Poker News

Small Stakes Poker Tournaments: Making Moves Part 2

In the last article, I discussed some of the more common moves you see in small-stakes tournaments. Hopefully you are incorporating those into your overall game-plan. It will take some trial-and-error before you find that comfort zone where you can use them effectively. Not forgetting that selective aggression is the key to winning, here are a few more moves for you to try out:

The Orphan Pot. If I have position, I like to see a lot of flops in the early stages of a tournament. If you pick your opponents wisely, there will be a lot of pots that you can easily win with a small bet on the flop. If you think your opponents missed the flop, try betting about 1/2 the pot size. It’s a small enough bet that you are not tying yourself to the hand, but enough of a bet that most opponents who miss will fold.

The Limp-Reraise. If you see a player limp in under the gun, another player raise, then the initial limper move over the top it’s generally a safe bet they have A-A or K-K. While this you do see this occasionally, it is still an effective way to pick up some dead money. The idea is you limp with A-A hoping for a few limpers then a raise in late position, which opens the action back up to you so you can pick up the dead money and maybe even get a call from the raiser who viewed your limp as weakness.

This can often go horribly wrong if there is no reraise, however. If you decide to limp and there are 7 limpers after you with no raise, you must have the discipline to let the hand go on the flop if there is a lot of action since it probably connected with somebody.

The Scare Card. If you are holding 8-8 and there is a K on the flop, don’t be afraid to bet. Sometimes that scare card can actually be what gets your opponent to lay down the better hand. If you are on a draw and a scare card rolls off on the turn, you might be able to pick up the pot right there by either leading out or raising. If not, you still have some outs to win on the river.

The Squeeze Play.

Generally this a play reserved for later stages of a tournament, when you have a good feel for the players at your table. Like most moves, certain conditions apply:

1. You are in late position 2. A loose player in early position opens with a raise

3. A solid player in middle position flat-calls the raise

4. You have a tight table image

If you have a player who is raising a lot pots (Player A), this usually loosens the calling standards of the rest of the table. So Player B decides to call behind him with a hand he would usually fold to a raise like A-8 suited.

No matter what your two cards are, by reraising here you take advantage of a great situation. Player A probably does not have a very good hand to begin with, and has the added danger of another player to act after him so in all likelihood he will fold.

Player B was simply calling with a weak hand to play against the loose opponent, and cannot stand a reraise. Your bet has to be large enough to declare loudly, “I have a hand,” usually at least 1/2 of your stack. Yet this sizable bet leaves you with enough breathing room should one of your opponents come back over the top.

The Stop & Go. I first read about this move from a post by the 2004 WSOP champion Greg Raymer on an internet poker forum. A few requirements for this move:

1. You are in one of the blinds

2. You will be heads-up

3. You have at least 8 times the big blind preflop

4. Your opponent has a similar stack size or a little more.

If you find yourself with a hand like 4-4 or A-10 and your blind is raised, your first impulse is to usually just push all-in before the flop. Sometimes a better option is to just call from the blind with the intention of pushing all-in no matter what the flop brings. Why?Because you give yourself an extra chance of making your opponent fold, often with the better hand. Generally in the midlate stages of a small-stakes tournament, the preflop raiser will have a hand to call an all-in with preflop, figuring he is in a coin-flip situation. Since you are going to push all-in anyway, by waiting for a flop you can often make someone make a bad fold, either because they missed the flop entirely or some scare cards came for their pocket pair.

We were down to the last three tables of a 120 person tournament, and I was facing a raise with 7-7 in the big blind. Usually, this is a pushor- fold situation as calling a raise basically committed me to the hand. But I had a feeling that my opponent had a similar marginal hand, so I decided that the stop & go was in order. The flop came 3-K-10, and I declared that I was all-in. My opponent thought for a moment, showed his 9-9 and folded.

By waiting for the flop, I was able to make my opponent lay down the better hand. It’s no surprise that sometimes this move can backfire, as he could have had KJ or something similar. But, your opponent would have won the hand anyway if you were both all in pre-flop.

I also like to stop & go when the cost of each round is getting high and you think your opponent is merely making a move on your blind, but might make a loose call with A-10 if you push before the flop. This is a high-risk move but you have to be willing to mix it up if you want to bring home the money.

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