Expert Plays for No Limit Tournaments
What is the Gap Concept in Poker
and How to Beat It
You don't want to get in the habit of being a limper. Players like to see flops cheap when they have hands like suited connectors, small pairs, middle pairs, and those trouble hands like K-J and Q-J. While you want to vary your play, always think raise first. And, if you are past the middle rounds, don't even think of calling. If your hand is good enough to play, it's good enough to raise.
The advantage to being the first raiser in a hand is that you are using the Gap Concept. What is the Gap Concept?
The Gap Concept is the idea that you need a better hand to play against someone who has already raised in front of you. The thinking is that players want to avoid situations where someone has already shown strength, unless they know they have a really strong hand. It is the thinking of a player who wants to survive a tournament. But, if you play to survive, you will surely die.
Don't look to preserve your chips, look to accumulate chips. Use the Gap Concept to your advantage. If you notice players behind you folding too often to pre-flop raises, you should widen your range of starting hands and be the first to raise.
Importantly, if you notice a player in front of you raising too often, realize that this player may be using the Gap Concept to his advantage and probably doesn't need a strong hand to enter the pot first with a raise. Look to re-raise this player with calling hands. Make him fear your hand.
Counter the player using the Gap Concept with a re-raise. It will get him to fold his hand.
Three Key Plays You Must Use
to Win a Tournament
Here are three key plays you must learn to use in order to win a poker
tournament.
1. Raise in a back position pre-flop as the first player in a pot.
If you are on the button, cutoff (one position to the right of the button) or the power position (two right of the power position) look to raise pre-flop when you are first in the pot. This is a play that is more effective starting from the middle stages of the event. The reason this play works so well is that other players tighten up as the risk to enter a pot costs more chips.
2. Re-raise from the button or in the blinds when a late position player raises first in the pot.
This builds on the first move. A smart player will use play #1 in hopes of adding the blinds and/or antes into his chip stack. As a result, you should re-raise these players when you are on the button or in the blinds when you think your opponent is trying to steal. Your opponent is going to think you have a premium hand since you put in a re-raise and will be hard pressed to call your raise.
3. Calling in the big blind with a range of hands when the pot odds are more than 2-1.
You have to learn how to call raises in the big blind with a range of hands. Too many players simply fold afraid of their opponent's hand. Example: Your opponent raises to $300, the pot is $450, and your in the big blind for $100. It will cost you only $200 to win $450, and you have 5-6 suited. Call and take the chance of winning a big hand.
Learn these three moves and your results in a poker tournament will
About the Author
Mitchell is a successful
poker author,
coach, & player.
He is a strategist
to business including
Procter & Gamble
and Hewlett-Packard.
PokerStars Intellipoker selected his first book
for international distribution to educate players worldwide.
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