Biggest mistakes tournament players make on RP

Poker Strategy
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In lower stakes tournaments (I don’t know about high stakes) this is the way to play most hands you’re involved in. If you raise AK you’re going to miss the flop 2/3 of the time and you have to raise a lot (usually at least 10x the BB) just to isolate so you get it down to one or two fish (and if you’re against two you won’t even win half the time). When you’re up against two fish and one of them bets into you on the flop you missed you’ll have no idea where you stand and are just bleeding chips. If you just limped and flopped a king or an ace, then you would have a chance to stack a calling station that has king rag or ace rag (and if you miss you can cheaply fold AK on the flop).

It’s better to only raise QQ+ and limp the rest of the hands you play (especially speculative hands that have high implied odds) - ex: suited connectors and gappers, AX suited, pocket pairs - then bust the biggest drooling station(s) at the table when you hit. Again this is in lower stakes tournaments, I don’t know how balanced you have to be in higher stakes yet.

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goat me there

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Yeah it’s a good thing you don’t have to face the REAL GOAT :goat: yet

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If you are early in the tournament and playing relatively deep stacked, you can probably afford to limp and splash around a bit, especially if you have identified large exploits in the play of some of the other people at the table, or of the population generally. I’ve seen quite a few people that seem to do very well early in tournaments with that kind of strategy (they usually seem to like to make a lot of small bluffs post flop to pick up unwanted pots).

That said, limping AK and only raising QQ+ pre-flop as a consistent strategy is almost the defining stereotype of weak, average play. Especially as blinds climb relative to stacks, speculative hands crash in value (they won’t win often enough, and won’t win enough when they do to cover the losses in the hands they don’t win), and failing to push equity edges pre-flop with an appropriate range just reduces your overall rate of return.

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25

I consistently make final tables playing that way. When I play LAG and raise a wider range - it’s boom or bust. I won a tournament last week playing LAG but I was running well.

That’s when you toss out low suited connectors and only play Broadways and suited aces for speculation - those still have good equity against two random cards (which is what people on here play). Late in tournaments most limping should get cut out all together and it becomes more of a game of push or fold.

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Yet all the players at the table see is towers and towers of chips in front me. I’m the Muhammad Ali of poker - he looked weak when he was doing the rope-a-dope against Foreman as well.

Aggression is overrated when you’re playing against someone that will call you down with bottom pair - you’re really gonna bet ace high for three streets when you know a drooler will call you down with bottom pair? Why raise and risk your stack when the fish will still pay you off when you limp and hit?

Aggression is also overrated when there’s an aggro fish at the table raising just about every hand - if there’s one of those at my table then I might limp with QQ+ as well (and cut out more speculative stuff) and let him donate all of his chips to me - I did that in a short-handed tournament (On the Cloud Nine) today with great results.

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If you think I’m weak and average come play me in an SNG.

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Yes, I used to have a very hard time against an uber calling station, but now I like to see him at my table.

Since he will call any preflop raise with any two cards from any position, you want to get plenty of chips in preflop if you have a hand that might make the nuts. On the flop and turn he never bets unless he has two pairs or better, so you can then get a free card, or probably two free cards to improve your hand. On the river, he will bet if he thinks he is ahead, and check-fold if he has nothing.

If you flop a monster, then you should bet about half the pot on the flop and turn so as to build the pot, because he is almost certainly going to fold to a large bet on the river on the river.

I have found his play to extremely predictable, so therefore I now rarely lose any big pots to him, get free cards to draw to my straights and flushes, and can often bluff him on the river.

But, as you say, never try to bluff him on the flop. because with top pair he will probably just flat call, and you may be wasting your money, and since he will call with any two cards, you can never tell if he has two pairs. The only time you might want to bluff on the flop is when you have a really strong draw like a staight flush draw with overcards, and you want to get more money into the pot. In this case you want him to call your bet.

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29

I prefer to vary how I play hands like AK and AQ. Obviously if you are up against one opponent, and neither of you flop a pair, you will have the lead and be in position to continuation bet, but if you are up against a pocket pair who has called your large raise preflop, he can see that your two high cards have missed, and the question for him is whether you have an uber pocket pair or not.

Therefore it behooves one to play superior preflop hands in a variety of ways and to calibrate your raises according to the blind size and stack sizes at your table so that your opponents can never be sure what you have.

Sometimes I will limp in with AK early in tournaments if I am big-stacked, because that disguised the hand, and when you flop two pairs no one expects it.

However in general, early in tournaments I will rarely limp preflop, limping gives you no information about what your opponent holds, and many pots where everyone else folds and you pick up the blinds will be lost.

Limping in just gives the SB and BB a chance to play back at you with trash hands, whereas if you raise preflop, they have to make a conscious decision to enter the pot.

If you are in the Big Blind, it is essential to raise if you have a playable hand and have been limped to, because your opponents range is capped and your raise sets up all kinds of possibly bluffs after the flop. In particular if the Button limps at you, it is good to raise, because that takes away his chances of taking the pot at the flop with a continuation bet.

Later in tournaments as the blinds rise, every hand you play puts you in great jeopardy, so it is better to tighten up and steal blinds preflop as much as possible, and avoid calling preflop raises with unpaired hands lower than AK, unless you are planning to take the pot away with a check-raise bluff on the flop if the flop looks poor for hands with two face cards.

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You can play poorly in a hundred ways and still do well if you play less poorly than most of the rest of the field. That you are describing a kind of pre-flop play that almost every book and pro urge people to avoid, does not mean that you are doing worse than the other players even on that front, especially in a low stakes play money tournament.

Raising more than AA-QQ pre-flop is not enough to get into LAG territory. On the button first to act, I’m generally raising any pair, any ace, K8+, Q9+, J9+, T8+, 98, any suited king or queen, J5s+, T6s+, 96s+, 85s+, 75s+, 64s+, 63s+, 54s, and occasionally a small number of other hands. I think that also is not LAG play, but being fairly tight (you should watch gamergirl or Ryan if you want to see how that contrasts with true LAG play).

It’s a play money site, and we’re playing to have fun. In that context, do what you enjoy. I just don’t think almost never raising pre-flop is good advise to those hoping to improve their games, and I don’t think it is a strategy I’ve ever heard recommended by professional players.

Ahhh… almost missed this part…

I suppose if you are the Muhammad Ali of poker, then never mind all of the books and pros. Guess that is it for me raising pre-flop any more.

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You come play a low stakes SNG with me and you’ll be one of the first people to go bust if you raise hands like that :rofl:. Raising with trash hands that have little equity at stakes where people don’t respect raises is no bueno. They’ll just call you down and you’ll lose the majority of the time.

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Raise me with those trash hands and see what happens.

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Like I said if you think I’m “weak and average” come play me at an SNG.

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I never said raising only QQ+ is LAG - I said I played LAG and won a tourney with that style last week (different from the style I normally play) but it’s higher variance - when I played LAG - I raised any pair, any two Broadway cards, and any suited ace. When you’re running well like I was then you build a huge stack but if you’re not you just bleed chips.

Pro’s and books also said you should never leave yourself vulnerable on the ropes - Ali didn’t follow that advice and whooped Foreman as a result.

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Look, you’re not quite enough of a reason for me to play other than where I’ve climbed to. Come up to my tables some day if you’d like to establish the dominance of your strategy.

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When you play pokerking3344 you’ll know you’re playing THE GREATEST :goat:

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Paper champs are always running scared!

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Fortune favors the brave !!!

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:rofl:

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