Poker in Multi-Table Tournaments Every single professional who plays tournament poker would agree that multi-table tournaments are the hardest, most dangerous, and most fun games you can play.ART friendship in pokeris that, it is softer versions of what youAGE. At least in some respects. While older gamblers beat down younger gamblers and each other, poker as an art form is characterised by a contest of ideas and not just money – although money plays a great role in art, too.
Poker in Multi-Table Tournaments
One of the key criteria for winning a tournament is not only the selection of your starting hand, but the selection of your opponent prior to those cards being dealt. Thus, a key skill for any professional who plays tournament poker is the ability to read an opponent. This reading skills could be useful, at least if not always successful, in any other game of chance, including, say, roulette.
There is virtually nothing a player can do, at this stage, that will guarantee they will win. No matter what selection criteria you use, you cannot overcome the fact that a number of cards will be dealt and that a good hand has to be played somewhere. You can, however, reduce your risk by playing in a way that most likely demonstrates you are the person with the hand that is bothstrongand disciplined. This is easier said than done, but you will be surprised at how many players manage to lose the hand, more often than they will win.
A disciplined player, or one who tends to fold out of position, will either wait for a good hand or fold and save their chips in the process. A disciplined player will not yield to the temptation to play every hand. This, again, is important in poker, as in any other game. You should not be able to guess a opponent’s hand, but you should be able to manage your own hand enough to take into account the strength of your hand and, conversely, be disciplined enough not to enter every round of play chasing a low.
A second discipline rule for the disciplined player is not wasted chips. Any time you fold, whether or not you are guaranteed to win, you lose valuable chips. Never throw away chips simply because you are waiting for a good hand. If you do not have a good hand at any time in a tournament, you have to either fold or raise, whatever your strategy calls for at the time.
A disciplined player plays a hand the way the hand was played. A disciplined player is straightforward and has simple goals. I do not believe there is anything more to be learned from a player who describes their decisions as they play a hand. “I had Q suited” or “I raised with suited cards” are examples of descriptions that do not require explanation. When you describe your decisions, even though they may not be mathematically correct, you are giving yourself credit for an understanding of the way you played the hand.
You also need to describe your relative position with respect to the rest of the field. That is, what is your chip lead in a given round of betting? If you are in the early position, you should not be raising unless you have a reasonable hand. If you are in the middle, you should be tightening up your hand options and not limping into hands. If you are in the late position, you can afford to be more aggressive, especially if you have more chips than most.
If you do not remember any of these strategies, feel free to make wild guesses. The important thing is that you describe exactly what you did, as best you can remember it, rather than something you heard a friend or opponent say. You should make an exact copy of your memory, including the dates, times and conditions of when and the specific cards you played. That will give you a physical picture of your poker hand.
Be sure to describe your hand in detail, including the position and any other relevant details, the number of opponents in your game, the exact cards you played and how they were connected to each other, etc.
When you describe your hand in this exact terms, you are giving your opponents full information about the strength of your hand.
This information can be used against you later, in a case where you are identified as a tight player. Tight players are more likely to succeed in poker; therefore, if you are identified as one, a few bluffs can be used against the tight player to obtain information about the strength of your hand – whether you have anything or not – in many cases.
You have to be prepared to describe your hand many times, and your opponents’ words will have a tendency to haunt you when you are trying to conceal your hand in a poker game.
Poker in Multi-Table Tournaments
There are two related psychological concepts to be discussed here, recall and indications.
