Texas Holdem Advice

Texas Holdem Advice You need to be careful of who you take advice from about gambling. Players have all kinds of systems and superstitions that can end up costing you a great deal of money over time. This is as true for Texas holdem advice as any other game you can find in a casino. ShareTweetSharePin0 SharesTexas Holdem is one of the most popular gambling games worldwide. Mastering this poker game is not out of your reach with our best Texas Hold’em poker tips. With millions of players worldwide, Texas hold’em, or Hold’em, is undoubtedly one of the most popular poker games. The rules are pretty simple to master.

You need to be careful of who you take advice from about
gambling. Players have all kinds of systems and superstitions
that can end up costing you a great deal of money over time.

This is as true for Texas holdem advice as any other game you
can find in a casino. So we don’t expect you to blindly follow
the tips and advice on this page, but we do ask that you
consider everything you read here and think about it before you
dismiss what you see.

All of the advice found below will help you improve your
Texas holdem game, and most of it will help you become a better
overall poker player, no matter what game you play.


Have Fun

This may seem like generic advice, and you can rest assured
that you’ll be reading more technical sections below, but
there’s a reason we started with having fun. It can be
frustrating when you’re trying to learn how to play and when
you’re trying to improve. It can even be frustrating for
experienced players when hands don’t go their way.

But the point we’re trying to make is that frustration rarely
helps. It’s always better when you’re having fun, so try to stay
positive, focus on the good things, and try to keep having fun
while you’re getting better. I you start getting frustrated take
a break and try to clear your mind,

Pay Attention

It’s easy to get involved with conversations with the other
players at the table and try to find other things to do in order
to keep your mind occupied. If you play a tight game like you’re
supposed to do, it can get quite boring at the holdem table.

You need to always be paying attention at the table even when
you aren’t involved in a hand.

Texas Hold'em Strategy Pdf

While there’s nothing wrong with visiting with the other
players, you can visit and pay attention at the same time.

You never know when you’ll learn something about an opponent
while watching a hand that you can use against them later in the
session or in another game in the future. The best players
always watch what’s going on in hopes of squeezing a small extra
edge out of a situation at some time in the future.

Never Stop Learning

This may seem like common sense, but most Texas holdem
players reach a certain point and decide they’re either good
enough or simply stop trying to improve. Poker is a lifelong
game and the best players never stop learning.

We mentioned players trying to squeeze a small extra edge out
of a situation, and that’s what never stop learning is about.
Always be looking for a way to improve and get better. This
requires constant study and effort. Look for new strategies,
books, and web pages that can help you find holes in your game
and learn new techniques to improve.

Focus on One Game

When you start winning on a consistent basis you can play
whatever you want, but as you’re learning to be a winning Texas
holdem player you need to focus on one game. What this means is
play either limit or no limit and play cash games, or multi
table tournaments, or sit and go tournaments. You should even
stick with the same close range of buy in amounts or limits.

When you jump from game to game while you’re learning how to
win it can have a negative impact on your results. Even though
you’re playing Texas holdem in each situation, each different
game requires slightly different strategies and playing
abilities.

The best players are able to play many different games and
limits without missing a beat. And if you focus on mastering one
game before adding a second one you’ll eventually be able to do
so as well.

Don’t Bluff Too Much

Almost 100% of Texas holdem players bluff too often. We know
this may seem like a shockingly high number, but it’s true. The
only ones who don’t bluff too often are the best professional
players, and even they can fall victim to over bluffing.

Just like it looks on television, bluffing your way to
winning a pot is just about as cool as anything you can do at
the table. But just because it’s cool doesn’t mean it’s
profitable.

Advice

The easy way to fix the bluffing too much problem is quit
bluffing. Simply don’t bluff a single time the next 10 times you
play Texas holdem. Then when you start bluffing again, only use
semi bluffs for the next 10 sessions.

You may be quite surprised at how your results suddenly start
improving. We’re pretty sure if you track your play you may
never start bluffing again. Or at least you’ll only bluff a
small fraction of the time that you used to bluff.

Tight Starting Hand Guidelines

Most players enjoy action, so they want to play as many hands
as possible. It gets boring sitting around watching other
players while you wait for a good hand. And it’s fine if you
want to play a bunch of hands. Just realize that if you play too
many hands you lose more money.

If you want to be a long term winning Texas holdem player you
need to practice tight starting hand guidelines. This means you
should probably be playing far fewer hands than you currently
do.

The only players who don’t need to play fewer hands are the
ones who already are posting long term wins.

To understand exactly what you should and shouldn’t play as
far as starting hands requires a much larger discussion than we
have space for on this page. The good news is we have a monster
page in our strategy section that covers everything you need to
know about starting hands. You should check it out as soon as
you finish reading this page.

Texas Holdem Advice

For a quick idea of how many starting hands you should be
playing, the first thing you need to do is start tracking how
many hands you play now. A full ring game player should be
playing somewhere between 15 and 25% of their starting hands.
You should shoot for 20% or less until you become a winning
player.

Once you learn the ins and outs of winning holdem play you’ll
start recognizing the games where you can play a few more hands
profitably.

As a general rule of thumb, if you aren’t a winning player
you should start playing fewer hands. Keep reducing the number
of hands you play until you start winning.

Action may be fun, but winning money is more fun at the end
of the day.

Controlled Aggressive Play

When you play aggressively, by betting and raising often, it
forces your opponents to make more decisions. They have to
decide if they should call, fold, or raise every time you play
aggressively. Every time they’re forced to make a decision they
have an opportunity to make a mistake.

When your opponents make mistakes it helps you make more
money.

But you also have to be controlled while playing in an
aggressive manner. If you play aggressively too much you end up
making plays that cost you money in the long run. You need to
have a good hand to play aggressively so it’s important you
follow the advice in the last section. Combining strong starting
hands, that come from tight requirements, and aggressive play,
helps you become a winning Texas holdem player faster.

Play Against Inferior Competition

This tip is one that almost no one uses but makes so much
sense that you should consider having it tattooed on your arm.
If you want to start winning more at the Texas holdem table
starting immediately find a bunch of players who can’t play as
good as you.

Fill the table with amateurs, drunks, and whatever else you
can find. Just as long as your opponents aren’t very good,
you’ll look like a professional.

It doesn’t matter how good or bad you are at playing, simply
find players who are worse than you and you’ll start winning
more money right away.

Play Extremely Tight Early

This goes hand in hand with the next section and with the
earlier section about tight starting hand guidelines. Early
position, including the blinds, is the worst place to be in a
Texas holdem hand. You have to act before any of your opponents
and will often have a hard time controlling the hand.

This means you need to have a strong hand when you do decide
to play from early position. The strength of your opponents in
comparison to your skills also plays a part in what range of
hands you can play. But the tighter you play from early position
the better.

In some games you should stick to pocket aces, kings, queens,
and ace king only from early position. This sounds overly tight,
but early position play requires tight starting hand decisions
if you want to turn a profit.

Late Position Is for Winners

This might seem like a cute saying or it may have made you
smile when you read the title of this section, but it’s a
serious truth that every Texas holdem player needs to burn into
the front of their mind.

You should be playing around 75% of the hands you play from
late position. Make sure you understand that it didn’t say you
should be playing 75% of the late position hands you see. It
says that of all the hands you end up seeing a flop with, 75% of
them should be from late position.

Late position gives you the advantage of seeing what all of
your opponents do before you have to act and also lets you check
for a free card on the turn or river many times. These
advantages go a long way toward profitable play.

Make the Right Decision – Everything Else Takes Care of
Itself

One of the biggest mistakes made by inexperienced Texas
holdem players is basing their thoughts on how they played a
session on their monetary results. This may seem like the best
way to judge how you play, but it only gives you a true picture
over the long run.

The best players understand that they need to make the best
playing decisions in every situation and that no matter what
happens in a given hand or playing session doesn’t matter where
results are concerned. In other words, you can play a hand wrong
and still win it, but over time if you keep playing it wrong
it’ll cost you money. And you can play a hand correctly and
lose, but in the long run you win more by playing hands the best
way.

Example #1

If you have pocket aces, raise from early position, a player
raises, you move all in, and they call, you’ve played the hand
as well as possible. If you can get all in heads up with pocket
aces before the flop you’ll win a great deal of money in the
long run on the hand.

But every once in a while your opponent will get lucky and
you’ll lose with pocket aces. But remember it doesn’t matter
what happens on this hand, as long as you play it right.

Example #2

You have a gut shot straight draw after the flop and face an
aggressive player who keeps betting into you. You keep calling
hoping to hit one of the four cards to complete your straight,
but you aren’t receiving anywhere close to the correct pot odds
to call.

Sometimes you’re going to hit the gut shot straight on the
turn or river, but not enough times to make money if you’re not
getting the correct pot odds. You’ll hit your gut shot on the
turn four out of 47 times and if you don’t hit it on the turn
you’ll hit it on the river four out of every 46 times.

Focus on always making the best playing decisions and let
everything else take care of itself. The higher the percentage
of the time you make the right decision the more you’ll win in
your poker career.

The Simple Formula

It seems as if everyone is always looking for the shortcut or
simple formula. How else can you explain all of the money the
people selling get rich quick schemes continue to make? Some
call this the fast food culture. We want it and we want it right
now.

Texas holdem is fairly easy to play but it requires a great
deal of study and practice to become a winning player. But
there’s a simple formula that every winning player uses. And the
best news is you don’t have to wait until you have more
experience or learn more to start using it. You can start using
it today. Here’s the formula.

When you’re favored or ahead in the hand you need to maximize
the amount of money in the pot and when you’re drawing to a
winning hand or behind in the hand you need to minimize the
amount of money in the pot.

Don’t discount it because it seems so simple. The truth is
that even though the formula is simple, it’s not easy. But when
you combine the advice in the last section about always making
the right decision with this simple formula you’ll be amazed at
how much better your Texas holdem results are.

The next time you play Texas holdem think about every hand
you play in terms of where you are in each hand as it
progresses.

  • Are you ahead or behind in the hand?
  • How can you maximize the money in the pot or how can you
    keep the pot as small as possible?

Maximizing the amount in the pot isn’t as simple as betting
as much as possible. You have to bet the most possible while
keeping other players in the hand as well. If you move all in
and the other players fold you haven’t maximized the amount you
can win.

Of course if you’re playing limit Texas holdem you simply bet
and raise at every opportunity when you’re ahead in the hand.
And when you’re drawing and / or behind in the hand you check
and call.

The next challenge is determining when you’re actually
leading a hand and when you’re behind. The truth is that
sometimes even the best players don’t know where they stand in a
hand. But they usually have an idea and can make a good guess
using what they know, odds, and percentages to determine the
likelihood that they lead or trail at any point in a hand.

You’ll be able to use the same things to help you determine
where you stand in a hand as you gain experience.

Bankroll

Your bankroll isn’t directly related to your results at the
tables, but it can have direct consequences on your mental state
while playing. The general idea is you should try to have a
large enough bankroll that you can play in any profitable
situation that you run across.

The reality is that most players have a bankroll that
somewhat limits their opportunities. But the important thing is
you have to be able to play at a level and limit where you’re
comfortable. You never want to think about your bankroll or
money while playing Texas holdem.

This may sound funny because you’re playing with chips that
represent money, but when you start worrying about your bankroll
or money it impacts your game in a negative way.

Top Tip

Play at limits below what you think you can beat and use the
winnings to increase your bankroll. Never be afraid or ashamed
of stepping down a limit or two. If you ever worry about your
bankroll you need to play a lower limit immediately.

Holdem

The lowest limits most live poker rooms spread are 1 / 2 no
limit or 5 / 10 limit. If these are higher than you feel
comfortable playing you can play at an online poker room for
stakes as low as .05 / .10. For $10 or less you can play at the
micro limits and not have to worry about your bankroll or money
at all while playing Texas holdem.

Conclusion

It’s easy to get a feeling of being overwhelmed when you’re
trying to learn how to be a better Texas holdem player. Even
when you’re reading a straightforward list of advice like you
found above it can get complicated quickly.

So to help you absorb and use all of the advice on this page
we suggest either printing it or bookmarking it, or both, so you
can review it again at least once a week until you’ve
incorporated all of the advice into your game.

Take a couple sections and work on them each week and before
you know it you’ll be winning more than you lose on a consistent
basis. We’re confident that any player who can successfully
incorporate all of the advice on this page into their game will
be a winning player.

Everyday players are sitting down at the tables and consistently making fundamental mistakes because of lack of knowledge, misinformation or failing to maintain focus.

Even just a small strategical adjustment in poker can potentially save you a huge amount in the long run.

In this article we will point out some of the best live and online poker tournament strategy tips you can use to improve your game as quickly as possible.

Tip 1: Play The Right Starting Hands

Whether it be lack of patience, or an unfamiliarity with opening ranges, many tournament poker players still open too wide. This is especially true when it comes to early and middle position opens, where there are still many opponents left to act behind who can be dealt a strong hand.

The problem is when called, wide openers are often at a range disadvantage. Often being dominated by their opponents, they are vulnerable to 3 bets since they frequently won't have a holding strong enough to continue under pressure.

Furthermore, although opening a hand like 7 ♠ 5♠ might at times not be a terrible strategy from early or middle position, speculative hands like suited connectors and gappers, as well as small pairs, work best with deep stacks behind.

These speculative hand types infrequently connect strongly with the flop, so those times they do you want to have deep stakes behind to have the potential to win a huge pot. Modern day tournament structures often only see deep stack play occur during the first few levels of play. This leads us into the next tournament poker tip, being stack size aware.

Learn which hands to open raise in MTT's - Watch lesson 6.1 from the Road to Success MTT Course. A power-packed 50 minute video below, just use one of the button options to unlock it and get instant access.

Tip 2: Be Stack Size Aware

Effective stack size plays a critical role in a tournament players success.

Having a deep stack, and therefore expanding an opening range to include a lot of speculative suited hands and small pairs is a tournament strategy that is going to be punished if a number of short stacks are yet to act behind. This most notably occurs in turbo tournaments where the average stack size is quite short.

Short stacks will be in push-or-fold mode. Being short, they don't have time to wait and will be looking to take any opportunity they can to move all-in. This high rate of all-ins will leave wide openers frequently being forced to relinquish their hands, without even having the opportunity to try to hit a nice flop. Problematic hands often include; J8s , KTo and weak Ax hands.

It's not just short-stacks that can cause a problem, aggressive players will be looking to attack wide-openers. This is especially true when a player opens with a vulnerable M8-M14 (20bb-35bb) stack. 3 bets get good leverage against this stack size, since continuing in the pot represents committing a significant portion of a players stack.

Wide openers would be wise not to commit a large percentage of their stack with marginal holdings, and so will be forced to fold, or face being in a high-risk situation. Staying aware of your own stacks utility, as well as anticipating how opponents will utilize their stacks, is an important tournament poker tip to keep in mind.

POKER TIP: If you are currently using BB to calculate stack size, here's a look at why using 'M' is a better MTT strategy.

Tip 3: Be Careful Overplaying In The Early Stages

As a stack gets deeper, the less willing a competent player will be to put their entire stack at risk since they have more to lose. It's rare to see good players all-in during the early stages of a tournament with hands like AKo or JJ preflop.

Smart players recognize that their counterparts aren't going to be risking their entire stack with weaker hands like AQo . Therefore, even a strong hand like AK could be at a significant equity disadvantage facing a deep stacked opponents all-in range. Could you fold QQ here?

Rather than putting in an extra raise, often times just calling with even very strong hands in the early stage of a poker tournament has great benefits.

  • Allows your opponents to continue with hands they were folding to a re-raise that you have crushed.
  • Disguises the strength of your hand and keeps you unpredictable.
  • Prevents you from getting all-in facing a super strong range where often times you're crushed.

Tip 4: Continuation Bet Aggressively But Not Always

Players have learnt the value of c-betting, but it's a strategy that is often misapplied. Being the preflop aggressor shouldn't lead to a mandatory c-bet and double barrels.

This is especially true in multi-way pots yet players continue to make fruitless c-bets with weak holdings into multiple opponents.

Even in heads-up situations, key factors to consider include;

  • How does the flop texture interact with players ranges?
  • Who has the strongest range?
  • Who has nut advantage (the biggest share of super strong hands)?
  • How passive or aggressive is the opponent we're facing?
  • How does the stack size/SPR allow us to operate on the flop and future streets?

The following hand illustrates the effect nut advantage can have on profitable continuation betting and how it applies to this tournament poker tip:

Tip 5: Be ICM Aware

The Independent Chip Model or ICM, is a great model players use to make more profitable decisions when deep in a tournament and especially at a final table.

Unlike in cash games, chip values fluctuate depending on the stage of the tournament and the competing opponents stack sizes. At it's most extreme, ICM strategy can make A♠A♣: an easy fold preflop.

Imagine a situation in a satellite where 9 players get a World Series of Poker entry and there's 10 remaining. The action folds around to a player with 100,000 in tournament chips who moves all in from the small blind. You're sitting in the big blind with A♠A♣: and also 100,000 in chips. You look around and see a few opponents with only 1000 chips left, which is the size of the current big blind. Obviously one of these short stacks is likely to bust very soon.

Obviously one of these short stacks is likely to bust very soon. Moreover the chance that they collectively out survive your 100,000 stack is extremely remote. You'd likely be a 99% chance to get a WSOP entry, so why would you call with your A♠A♣ and risk busting next around 20% of the time?

Aside from calling too wide in spots when the most profitable strategy is to proceed tightly, the opposite can also be true when it comes to pressuring your opponents. ICM allows players when they have the opportunity to assert pressure on there opponents stacks, to go ahead and do so liberally, since thinking opponents counter-strategy is to play a tight range of hands.

Here's an example of how drastically a hand range can change when the opportunity to assert pressure at a final table exists. 5 of the 6 remaining players at the Pokerstars Sunday Millions have 15bb's, whilst the UTG player has a short 2bb stack. Since the 15bb stacks wants to avoid busting out next and missing out on a large pay jump before the immanent bust out of the 2bb stack, the small blind can adjust their all-in range. Instead of the profitably 57% all-in range in normal play, they can move all-in with 100% of hands to apply pressure on the big blind.

Whilst the big blind should adjust their calling range from the regular 36% to just 10% of hands to account for the ICM effect in play.

The PokerNerve Road to Success course teaches players how to master ICM situations, which is key to tournament poker success since ICM comes into play as the prizes become significant. If there was only one tournament poker tip that you take away from this article, it's that you need to know ICM!

Tip 6: Bet The Appropriate Size

Strong players are capitalizing on their opponents tendencies to bet too big or too small in a number of different situations. With some similar considerations to that of continuation betting, when selecting a bet size important aspects include;

  • Which player's range does the board texture favor?
  • Who has the greatest nut saturation?
  • How does SPR influence our betting strategy

There are many great articles online about bet sizing. You should be sure to check out ThePokerBank's and the Pokerology's to learn more about this tournament tip.

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Tip 7: Take Equity Realization Into Account

Possibly due to the popularity growth of Twitch, many poker players approach to big blind play has evolved. The current trend is to defend the big blind with virtually any 2 cards, as some top pros elect to do, and the justification for this is taking advantage of the excellent pot odds being offered.

While the inclusion of antes combined with commonly seeing a small open raise size does offer the big blind generous pot odds, this has led to a fundamental flaw in the way many players approach big blind play in poker tournaments. The key concept overlooked, is equity realization.

Equity realization reflects a players ability to take a certain hand, and win their share of the pot, frequently enough, to make it profitable in the long-term. Although some top pros have the ability to win their equity share of the pot even out of position, less skilled players rarely do. This leads to a large chip loss in the long run.

It is quite difficult to realize of your equity when out of position, with no initiative and a weak range. This means them glorious odds you are being offered aren't quite as good as you think!

The following article explains this crucial tournament poker tip in more detail; Equity Realization.

Tip 8: Don't Miss Double And Triple Barrel Opportunities

'One and done' is the plight of many aspiring tournament poker players. Everyday at the tables I see players missing profitable opportunities to double, or even triple barrel. Understanding what turn and river cards are advantageous to a players range, along with opponent tendencies, are crucial parts of a winning barreling formula.

The most common scenario at the table, is a heads-up pot where the big blind calls an open-raise. And this happens to be a great spot to barrel. Big blind defenders have a wide range, and it's important to pressure this wide range, especially on only partially connected board textures with one or multiple high cards.

Texas Hold'em Poker Advice

RedChipPoker has a great article on spotting profitable double barrel opportunities which you can read here: THE +EV DOUBLE BARREL GUIDE

Tip 9: Check-Raise More Flops

The biggest difference between the current tournament population, and the future generation, will likely be their approach to check-raising the flop. This opportunity typically occurs in a heads-up pot, after defending the big blind verse an opponents raise.

Currently, MTT players only check-raise the flop in this situation around 7-8% of the time, when closer to 20% is a more optimal strategy. On certain flop textures, check-raising close to 25% of the time is an extremely profitable strategy. And if players are getting out of line with their c-bets, then check-raising at an even higher frequency could be a profitable exploit.

By giving up too easily on a wide range of board textures, or taking a more passive approach and simply calling, c-betting can be done with reckless abandon. However, by selecting a nice mix of check-raising hands, combining some strong hands with some good semi-bluffing candidates, a check-raiser can become tricky to play against and exploit the average players tendency to over c-bet.

POKER TIP: Applied correctly and check-raising becomes a super powerful weapon in your arsenal leading to more profitable poker results. But also think beyond the flop, there's plenty of check-raising opportunities you may be missing. This video demonstrates an interesting turn check-raise situation.

We discuss check raising strategy in more detail in our post over on unfeltedpoker.com.

Tip 10: Develop A Good 3betting Strategy

Whilst 3 betting aggressively is a strategy many players employ, especially in online poker circles, failure to apply optimal 3 betting strategies has certainly led to a lot of spewy poker. Simply attacking opponents who are suspected of opening wide doesn't cut it in the modern poker world.

Players have learnt to deal with 3 bets more profitably, by mixing in some calls with timely 4 bets. Moreover, the role stack size plays when it comes to 3 betting it still largely misunderstood by much of the poker community.

Sure there are certain stack sizes where 3 bets gain a lot of leverage, but how about the role blockers play? And when is 97 a better 3 bet candidate than KT♠ ? These are just some of the considerations when it comes to a profitable 3 betting strategy. See how to design strong 3betting ranges in this article by Donkr.

Bonus Poker Strategy Tip: Avoid and Deal with Downswings

As a poker player you want to earn your money as easily and as stress-free as possible right? Well, understanding ROI, variance and bankroll management can help (see TopPokerValue's article on bankroll management).

All poker players at some point experience downswings. In some cases, this can affect their play, volume or state of mind.

You'll be miserable, hating poker, playing less and earning less per tournament as your play will suffer.

Along with finding ways that work for you to keep a positive mindset, taking pro-active steps can help keep you confident by knowing you are dealing with the situation like a professional whilst at the same time taking positive action to get back on track and winning.

What is ROI and variance?

Every tournament you enter has an EV associated with it. So if you enter a $10 tourney, as a good player maybe you have a 30% ROI, so you make $3. So it doesn't matter whether you brick that tourney or win it for $5000, you make $3 in the long run.

Now, of course, you don't make $3 each time. 80-85% of the time you lose that $10, some percentage of the time you win a little bit, and some very small percentage of the time you win a lot. How small those ‘small percentages’ are primarily depends on not only your skill edge, but also the field size which is an extremely important concept that is often ignored.

Variance is a factor of two things:

1) Your edge

2) The field size

Example 1)

You play the Hot $55 which has $30K guaranteed, every day for a year on Pokerstars. It has 1600 runners and you have a 5% ROI, because turbo ROIs are small. Your average yearly profit is $605 however you will lose money on the year 55% of the time.

Example 2)

You play a $20 tourney with $3K guaranteed on a softer site every day for a year. It has 200 runners and you have a 30% ROI, because it's a normal speed tourney and you’re against an easier field. Your average yearly profit is $2400 and in this case you lose money only 12% of the time.

A lot of people would look at those two tournaments and make a decision based on the buy-in and 1st place prize money as to which was better to play, and it would be grossly wrong. Once you accept all the above, you realise that the 'up top' number is largely meaningless.

Yes, on the same site bigger fields may mean a lot of fish have registered to play, but you'll find a lot of small field, soft, non-peak hour tournaments have a great pro-to-fish ratio and hence are great value. Of course once you consider other sites that have smaller fields, you'll often find they are a better choice than what might be running on Pokerstars.

So what can you do?

When players start losing money and along with that, confidence, not only does their game deteriorate but they often compound that problem by failing to make rational decisions. Often losing players, or players on a downswing, go 'bink chasing' and decide to take a shot to win all their money back in one tourney. Or load up some quick $82 hyper-turbos to try to turn it all around quickly.

People get overly fixated on what's 'up top' and wanting to score big in one tournament. That’s a sure-fire strategy to fuel a down swing. If your house got knocked down would you try to slap it back up in a week? Take that opportunity to rebuild a better, stronger house.

Make sure you're adding in some study and keep focused (see Sky's Matsuhashi How To Study Poker series), and stay fresh and positive as you approach each session. Be smart and get back into profit quicker instead of enduring a 6-12 month variance rollercoaster!

Closing Words On Tournament Poker Tips

Poker is a multi-faceted game which makes it fun but challenging. Challenge yourself to factor in the relevant concepts, and make more profitable decisions. Tighten up from the big blind, and in general around the table. This tip often quickly improves a new players results, or those that have a got a little sloppy with their play.

Calculate stack size using 'M'. Always be aware of your own, and your opponents stack sizes so you don't get yourself caught in awkward situations. One awkward situation that often comes up is when you hold an overpair to the board and an opponent puts the heat on you. Don't be afraid to make big lay downs to preserve your stack, especially in the early levels.

Be aware of your cbetting frequency. There's no need to waste tournament poker chips cbetting every time, especially when the pot is multi-way. Pick your spots to make profitable plays. Remember when it comes to the final table, regularly profitable playing ranges might alter due to the payouts. ICM is the key when it comes to those final big decisions.

Another key to success is knowing when to fire multiple bullets at your opponents. Barreling, especially against a wide big blind range can really help increase your non-showdown winnings. Finding ways to accumulate chips without always having the best hand is what top players do. This is why check-raising and having a good 3 betting strategy is so important. Correct use of these strategical concepts and the other tips outlines will get you winning more at the tables.

Now that you've acquired some great holdem tournament strategy tips to help you achieve MTT success, go out there an implement them!

One of the quickest way to improve your poker game is to take on a poker coaching, a course or join a poker training site; if that is something that interests you be sure to check out the PokerNerve road to Success Course for some advanced poker tournament strategy or you can check out HowToPlayPokerInfo's guide on poker training & poker courses to find the right option for you.

Any other poker tournament strategy tips? Leave them below in the comments, we would love to hear them!

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