How many times have you played in a poker tournament only to find yourself not getting any cards and being forced to watch your stack shrink slowly as the blinds and antes crank up? This is one of the toughest things to deal with as a poker player. You sit there, folding hand after hand, while the guy three seats to your right plays almost every hand and sees his stack triple. You are thinking this guy is a card rack and are jealous of his good fortune. What you don’t realise is that he’s only had good hands 30% of the time. The rest of the time he’s been using various concepts based on his understanding of his opponents and his position at the table to pick up chips. He’s not relying on his cards to pick up chips; he’s relying on his opponents’ weaknesses and mistakes.
Planning and execution
There are numerous moves you can make in a poker tournament to help build your chipstack. Some of them will rely on your opponent’s inherent weakness. Others will rely on your position. In some situations, you’ll be representing a hand you don’t have by playing it the way you would if you had an actual hand.
When you are going to use a move, it is important to do two things. First, you must ensure that the move makes sense. That is, it must be believable to your opponent according to your tendencies and the way the hand plays out. If your actions don’t add up, your opponent is likely to pick you off and you’ll lose even more of that precious stack. Second, you must make the move against a player who is capable of falling for it. Too many players make the mistake of trying to make a move at the wrong time, such as when a player is pot-committed or against a calling station. Find the right opponent and the right situation and then pull the trigger – regardless of what cards you hold.
Preflop moves
Here are a few more creative plays you can add to your game when things aren’t going your way, or even if you just want to turn the screw on your table…
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The ‘represent the slow-played big pair’ move
With this move you are trying to represent that you have a big pocket pair. Typically the way this best works is to limp in early position and if it is raised before it gets back to you, re-raise as if you had limped in with pocket Aces or Kings. The move only works if there is one raise. Don’t make the mistake of doing it when the pot has been raised and re-raised before it gets back to you.
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The ‘punishing limpers using position’ move
If you are at a passive table that is limping in a lot and have established a tight image, you can pick up a nice-sized pot by making a large raise from late position or the blinds with a marginal hand. Make sure you make the same kind of raise that you would with a legitimate hand.
This move has become extremely popular and well publicised in recent times, so be careful of overusing it lest you get picked off by a smart, observant player. The squeeze play takes place when there has been a raise and a call of that raise before it gets to you. The reason this move works is that the flat-caller usually doesn’t have a good enough hand to withstand a re-raise. If they did, they would have made the re-raise themselves. The initial raiser has to worry about what the flat-caller will do, thus they are in a bad position as well.
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The ‘you aren’t stealing my blinds re-steal’ move
If a player has raised from late position on your big blind, this can be a perfect opportunity to pick up some chips. It’s most likely that they are stealing and will fold to a good-sized re-raise. However, you need to be careful that the person making the initial raise is not super-tight or the type of player who is capable of coming back over the top of you with air.
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The ‘I’m a maniac but I’m really not’ move
This play is a bit harder to pull off than the others because it requires you establish an image as a maniac. Basically the way it works is that you open-raise or re-raise several times over the course or an orbit or two. You aren’t necessarily looking to win these pots although you probably will. What you are doing is setting up an image as a loose, aggressive maniac, after which you adjust your game and tighten up. Then, the next time you raise or re-raise with a legitimate hand, you’ll be more likely to get played back at.
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The ‘I’m weak, but not really’ move
This move is basically the opposite of the above move. You limp in with a wide range of weakish hands like small pairs and suited connectors and fold whenever it is raised. Basically, you are trying to establish that when you are limping, you are limping in with bad hands and will fold to a raise. Then when you get a legitimate hand, you do the same thing and limp in, hoping that someone takes the bait and raises. If they do, you’ll likely pick up the pot, as they are probably attacking your perceived weakness with any two cards.
Post-flop moves
The best weapon you can use in making a post-flop move is the power of position. Here are some plays you can employ on the flop to help you pick up chips without legitimate hands…
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Representing a dry board in an unraised pot
How many times have you completed the small blind or checked the big blind and seen a flop like 8-5-3, only to check-fold to the button limper? Most of the time it’s very unlikely this flop has hit the button, and they are simply taking advantage of their position. So why not represent the flop? A ragged flop is more likely to hit a random blind hand than it is someone who has voluntarily put chips into the pot, and this move aggressively takes advantage of that fact.
There are two ways to deploy this move: leading out and check-raising. Leading out is the more cost-effective approach, because if your opponent raises you, you can let the hand go easily without a significant loss. However, the problem here is that your opponent might take advantage of your positional disadvantage and float you to see what you do on the turn. You can take this option away from them by check-raising. Check-raising will cost more in chips if your opponent has a legitimate hand but it will also make it much harder for your opponent to proceed because you are representing true strength.
This is another popular move that is being used a lot lately, so be judicious in applying it. The way this move works is that you call a bet on the flop in position in order to take the pot away from your foe on the turn. When your opponent checks to you on the turn, they are most often telling you they no longer like their hand and are giving you an opportunity to take the pot away from them.
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Representing a scare card
This one’s a bit harder to pull off and can be expensive because it requires calling a bet in the hope that a certain card arrives. For example, let’s say the flop comes with a straight and flush draw and you feel your opponent has something along the lines of top pair. You don’t think you can use the float move successfully, but if a sufficiently scary card comes you could represent a big hand and induce a fold. If that straight card or flush card comes, you bet or even raise, telling your opponent that you hit your hand. Often you can get an opponent to lay down a legitimate hand in this situation. Just don’t make this move against an opponent who has shown they can’t fold if they have a piece of the flop!