Expert Plays for No Limit Tournaments
What Do Bubbles Have to Do With
Winning a Poker Tournament?
What is the bubble in a poker tournament?
The time in a tournament where it gets close to the money is called the "bubble." The player who finishes on the "bubble" is the one who finishes one place out of the money. No one wants to finish on the bubble. No one.
When players get close to the bubble they tighten up. After playing for hours or days, the last thing any poker player wants is to go home with nothing. As a result, players who had a good-sized chip stack take a big sized hit. And players who had a small sized chip stack are forced to act before they are blinded off.
The reason to enter a tournament is to win it. The money is in the first three places. Yet, when players get close to the money, they tighten up their starting hand requirements. They are looking to fold, because they don't want to get knocked out before getting in the money.
While this is human nature it is a major mistake. It should not matter to you if you just win a few dollars or finish on the bubble.
When it gets near the bubble resist the urge to survive. Look to thrive rather than survive. Take advantage of the other players' fear of missing the money and loosen up your starting hand requirements and raise.
Bubbles in poker tournaments are a good thing. The next time you get close to the bubble be aggressive. Raise with a wider range of hands right before the money stages of a tournament. Add chips and go for the win.
Play To Win And Not Just Cash in A Tournament
When you ask a Poker Pro what you should do in a specific hand the answer is: "It depends." I'm sick of hearing every poker question answered with "it depends." "It depends" is just a cop-out by someone who doesn't want to be second-guessed. I want a real answer, and I want it now!
Winning poker doesn't "depend." Winning poker requires that you take action. Be aggressive. Be feared at the table.
Here's your mantra for No-Limit Hold'em Poker Tournaments:
Risk is Good.
Now, repeat after me: "Risk is Good."
I can't hear you-shout it out-"Risk is Good!"
The biggest mistake a tournament poker player makes is to think he can
simply outplay his opponent and expect to win. It doesn't work that way. This is not a cash game where time doesn't matter.
This is a tournament where time works against you, as it continues to eat away at your chips with bigger and bigger blinds and antes. And there's also this thing called luck. Even if you have pocket Aces against pocket Deuces, you are going to lose one out of five times.
And what if that one time is when your opponent has you covered with
more chips? You are out. The fact is that you can outplay your opponent and still lose.
A no-limit hold 'em poker tournament requires that you take action, take risks, and not sit back and wait for premium hands. You need to gamble. You need to accumulate chips. You need to embrace the risk inherent in the game. You need to get so many chips, that you can handle a bad beat and still win.
Risk is good, because playing safe in tournament poker is a sure way to lose.
How to Beat the Poker Pro in a Poker Tournament
There is nothing more intimidating than going against the poker pros you see on television. You may think they always start with pocket Aces but they don't. They get the same percentage of good and bad hands like the rest of us.
Still, one of the challenges in major tournaments is playing against the poker pro. The pros are aggressive and raise pre-flop more than other players. They don't even need a hand to do this. In addition, they know how to outplay you on the flop, turn and river.
It is interesting, but some poker pros will fold to your re-raise, while other pros will call your re-raise. The pros that call re-raises are very tough to beat, because if they sense weakness, they will outplay you.
The correct move against the top poker pros is not to try to continually outplay them. Instead, find your spots to move all-in and put on maximum pressure. Pros hate the all-in move pre-flop since it takes their skill out of the game. It also makes it easier for you since there are no other decisions needed.
The key to winning poker tournaments is to accumulate chips and to win. While poker pros can intimidate players, try not to be one of those players. Look at the poker pro as an opportunity to add chips by pushing them all-in.
For example, if the pro has raised for the fourth straight hand, and everyone folds to you in the big blind, what should you do? Push all-in. Since you haven't played a hand for a while, the pro will think you have the pocket Aces and fold. Best of all you don't have to use this play that often to add lots of chips into your stack. And who knows, the one time the pro calls you, you may be the one with pocket Aces!
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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Play to win. Not to bubble.
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