by Todd Arnold

Be especially mindful of the risk-versus-reward concept

The title of this column sounds a bit exacting because, as you know by now, you must play your situations as they arise and not follow any set rule. There is no set “game plan” that you should ever have going into a tournament, other than observing and reacting to your opponents with your best option. There are, however, some thought processes that you can have to guide you in your decision-making. During the early stages of a tournament, you should be especially mindful of the risk-versus-reward concept. Whether you are playing a deep-stack tournament with $10,000 in starting chips and blinds of $25-$50 or a short-stack tournament with only $1,500 in starting chips and blinds of $10-$20, there are “value” questions that you must ask yourself. There is a large gap in flexibility between the two types of tournaments.

Let’s first look at a live deep-stack tournament with $10,000 in starting chips. The blinds are $25-$50 and it is a $10,000 buy-in event. You watch the players at your table for a round or two and notice that they are playing fairly tight (as is often the case). Raises are rarely contested; people are talking and seemingly having a good time, and are very happy to be there. You pick up 9-9 in the cutoff position. A guy in middle position raises to $150 and you make it…. read rest of article at Card Player Magazine

By Bob Ciaffone
Do you like to play in small online no-limit holdem tournaments? If so, welcome to the crowd. There are plenty of tournaments to choose from where you can win hundreds of dollars, even thousands, all at a minimal investment in the $5 to $30 range. The invest-little, win-big, chance to get money is hard to resist­­ –– and a lot more fun than buying a lottery ticket. I am sure you would like to improve your skills at this type of tournament, so read on. There are naturally some similarities between the small buy-in online tournament and larger events, but the differences are big enough to require certain different skills. Here are some of those differences…. read rest of article at PokerMagazine.com

By Eric Lynch
Spotting and attacking various types of players to accumulate chips

In my inaugural column, I discussed how we can both spot and attack weakness in players at the table. Another situation that we often encounter is choosing how and when to attack various players by opening the pot. So, rather than attacking people who already have shown weakness in the pot, we have to choose what kind of players to target without seeing any action in front of us.

There are several methods we can use to do this, and I’m going to try to provide a few examples of each type.

One way to attack players is to figure out what kinds of players are weak post-flop and single out those players’ blinds for raises. That gives you the double advantage of taking control of the pot preflop and having the weak player play from out of position. If I find that some players are particularly weak post-flop, I’ll try to raise their blinds as often as possible in an unopened pot. I try not to be so overt with it that other solid players pick up on what I’m doing and reraise my raises, though. There is a bit of an art to recognizing how often you can get away with things before people start to pick up on what you’re doing, but with some practice, it becomes second nature.

Another good way to single players out for target practice is by…. read rest of article at Card Player Magazine