I don’t want to actually know the secret strategy you keep to yourself exclusively that helps you in your poker quests. I just want to know if you have a secret. I’m curious to know how many of us hold on to a private strategy (or protocol or sequence of cards or whatever else) that no amount of begging could convince us to share. And if you do have a secret, how often do you use it?
Yes I do have a secret! I use it every day. I visualise certain players I play regularly with (no names as this is after all a secret) and imagine them as they are in real life! Are the silent ones garrulous at home, are the aggressive ones actually quiet as mice at home. Does he/she look anything like their avatar? All helps to keep my attention focused on the table at that halfway stage in a MTT!
I look a whole lot like my avatar. Of course, I bluff a lot, too (but, that’s a secret–don’t tell).
I don’t have any secret strategies. If I did though, no amount of begging would make me reveal it. I detest begging and would never reward anyone showing such weakness.
On the other hand, if you did the pouty eyes and quivering lower lip thing, I would blurt it out in a second. I can usually resist the hands on hips, toe tapping, blowing your hair out of your eyes thing, but the pouty eye/quivering lip thing gets me every time!
grape, that’s wonderful. I’d gladly give you more stars for that but the system won’t let me.
This is a picture of pure power!
There’s a lot a try to hide from strong players… part of the reason I don’t usually show my cards, whether bluffs or value, but I don’t think any of it amounts to secrets, I just want them to have less information about the ranges I’m using for various moves.
The secret is to keep it secret…
yes i have a secret and they going to stay with me for now 
Yeah the secret is people here aren’t any good. I played for an hour at a table as tight as you can and when I finally flopped a set of Aces I just bet reasonably after a min raise pre-flop (something I hadn’t done much of at that table) to let them know I have an ace and I’m taking the pot down unless they want to give me more and guy comes back all in turns out had K4 off didn’t pair either no flush or straight draw. Just mindless - and as I say this was like an hour into a tourney! Gone.
So here at least I don’t worry about my ranges or what anyone thinks because so few do. I don’t bluff - like out of 10,000 hands I might make a major bluff 3 times. But it doesn’t matter because every time I bet, multiple people are going to call and if that happens all tourney eventually someone’s gonna hit runner runner and bust you. So you have to play accordingly. Most of my major stacks are built without making a bet, just calling, lol. And obviously I assume everyone I’m playing against is a replay bot just trying to clear the table - that helps a lot.
So it sounds like someone gifted you some chips. You didn’t mention how you finished in the tournament. Top five?
I don’t have a secret. One of the best things I’ve realized is that bad beats don’t matter. If you played well and the variance croaks you just play the next hand. It works out eventually.
Well spoken, Bugi202–hear hear!
My secret for multi-table tournaments is to get a large stack early on, then play plenty of hands, but be prepared to fold on the flop if it looks bad. If you flop third pair on the flop and there are three other hands in the pot, you probably do not have the best hand, and even if you do, most likely you will not end up with the best hand.
I had a lot going on in my life over the last few months and as a result my poker form deteriorated. I had peaked at just over 200 million chips,but had gradually slumped to about 170 million chips, although some of this was due to hastily playing two or three 5-million chip entry tournaments when I was not really concentrating.
However, over the last couple of weeks I have won back nearly all the lost chips, and won a tournament tonight for 14 million. I was particularly pleased because early on a table bully had a massive stack of 58,000 chips while I only had 4000, but he was steadily cut down to size and on the final table I had the pleasure of eliminating him.
Here is one of my favorite hands from that tournament, that saved my bacon when I was heading for the exit.
When you flop a flush it is often hard to get paid off. The biggest mistake players make on RP, I think, is to bet too much when they have a great hand, and fail to get paid.
The same goes for AK. If you raise high preflop, you are often telegraphing your hand to opponents, so I will often limp, or limp call this hand if an opponent raises, and look for a good flop, because if you do hit top pair on the flop, it is rare that opponents will suspect that you have AK and you may have a chance to stack them after checking the flop.
If you raise high with AK preflop, especially early on in a tournament, and miss the flop, then you are a sitting duck for an opponent who calls from the blinds. However, if opponent checks back to you and you take a stab at the pot, you will often have to commit a large part of your stack and become pot committed.
With a big stack I will often raise from late position even with very mediocre hands, because when the flop comes K66, no one will believe you have K6. Anyway, if opponents know you might raise with anything, then they know that post flop they can never be sure what you have.
So I don’t know if I have revealed a secret here, but I guess what I am saying is that you want to win big pots and lose small ones, which means being aware of the pot size relative to size of all the stacks preflop.
This really makes a difference in building a large stack. It is no good winning pots if you don’t win chips.
I don’t know if these really count as secrets but these are things I do that I notice most people dont do a whole lot. Sometimes, when it folds to me on the button I’ll just raise whatever hand I have just because I have position and I think I can outmanuever my opponents in the blinds postflop. I sometimes even raise all in with any two cards if it folds to me in the sb or even the button if I’m short. Also when there are a lot of limpers in a pot and I have like 10 bb and an okay hand like A8 off or something like that I go all in because the hands that people are limping with are not the hands they are calling an all in with and with all the extra money in the pot I find my stack almost doubles when everyone folds (which they do like half the time) Again I don’t know if these are secrets, but they are strategies that seem to work and I don’t see a lot of people doing them.
No, you are absolutely right. They are not secrets, but always be aware of position, stack size,and observe how your opponents are playing. The only problem with playing in tournaments at the lower levels is that many players with a hand like 22 limped from under the gun will call any raise, regardless, and so if you have A8, you will be a slight underdog to them, but if they were rational they would probably fold unless they were short stacked and needed a double up or nothing.
I was playing last night and a player shoved with KJ of spades, I called with AA including the A of spades, and he scored a spade flush and took the pot. However, my stack was bigger and I still won the tournament in the end.
It is very hard to fold AA preflop, because you know opponent must make minimum of 2 pair to win the hand. Does anybody ever do that, even top players?
Believe it or not there are times where foldings aces pre is right. You can fold aces pre is in a satellite near the bubble where you are just better off sitting on your chips because there is no first place and making the money becomes much more important than making chips. You can also fold if you have less than One BB in a tournament and you are one away from the money. The final situation is when your at the final table and there are a lot of ICM implications. If you are a small stack and multiple big stacks are all in (probably at least three if you want to fold aces) you can fold aces so that you are guaranteed a pay jump. Even though any hand can suckout on aces, aces is always a favorite preflop so folding is almost never the correct play except in the situations above. I have never folded aces pre because those situations are so rare.
Here’s another not very secret secret.
Early in a tournament, if I am up against players I do not know, I try to guess what their approximate ranking is based on their play. This helps me to remember what to expect from them. If they are in the top 500, expect them to be more devious than the player outside of the top 2000. Many lower ranked players will automatically call a large bet on the flop if they have top pair, and will keep on calling on later streets when they are drawing dead, so you may be able to win large pots from them.
