Poker News

Small Stakes Tournaments: Part 3 - Betting

As we continue to look at what makes for a successful strategy in low buy-in tournaments, always remember that if the blinds have not caught up to you yet, they soon will. For this reason, it is important that you understand how to bet effectively.

I learned the importance of betting your big hands properly in one of my early tournaments. There were six limpers who saw a flop of J-9-3. The player who initially limped under-thegun fired a big bet at the pot, was called by a middle position player, then the button minimum-raised.

The initial bettor pushed all-in, the middle position player pushed, and the button called!

Their hands? The early limper had had K-K, the button had A-A, and middle position had J-9. When I was finally to able close my mouth (it had been hanging open rather widely), I asked the guy on the button why he would limp with A-A in that position. “I was just trying to build the pot.” Yech. I’m not sure that’s a proper way to begin a new paragraph, but how can you say anything else on such a poorly played hand?

True, K-K would have gone broke no matter how the action went, but the A-A player drove the nail into his own coffin.

If there’s one mistake I see happen over and over again, it’s people misplaying pocket Aces and pocket Kings, usually followed by the statement, “I was just trying to build the pot.” I won a tournament last week due largely to one key hand when we were down to four players. Two players limped, the chip-leader in the small blind minimumraised, I called with the 5-6 of hearts since I knew the other two would follow suit. I busted the small blind’s K-K on a flop of x-6-6.

If you recall, our first key concept from the last article was practice selective aggression. We achieve this through our betting, so our second key concept is that a big hand equals a big bet. Believe it or not, there is such a thing as value-betting pre-flop.

In low buy-in tournaments, the overwhelming majority of players in these tournaments will call any raise pre-flop with any pocket pair in the early and middle stages. If the blinds are 50-100 and you have 1900 chips, go ahead and pop it up to 750. This does two things:

1) It eliminates the possibility of people calling with suited connectors? the hands that have a better chance of cracking you once they see a flop.

2) It’s really tough to extract extra chips from a small-medium pair once a scare card hits the flop and they miss their set. Hands like K-Q, A-Q, AJ and any pocket pair will call you almost every time. Since you are only going to get a few premium hands, it’s important to maximizeyour winnings. Just don’t forget to adjust your exact betting amount to the texture of the table.

In the middle stages, our third concept is what will make or break your tournament. Knowing when to stop raising and start pushing can be the difference. Because a standard raise can often make you pot-committed, getting all your money in now is sometimes the best move.

In the next two articles, I will share with you how to vary this strategy up by making effective “smallball” moves to keep you in contention.

In tournaments that include antes in their structure, stealing the blinds and antes by pushing is essential. Picking these up at least once a round can keep you alive. It’s all about what Dan Harrington calls “first in vigorish,” that is you make other players react to you by putting all your money in.

? Early position: any pair 7-7 or higher, A-K, A-Q, A-J

? Middle position: add any pair, A10, K-Q, K-J suited, QJ suited, 10-J suited

? Late position: just about anything depending on who is in the blinds

Middle position is the trickiest spot. If you can’t raise with a hand because thereare too many following your action, it’s usually best to just pass.

Generally open-pushing in early position with a big pair is not a bad play as the likelihood of being called by a smaller pair increases.

I read about a hand where Scott Fischman pushed allin pre-flop under the gun with A-A at this year’s first $1500 WSOP event for an inordinate amount of chips in relationship to blinds and was called by 9-9.

When an average-to-big stack open-pushes most players put you on a small pair. With a big hand in late position, a standard raise is the right move as there are less players with a chance of giving you action. (Around the bubble and at the final table, I recommend a standard raise since action is much tighter).

I have seen a conservative player win an occasional small buy-in tournament, but the best long-term results are from the players who pick their spots wisely and have no fear pushing all of their chips into the middle. As you develop this fearlessness, I’ll be watching for you at the next final table. I’m really looking forward to our next few articles as we start looking into how to make successful moves in these events.

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