game work and the type of hands with which you expect your opponents to call.
Defend well
This one is important; you need to defend from the big blind a lot when you are aiming at poker championships. The one thing that allows you to defend the big blind a lot is that the big blind has extremely great pot odds.
Now, since there an unlimited number of post-flop scenarios and runouts, it is almost impossible for you to conduct the perfect defending range. The good news is that you do not need to have a perfect range. An estimate works alright.
One good way to estimate this range is to defend with a range that is close to inhibiting an open raiser from making a profit automatically.
Mostly, this will entail defending by 3-betting to calling a minimum of forty percent of the hands against late position opens. However, if you are a strong player and a weak player is opening, you will be much better off by defending way more.
Know your 3-Bets
As your game moves closer to a hundred big blinds, things change dramatically, and you need to know how to 3-bet.
Your opponents may continue against your 3bets with deeper stacks which can lead you to get stuck in tough positions.
If you 3-bet with a queen and a jack when you are 35 big blind deep, you will not have to worry much about tough spots. However, if you 3-bet the same hand when you are 100 bog blinds deep, you will likely get into trouble against a king and jack or some better hand.
So, you will want to 3-bet with a range that is polarized. Overall, with deep stacks, you will want to have a linear high card heavy 3-betting range and a polarized 3-betting range against the regulars.
Don’t continue betting in every hand
Now, check-raise and bluffing has become a lot more thought out and nuanced than before. Players don’t tend to blindly bluff when they are in terrible places.
So, when you see a flop, you can ask yourself, what range does the flop hit best? What does the range that I have, look like? And what does the range that my opponent has, look like?
After this evaluation, you can decide whether to check-raise or check and later call a turn and then river bet.
You can also choose to simply check some of the hands and then choose to bluff with some hands.
Plan ahead
This tip builds on the previous tip. Planning means that before you take any decision on the pre-flop or the flop or even on the turn, you must have a rough plan for any outcome.
A rough idea of it rather than a detailed simulation of every possible outcome should be enough to keep your game in check. This will keep you from tough spots in the future.
Know Your way around a Heads-Up
Practicing heads up tournaments will help you sharpen your overall tournament skills, especially your post-flop skills, because you will get used to playing wide ranges. This can really help you grab that poker championship in the long run.
For now, these tips should help you a great deal when you approach poker championships.
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