Texas Holdem Poker Tournament Strategy - Starting Hands

Welcome to the fifth in my Texas Holdem Poker Strategy Series, focusing on no limit Texas Holdem poker tournament play and associated strategies. In this article, we’ll examine starting hand decisions.

It may seem obvious, but deciding which starting hands to play, and which ones to skip playing, is one of the most important Texas Holdem poker decisions you'll make. Deciding which starting hands to play begins by accounting for several factors:

* Starting Hand "groups" (Sklansky made some good suggestions in his classic "Theory of Poker" book by David Sklansky)

* Your table position

* Number of players at the table

* Chip position

Sklansky originally proposed some Texas Holdem poker starting hand groups, which turned out to be very useful as general guidelines. Below you'll find a "modified" (enhanced) version of the Sklansky starting hands table. I adapted the original Sklansky tables, which were "too tight" and rigid for my liking, into a more playable approach that are used in the Poker Sidekick poker odds calculator. Here's the key to these starting hands:

Groups 1 to 8: These are essentially the same scale as Sklansky originally proposed, although some hands have been shifted around to improve playability and there is no group 9.

Group 30: These are now "questionable" hands, hands that should be played rarely, but can be reasonably played occasionally in order to mix things up and keep your opponents off balance. Loose players will play these a bit more often, tight players will rarely play them, experienced players will open with them only occasionally and randomly.

The table below is the exact set of starting hands that Poker Sidekick uses when it calculates starting poker hands. If you use Poker Sidekick, it will tell you which group each starting hand is in (if you can't remember them), along with estimating the "relative strength" of each starting hand. You can just print this article and use it as a starting hand reference.

Group 1: AA, KK, AKs

Group 2: QQ, JJ, AK, AQs, AJs, KQs

Group 3: TT, AQ, ATs, KJs, QJs, JTs

Group 4: 99, 88, AJ, AT, KQ, KTs, QTs, J9s, T9s, 98s

Group 5: 77, 66, A9s, A5s-A2s, K9s, KJ, KT, QJ, QT, Q9s, JT, QJ, T8s, 97s, 87s, 76s, 65s

Group 6: 55, 44, 33, 22, K9, J9, 86s

Group 7: T9, 98, 85s

Group 8: Q9, J8, T8, 87, 76, 65

Group 30: A9s-A6s, A8-A2, K8-K2, K8-K2s, J8s, J7s, T7, 96s, 75s, 74s, 64s, 54s, 53s, 43s, 42s, 32s, 32

All other hands not shown (virtually unplayable).

So, those are the enhanced Sklasky Texas Holdem poker starting hand tables.
The later your position at the table (dealer is latest position, small blind is earliest), the more starting hands you should play. If you're on the dealer button, with a full table, play groups 1 thru 6. If you're in middle position, reduce play to groups 1 thru 3 (tight) and 4 (loose). In early position, reduce play to groups 1 (tight) or 1 thru 2 (loose). Of course, in the big blind, you get what you get.

As the number of players drops into the 5 to 7 range, I recommend tightening up overall and playing far fewer, premium hands from the better positions (groups 1 - 2). This is a great time to forget about chasing flush and straight draws, which puts you at risk and wastes chips.

As the number of players drops to 4, it's time to open up and play far more hands (groups 1 - 5), but carefully. At this stage, you're close to being in the money in a Texas Holdem poker tournament, so be extra careful. I'll often just protect my blinds, steal occasionally, and try to let the smaller stacks get blinded or knocked out (putting me into the money). If I'm one of the small stacks, well, then I'm forced to pick the best hand I can get and go all-in and hope to double-up.

When the play is down to 3, it's time to avoid engaging with big stacks and hang on to see if we can land 2nd place, heads-up. I tend to tighten up a bit here, playing very similar to when there's just 3 players (avoiding confrontation unless I'm holding a pair or an Ace or a King, if possible).

Once you're heads-up, well, that's a topic for a completely different article, but in general, it's time to become extraordinarily aggressive, raise a lot, and become "pushy".

In tournaments, it's always important to keep track of your chips stack size relative to the blinds and everyone else's stacks. If you're short on chips, then play far fewer hands (tigher), and when you do get a good hand, extract as many chips as you can with it. If you're the big stack, well, you should avoid unnecessary confrontation, but use your big stack position to push everyone around and steal blinds occasionally as well - without risking too many chips in the process (the other players will be trying to use you to double-up, so be careful).

Well, that's a quick overview of an improved set of starting hands and some general rules for adjusting starting hand play based upon game conditions throughout the tournament.

Until next time, best of luck to you at the Texas Holdem poker tables!

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Rick Braddy is an avid writer, Texas Holdem player and professional software developer and marketer for over 25 years. His websites and Texas Holdem poker software helps people become better Texas Holdem players. If you're a poker player, be sure to visit his Texas Holdem poker poker today and learn how you can play better Texas Holdem poker, too.

Texas Holdem Tournament Strategy - Poker Tournament Betting Basics

Welcome to the third in my Texas Holdem Strategy Series, focusing on no limit Texas Holdem poker tournament play and associated strategies. In this article, we’ll build upon the poker tournament strategy fundamentals from last time, with some important poker betting strategy basics.

Winning at Texas Holdem poker doesn't have to be a gamble, since it's actually a game of skill. Of course, there will always be an element of chance, but there's a lot more strategy and skill to poker than meets the untrained eye. When you learn to play the odds properly, it can make a huge difference in your winnings.
No limit Texas Holdem is the game of choice these days - and for good reason.

The fact that anyone can decide to push a large raise or all of their chips into the pot by going "all-in" at any moment, adds an exciting dimension to the game. Unlike limit Texas Holdem, where each round of betting takes place in prescribed, fixed increments, no limit Texas Holdem is as varied as the players at the table, since everyone chooses their own betting style and approach.

When playing no limit Texas Holdem, you're faced with some important decisions. Arguably, the most important decision you’ll make is how much to bet in a given set of circumstances; e.g., hand strength, your position at the table, total number of players, their styles, etc. There are many different betting strategies, but one of the first things to learn and pay close attention to are "pot odds" and whether you have a positive “expectation” to win.

You have a positive expectation whenever the odds favor you winning more than you’re wagering at anything greater than 1 to 1 odds. For example, when flipping a coin, there is a 50/50 chance of it coming up either heads or tails. If you flip a coin enough times, both heads and tails will come up an equal number of times.

Casino games, such as craps, blackjack, slot machines, etc. all give the player a “negative” expectation and the casino a positive expectation. If you play these types of “gambling” games long enough, you will ultimately lose, since the game’s odd structure is never in your favor – negative expectation. People who experience “hot streaks” also have losing streaks (they just usually quickly forget about the losing and don’t discuss it). When you’re making a wager, you’d always prefer to have a positive expectation. This is generally true in poker, but not necessarily always in no-limit poker. I’ll explain why.

Pot Odds are the odds the pot is giving you for making a bet. Let's say there is $50 in the pot and it'll take $10 more to call - you're getting 5-to-1 pot odds to call, since if you win you’ll be paid $50 in exchange for risking only $10. For purposes of this decision, any amounts you previously placed into this pot are irrelevant, since they’re already expended and gone (if you fold).

It's essential to understand pot odds as it relates to your hand odds, as one key factor in making your betting decisions. If the odds of you holding or drawing to the winning hand are better than the odds the pot is giving you, you should call or even sometimes raise; otherwise, you should typically fold (unless you're going to bluff, a different story).

Continuing this example, let's say you’re holding a pair of fives, and the board flops 9, K, 2 “rainbow” (no flush draw, different suits). With 9 players at the table, it's certainly possible and likely that someone else holds a King or a Nine, or both, making your 5's look pretty flimsy at this point. Your best shot to win is to draw another 5. There are two more 5's remaining out of the 47 cards that you can't see (in the deck or in another player's hand).

So, the odds of pulling that next 5 on the turn or river are: 2 in 47 (2/47 = about 4%) on the Turn, plus another 2 in 46 on the River (an additional 4%), for a total of roughly 8.6%, which equates to a 1-in-11.6 chance of pulling that third 5 to make a set. Since the pot is only giving 5-to-1 odds, it's generally time to fold. Otherwise, you'd just be "gambling" with a highly negative expectation of losing that additional $10. In no limit Texas Holdem, players will often raise the pot sufficiently to actually lower your pot odds so far that you can't possibly justify staying in the hand – at least not statistically.

Clearly you can't sit there in a real poker room with a calculator and run through all of these pot odds calculations while at the table! So, how does one learn poker odds well enough to apply them in real-time? Well, it starts by seeing the poker odds repeatedly, in a context that's suitable for you to learn and eventually retain them. A poker odds calculator is a piece of add-on software that runs on your PC, monitoring your actual online play. A poker odds calculator computes the prospective hands you and your opponents are capable of drawing at any point in time. It then displays all possible hands you and the opponents could draw, teaching you what the odds of making that kind of hand would be.

This makes it easy to see what's going on, and since a poker odds calculator displays the poker odds right there in front of you while you play, you’ll begin to learn them, making it semi-automatic, so you don't even think about poker odds any more - you just know them. So, the first step is learning and internalizing these “hand odds”. Then, you can quickly calculate pot odds anytime you’d like.

Calculating pot odds requires you to pay close attention to the game, a key trait of good poker tournament players. Unlike playing online, where the total size of the pot is easy to determine (the online Texas Holdem poker program typically displays the pot amount right there on the screen for you), when you play in traditional offline poker tournaments, you must keep track of the pot size and chip count yourself, so you can estimate the pot odds and your best betting options.

Pot odds become especially interesting as the blinds and antes increase as the tournament progresses. Let’s say there are 10 players at your table, and the poker tournament structure has you at $25 antes with $200/$400 blinds. That’s a total of $850 that’s sitting thre in each and every pot before anyone even places their first bet! So, before you even look at your hand, you know that the minimum bet is $400, so you’ll need a good hand (with roughly 1 in 2 odds or better) in order to simply break even.

At this point, people will be angling to “steal the blinds” by placing a hefty bet, typically at least two times the big blind, or $800, in order to make the pot odds so unattractive that everyone just folds. Therefore, the first player to act often makes off with the booty, since the pot odds become even less attractive and most everyone hasn’t made a good enough hand to call. Of course, this can definitely backfire...

Let’s say the first player to bet raises to $800 in an attempt to steal the blinds, making the total pot now $1,650. Let’s say that a second player then calls with another $800, boosting this pot to $2,450. To get in on the action, you’d only need to call with $800, which means if you win the hand you’re getting a slightly better than 3 to 1 on your money. If it’s the Flop and you are one card short of making a King-high flush, then your hand odds are roughly 1-in-3. This would be “even money” if you joined in on this basis alone; however, you’re holding a King and there’s a King on the board from the Flop, so you now have a better than 1 in 3 chance of winning – a positive expectation! You place your $800 bet, so now the pot sits at $3,250.

You should generally make this bet, since it will yield a good return and you have the high pair (Kings), plus a flush draw, thereby improving your odds even further. Let’s say there was an Ace also showing, making your Kings second best pair. In this case, it time to fold because you have a less than a 1 in 3 chance of winning this hand, and if you continued throwing money at this pot, you’ll end up “pot-committed” and beaten by a pair of Aces (there’s usually at least one player in 10 hanging in there with an Ace hole card).

So, let’s say the last player to act goes “All-in” - after we’ve put our $800 in this pot. Now what? The first reaction should be – what kind of hand *could* this player actually hold? If the player is a relatively tight or solid player, chances are they’ve made a set or an Ace high flush. It’s always possible they’re bluffing, but very unlikely if they’re a good player, since there are already far too many people in this pot and it’s likely they’d get called with a real hand when bluffing.

So, what's happened to our pot odds? Let’s say they went all-in with $5,000, pushing this pot up to $8,250. If you called with $5,000, you’re now only getting a 8.25 to 5 return, or roughly 1.65 to 1 – especially unattractive under the circumstances with highly negative expectation and so many players in this hand, further reducing your chances of winning. Therefore, everyone will likely just fold; unless they have a very strong hand plus a great draw (some outs).

There’s clearly a lot more to poker betting strategy, including position and acting first vs. last. Generally speaking, though, if you’re going to take a shot at that pot, and you’re in a position to act first, there’s a good chance everyone else will fold; however, you’d better think carefully about the pot odds the opponents will be getting after your bet is in there.

If your bet modifies the pot size such that it improves their pot odds (by limping in with just a small bet), you’re actually encouraging the opponents to hang in there with you, since they still have a good, positive (and improving) expectation level. If you bet enough, such as two to three times the size of the big blind, you’ll be reducing their pot odds enough to swing into a negative expectation, so they’ll be much more likely to fold. It’s really important to think your bet amounts through and understand the pot odds implications of your betting.

When you make such a play at the pot, it’s ideal to have some kind of hand, along with a good draw. If you find yourself short-stacked, then this may be as good as it gets. Bluffing will be covered more thoroughly in a later article, but at this point it’d be great to have at least a small pair, as well as a good straight or flush draw (since you’ll also have the potential to make a set of trips, too). In this situation, you have so many good “outs” that your small pair begins to look a lot stronger, and your hand odds acceptable enough to go on a “semi-bluff” at this pot.

So, these are the basics of Texas Holdem poker tournament betting strategy that you should know and practice (the other good players do). Knowing your basic hand odds and being capable of quickly calculating pot odds are essential to making intelligent betting decisions under fire in poker tournaments, and regular ring game and limit play for that matter. A good poker odds calculator will help you learn the hand odds, and along with practicing calculating your pot odds, you’ll be making better decisions and getting the best of it the next time you play Texas Holdem poker.

In the next article, we’ll explore a popular Texas Holdem poker tournament format – the Sit & Go poker tournament. Until then, have fun. And as always - good luck!

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Rick Braddy is an avid writer, Texas Holdem player and professional software developer and marketer for over 25 years. His websites and Texas Holdem poker software specialize in helping people become better Texas Holdem poker players. If you're a poker player, be sure to visit his Texas Holdem website today and learn how you can play better Texas Holdem, too.

Texas Holdem Tournament Strategy - Sit and Go Poker Tournaments

Welcome to the fourth in my Texas Holdem Strategy Series, focusing on no limit Texas Holdem poker tournament play and associated strategies. In this article, we’ll examine the "Sit and Go" tournament - the most popular online poker tournament format today.

When I first started playing in Sit and Go tournaments, I was beginning to think they called it "sit and go" because you sat down, played a little, then it was time to go do something else since you'd just been whacked and knocked out of the tournament! These tournaments can be really tough, since they're effectively like being at the "final table" of a regular tournament.

The recent popularity of playing online Sit & Go tournaments sometimes amazes me. On any given evening, you can try to jump into a Sit and Go (SNG) table on Party Poker, for example, and easily find yourself competing just to get into a seat before that table fills up, forcing you to go find another table (especially on lower-entry fee tables). I've seen times when it can take up to 10 attempts to get into a Sit and Go tournament table during prime time. That's because there are literally thousands of players across the world who are hungry to get into these tournaments and hopefully win some money.

All of the major online poker rooms now offer Sit and Go format games now, so you can find a place to play just about everywhere. You can think of these games as being very similar to small "satellite" tournament games that surround the bigger poker tournaments at traditional poker tournament venues. They also somewhat resemble play at a final table in a regular tournament, with one key exception - nobody at this table earned their way to this tournament table - they simply paid their entry-fee to play there. Because of this, the broad range of players and skill levels you're likely to encounter varies wildly - one of many challenges you'll face in Sit and Go play.

Generally, there are two types of Sit and Go tournaments offered. Single table and multi-table tournaments. Nowadays, there is also a faster game, sometimes referred to as "Turbo" mode SNG tournaments. In these games, the tempo of the tournament is much faster (blinds go up every 5 minutes instead of 15 minutes), with the blinds increasing much faster and less time allowed to make your decisions. This is a very challenging game format, but it does move along much faster than a traditional Sit and Go tournament.

You can also get into 4-player and heads-up (2 player) games, which just effectively puts you into the poker tournament final table, short-handed mode of operation immediately, so you can play the end-game out from there. I don't really prefer these games, though, since there are far fewer players and therefore the pool size available to win is much smaller and not as worthwhile.

In general, two-table Sit and Go's are much more profitable, since they begin with more players (18 to 20), making the prize pool larger and more attractive. Once you know how to play and win in these Sit and Go tournaments and can adjust your play appropriately, the number of tables and players really doesn't matter as much, since you'll be able to adapt your play quickly as the situation changes around you.

Some of my favorite places to play Sit & Go tournaments include Party Poker, Poker Stars and PrimaPoker's Captain Cook's poker rooms. There are many awesome poker rooms out there, with a wide range of players frequenting each of them. They are all very similar.

There are a number of different entry-fee levels to choose from, typically ranging from $5 up to $5,000. There is very little difference in playing in the lower limit games in the $5 to $30 range. When you get above the $30 threshold, the level of players you'll encounter improves dramatically. The poker room site typically takes a "rake", a fee of around 10% for hosting the tournament, and the balance of the funds go into the prize pool. In single-table SNG tournaments, the payout goes to the top 3 finishers. In two-table games, the top 4 places are generally paid.

In higher entry-fee games, you'll be playing against some very good players. In these high tier games, you'll encounter some of the best, most dangerous players around. If you're interested in getting into these high stakes games, one way is to win enough at the lower stake games so that you earn, or leverage, your smaller entry-fees into the bigger games, a traditional way that satellite games work and a good approach to take.

I play in a lot of Sit and Go tournaments and regular tournaments, both online and in casinos and poker rooms. Throughout all of this, I have finally learned how to win consistently at Sit and Go tournaments. There are some key areas that you must focus on and shore up in order to properly "shape" your play and end up in the money.

You'll need a well-rounded approach, though, to place in the money consistently at Sit and Go tournaments, including:

* Playing Position Correctly - you'll need to know how to use position in the Sit and Go tournament to your advantage, which hands to play in which positions and how to keep from losing your chips from poor positions. Earlier in the tournament, it's best to be more conservative with your play by only playing the best hands from the best positions.

* Adjusting to Changing Conditions - the key to winning Sit and Go tournaments is adjusting your play style and approach as the blinds and number of players increases. Done correctly, you'll end up in the final 3 in the money up to half of the time (no approach you can take will allow you to win all of the time). As the game progresses, you must adjust or the blinds will eat you up.

* Winning Heads-up Play - arguably one of the most misunderstood, yet most fun part of any tournament, is playing heads-up against another good player. Learning to play winning heads-up poker means the difference between being the Winner and 2nd Place - a huge difference in payout in all tournaments goes to the winner, along with the recognition as the champion, so you must learn to play great heads-up poker. In general, you must play much more aggressively heads up than you would otherwise.

* Beating Aggressive Players - see my article on playing vs. aggressive players, which will definitely make a difference for Sit and Go play, as it explains how to take advantage of aggressive and wild players, without losing all of your chips in the process.

* Online Tells - there are many different special tells that you can use when playing online. Do you know them? Do you use them? If not, chances are they're being used against you! For example, when players use checkboxes online and make a lot of their decisions ahead of time, then suddenly they're not using the checkbox (because they're taking longer), that could be a tell that they're having to think things through more, which could be a tell. If they use checkboxes and act instantly, chances are they don't have a very good hand, so didn't even need to think about it (just clicked the checkbox and now waiting on the next card).

* Successful Bluffing and Blind Stealing - one of the most important moves in poker is bluffing the opponents, and in tournament play, you must be capable of successfully bluffing in order to survive the blinds and antes and to win heads-up. You can't bluff weak players, so don't even try. You'll need to learn how determine the style or type of the players, so you'll recognize who to bluff.

The next time you're thinking about playing a poker tournament, give the Sit and Go a try. It's a fast-paced tournament, where you'll have the opportunity to experience first hand what it's like to play at that Texas Holdem poker tournament final table. You'll go through a sequence of fast play and changing conditions, starting from a full table of 10 players, progressing rapidly to only 5 to 6. Then, if you're a good enough player, you'll find yourself in the most dangerous position of all - where you're one of only 4 players remaining, so you're only one seat out of the money. The key goal is surviving to the heads-up phase, so you get a shot at being the tournament winner, who receives the bulk of the prize pool.

So, you can practice for bigger tournament events by playing in Sit and Go tournaments and that way you'll be very comfortable when you do make it that final table in a big Texas Holdem poker tournament, and you'll have a lot of fun and gain some great Texas Holdem tournament poker experience along the way.

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Rick Braddy is an avid writer, Texas Holdem player and professional software developer and marketer for over 25 years. His websites and Texas Holdem poker tournament e-course helps people become better Texas Holdem tournament players. If you're a poker player, be sure to visit his Texas Holdem websites today and learn how you can play better Texas Holdem, too.