Everybody has their own view of how to play in the early stages of poker tournaments. Some prefer to see a lot of flops while the blinds are small and hope to make a big hand while others prefer to play tight poker and stay out of the way unless they have a big hand. In this poker strategy article I will tell you about a style that works for me, and will hopefully work for you.
I was playing in a $50 buy-in tournament at Full Tilt Poker recently, and had a lot of success in the early stages. My normal style of play in the early stages is simply to let my opponents make mistakes. I will play a tight game, but will come into the pot if I hold a hand with potential, such as a small pair or suited connectors. My theory here is that my opponents will play loose in the beginning while trying to make big hands, and I keep a careful eye on my opponents to learn as much as possible.
After a round of play, I had already targeted two players as being looser to the rest, and I started waiting for an opportunity to exploit their weaknesses and let them make mistakes. My chance came when I picked up pocket 6s in early position. Normally, in tournament play, I would raise 3x BB with this hand in early position, but as the tournament was still in its early stages, I simply called. I could easily fold if aggressive action occurred, as very few hands are worth risking a lot of chips for in early tournament play. Nobody raised, and we were 5-handed heading to the flop.
The flop was perfect for me, A K 6 rainbow, giving me a set while being very likely to have paired up other players with the Ace and the King. I made a pot sized bet when it was my turn to act. I did not consider slowplaying at all given that it was very likely an opponent had hit the flop and would not fold their pair of aces. By betting, I would get the weaker hands out and be up against only the stronger hands which would likely be drawing dead or have only four outs to beat me. Only one player called, and to my joy it was one of the two players I had targeted as being very loose.
The turn came up a J, and now the board cards were four different suits, so I didn’t have to worry about any flushes. There was now a straight possibility, but I considered it to be very unlikely, given that my opponent probably had an ace. I was first to act and I checked, wanting to make it seem as if I had a king or an ace with a weak kicker. My opponent didn’t take the bait and checked as well. The river was an 8, and I knew I had the hand won. I bet three fourths of the pot size, which was a considerable bet at this early stage of the tournament. My opponent called, turning over A10 for a pair of aces and found out that my set had severely crippled his stack. He had been the chip leader and became the short stack.
This is the perfect example of what can happen if you play tight poker early in a tournament, but keep an eye out for an opportunity to divest the looser players of their chips.
