Poker Tournaments – Tips For Beginners in Texas Hold em

If you are just starting out in the magnificent game known as Texas Hold em poker, and want to have a go at playing in some poker tournaments, here are a few pointers to help you.

First sit back and let the game come to you. How do you accomplish this you ask? It is simple, play very tight in the first few rounds and get to know your table and opponents. ie. betting patterns, type of cards they play, what hands are winning on the table.

Also, when starting out only play quality first hands like pocket pairs higher than 8’s Ace King, Ace queen, avoid playing hands like pocket fours ace rag, ten jack, and jack queen to name a few.

Another tip when playing poker tournaments, is to always lose with pride. There is no point in berating or belittling another player’s play this just makes you seem like a fool. Remember not everyone has the full knowledge of the game. A good hand to you might not be a good hand them and vice versa with bad hands.

Now on to the most important part of winning poker is calculating pot odds. What are pot odds you ask?

Pot odds are what most pro’s use to help in decision making processes. They are determined by calculating hand odds versus money in the pot.

For instance, you’re in a poker tournament, you’re playing heads up and your opponent holds ace queen off suit and you hold eight, nine of hearts. Now say there is 8000 chips in the pot and the flop comes seven, queen, three, with two hearts.

Your opponent leads out for 10k and you’re not sure what to do. Calculate the 9 remaining hearts time 4 (only on flop times by 4).this gives you about a 40% chance of hitting the hand.

Now since there is 18k in the pot and u need 2 call 10 you are getting better than 3/2 odds on your money so the right choice is to call. Now say the turn is a eight your opponent leads out for 25 thousand.

Now to recalculate your odds you would times your outs by 2. You have 14 outs (9 hearts, 2 eights, and 3 nines) so basically 30% chance of winning it on the river. There is now 53k in the pot what do you do.

This is very close so I would say call but odd wise it says fold. Why you ask? Because you’re almost a 3-1 underdog while only getting 2-1 on your money which in return marks a bad investment. But sometimes you just need 2 follow your gut and play off instincts.

Hopefully you will find my tips useful and look forward to seeing you at the poker tournaments tables soon.

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