By Todd Brunson, Cardplayer.com
As I mentioned in my last column, I placed 15th in the Doyle Brunson Classic, a WPT event held at Bellagio. Not only would it have been great to win my father’s tournament, but the first prize was $2.5 million! This is one of the biggest tournaments in the world outside the World Series of Poker. I had to settle for a little less than $100,000 as a consolation prize, unfortunately.

This was a great tourney. Jack McClelland started us with 30,000 in chips without starting the limits at 1,000-2,000 right off the bat. We also had 90-minute levels, so there was a lot of play. This was no all-in donkeyfest, which many formerly great events have become.

While I usually advocate an aggressive gambling style in tournaments, this type of tournament requires a more laid-back, selective style. Now, I’m not saying that you should play passively; I’m just saying that you have more time to pick your spots, so you should take it. I laid down more hands in this tournament than I have in the past year, literally.

That’s what this column is about, laying down big hands. It’s tough to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, especially in a slow-paced tourney like this one.

I usually believe that when faced with a decision in a tournament, you’re always better off erring on the play side (calling or raising) as opposed to the laydown side. You normally don’t have much time, and may never see another big hand again before the antes eat you up.

This is what I hate about contemporary tournament poker. Any idiot who is aggressive enough can win a tournament with minimal poker-playing skill. Ever notice that many of these tournament champs get… continue reading at SwissPoker.ch

by Paul Wasicka
One of the most critical aspects to surviving – and thriving – in deep stack tournaments is learning how to control the size of the pots you play. In short, your goal should be to play big pots when you have big hands and small pots when you don’t. When you and your opponents are deep stacked in a tournament, there are two vital elements to pay attention to when you enter a pot – your opponents’ playing style and the texture of the flop.

Before you commit any chips to the pot, you want to identify the types of players who are likely to be in the hand with you. If you’re at a loose table where your opponents are playing a wide range of hands, you’re going to want to play smaller pots unless you’re sure that you’re way ahead or, preferably, holding the nuts.

Say you’re in a hand with something big like pocket Queens and a player who’s been involved in a lot of pots calls your pre-flop raise. The flop comes J-9-7, and you’re out of position. You need to be very careful about betting here because a loose-aggressive player is going to put you to the test. I’d recommend check-calling or check-raising rather than putting out a continuation bet and giving your opponent a chance to re-raise you or, possibly, flat call with the intention of pushing you off the hand on a later street by making a large bet you can’t call if a scare card falls on the turn or river.

Having position against these types of players makes it much easier for you to control the pot, as you’ll be able to turn the table on them and call or re-raise their initial bets. If they come back over the top, you can…. continue reading at FullTilt

by Allen Cunningham

In poker, image matters.

Throughout a tournament, your table image will help determine how much action you’ll get and, ultimately, how you can manipulate your opponents into making big calls or big laydowns at the wrong times.

While establishing a loose, aggressive image early on can help build your initial chip stack, I believe it’s important to develop a tight table image in the later stages of a tournament because it gives you the ability to maneuver at the times when the chips matter most.

When the action is folded around, some players will always raise from the cutoff and the button. The problem with this play is that’s its predictable and can be easily exploited. If you always raise from the button, the players in the blinds catch on sooner or later and will put in a big re-raise with any two cards. You will also find players just calling you with a much wider range of hands from the blinds before putting in a big check-raise on the flop.

Why do they do this? Because you have been presenting a loose table image by raising any time the action is passed to you. During late-stage play, this image … continue reading at Full Tilt Poker

By DANIEL NEGREANU
I’m often asked poker strategy questions by amateurs who hope to get concrete answers in return. That’s rarely how poker works. There are simply too many variables to consider. The best approach in one situation might be the absolute worst in another.

In tournament poker, it’s not a bad idea to have a game plan right from the start. Unlike football, though, you shouldn’t script your first 15 plays of the game as many NFL coaches do. If anything, your game plan must be adaptable to the players that you’ll face.

Let’s say that you come into a tournament with the following game plan: Sit back early and play conservatively, and then, after a couple of levels, start attacking the blinds.

That’s not a bad game plan against certain opponents. But what if you find yourself at a table where most of the players simply call before the flop and play weak after the flop? That would require an immediate change of plan.

When up against bad players like these early in a tournament, you shouldn’t avoid playing marginal situations. In fact, you should welcome them. If your opponents don’t raise before the flop and commit big mistakes after the flop, make every attempt to play any two cards that have any value at all. The payoff at a table like this could set you up for a good run in the tournament.

Now, the second aspect of the game plan needs to be addressed: After a couple of levels, start attacking the blinds.

Realistically, that’s not going to work when you’re facing weak players. They play too many hands before the flop for this approach to be effective. So, forget about trying to steal their blinds. Rather, in this type of game, focus on…. Read rest of article at chron.com

By Sasha
I suppose there is a library of advice that can be offered in regards to every poker play; however, the stealing blinds is a necessity in tournament play if you hope to build your stack towards the leader, and maintain a workable stack as the blinds increase and players decrease. The pre-flop re-steal is simply a re-raise based on an initial raise that someone has bet in an effort to steal the blinds. So if you were thinking it had something to do with robbing a bank with gymnastic ability the day after someone else robbed it, you’ve come to the wrong place.Often times in a game of No-Limit Texas Holdem, players will lose patience when they feel the looming blanket of desperation begin to wrap around their tournament run, or perhaps their cash game budget. They realize that they will need to make an effort at stealing blinds or they won’t have any blinds to offer. At this point, it’s not uncommon to see a player move all-in pre-flop, but in the case that they make an effort to simply raise and steal the blind, they are a prime target for a re-steal. If you are sitting further down the line, a re-raise will put the pressure on the remaining competitors; and if you happen to have posted the blind and sit on a strong pocket, it may be worthwhile to challenge the thief and retain your stack.

There are many strategies for most effectively utilizing a re-steal, but ultimately it comes down to reading opponents. The player with a stack that is smaller than yours might as well have a target on their back if they raise early; as much as they want to add the blinds to their dwindling stack, they’ve also got to think to protect. If they were remotely confident in what they were holding pre-flop, they would more than likely…  Read rest of article at Smoke Poker