There are things you must be aware of in order to do well in these types of tournament. Having a solid grasp of poker strategy will help you gain big stacks during the initial period of the tournament where the chips really do fly around.

During the Re-Buy Period

The action is fast and furious during the re-buy period. As players can buy back in there is less risk with pushing a marginal hand. Your range for making pre-flop raises should either be widened or tightened depending on your own plans for the tournament. If you are one of the crazy re-buying players then you can widen your range of starting hands and go for the double up that will earn you a large stack.

With many opponents playing loose at this point there are plenty chips to be won. With a starting stack of $1,500 players can aim to increase that to $8,000 or more if they are lucky enough to get good hands. Raises by your opponents should mean less and you will see large pots in relation to the smaller blinds more often as the aggression is the either win or re-buy.

That said, many players have won re-buy tournaments having never had to re-buy playing tight in this stage of the tournament and picking off other players bad moves. You should play these tournaments, however, with a willingness to re-buy at least once or twice to take into account the ferocity of play in the early stages.

After the Re-buy Period

Immediately after the re-buy period ends you should see an immediate relaxing of intensity in the way the poker tournament is played. Players now have the added pressure of potentially being eliminated so they must be more careful before risking their stack. You need to make that adjustment also in that the raising range will instantly become more in line with the normal expectations in relation to the blinds like you would see in a freezeout poker tournament.

There will be some less experienced poker tournament players that have gotten on a roll during the re-buy period and will still be pounding the pot and be raising aggressively. It is probably best to avoid these players without a very strong hand. Their range is probably quite wide and they are using a poker strategy that as soon as the rebuy period ended was a mistake. This makes them attractive as a weak player but also dangerous because they are creating big pots.

The key re-buy poker tournament concept to bear in mind is that once re-buys end it becomes a freezeout tournament played in freezeout conditions. Some players will have huge stacks that you might not see in a freezeout but they will normally go quiet for a few levels sitting on their lead. These entertaining tournaments can have big prize pools because of the frenzied re-buying that takes place early on in the tournament.

This makes re-buy poker tournaments fun to play in and potentially lucrative!

By Malcolm Clarke

The following advice is relevant to any weekly casino event that is not a large buy-in, although much will be the same no matter what the buy-in is.

Arriving at the Casino

Bring ID with you when you arrive at the casino, especially if it is your first visit. Some of the modern casinos do not require written membership but you will have to prove you are over the legal age to play, particularly if you look young! Once you have given your details if you need to access you can access the casino floor. Usually the poker room is situated at the back of the casino, meaning you will need to navigate through the games room to find it. Casinos do this because they want to tempt you with roulette, blackjack and craps before you sit down to play poker!

Poker Etiquette

At the poker table in a low buy-in event there is not the level of intensity of a WSOP tournament. Most players take the game seriously but are there mainly to have a good time. Aggressively table talk like Tony G is not suitable and you should not splash the pot or go any further than light-hearted banter. As much as players would like to think otherwise, poker is primarily a social activity in less than $50 buy-in events although you should play to win at all times.

Sunglasses and iPods are usually banned for low limit events in casinos as they try and promote a good social experience rather than intensive life or death poker. You can still play hard, but please remain in the confines of the house rules.

Sitting Down

When you first enter the tournament you will be given a number. This is displayed on the big screen which shows your table and seat number. This will be random and it is important you sit where you are supposed to. Take your seat, get a feel for your chips and re-arrange them as you like. Count your chips so you know exactly what the configuration of your stack is. Get into the mindset of winning and plan your strategy. It is time to play.

Playing Your First Hand

When you are dealt your cards, look at your cards after you have watched the reaction of the other players looking at their cards as many players give away the strength of their hand in their immediate reactions after looking at their cards. Begin to immediately formulate opinions on opponent’s looseness or tightness. Unless you have AA, KK, QQ, JJ or AK I like to fold the opening hand as losing a pot straight away can make you feel like this is not your day and unsettle you. I will only play AQ as first person in with an unraised pot. From the first hand start forming the image you want to profit from later in the tournament.

If/When you Bust

Most casinos give you a card and you should pass this into the tournament desk usually situated at the periphery of the poker room before you leave the casino. This allows the casino to log your finishing position and assists the management of the poker tournament. You do not need to shake every player by the hand but I always say “good luck guys” and shake the hand of the player who busted me before I leave and that always makes me feel I’ve left in a nice way, even if I have taken a bad beat.

Remember to enjoy yourself too! If you have played lots of poker tournaments at bwin.com then you should be more than equipt to do well in a live poker setting.

By Malcolm Clarke

If you are a cash game player looking to cash in big in tournaments then you must forget about winning hands and focus on winning the tournament. Because most big hand confrontations result in a big pot, whilst you are focused on your amount of big blinds held in your stack your decisions must be about chipping up rather than winning chips. The fundamental difference to cash games is that the chips are not real money so the maximum amount you can lose is your tournament buy-in, and you must accumulate all of the chips to win the tournament rather than just ending play with more than you started with as you do in a cash game. The hands you are dealt will be the same in as in a Texas Hold’em poker cash game, but you will play them very differently.

Both the lack of time and limited losses regardless of your stack size means you can be slightly more speculative and willing to flip to win the tournament in 50/50 spots. This is where luck decides whether you get a big win or not. It is not wrong to take a 60/40 flip for a big finish in a poker tournament. That is how bracelets are won in WSOP events.

In a cash game, for example, you would never fold AA. In a tournament, however, you would have to consider folding if, with three players remaining in a large tournament, a player had a very small stack went all-in and was called with the blinds high. Your Aces are devalued against two players with the possibility of more action in later streets between you and the larger stack. You can move up a spot and go heads up if the larger stacked player wins the hand and retain all of your chips for the heads up battle. The extra chips he wins in this hand will not matter that much because you would still be behind in chips regardless. Many players would consider a fold here, but only if the prize they can win is extremely large for them in terms of their bankroll or personal net worth.

I play my tournaments on bwin.com and it is easy to get into a pattern of going all-in with decent hands in a desperate attempt to get lucky and earn some chips. Your tournament thinking must be extremely focused on learning about your opponents who you are sitting with. It is highly unlikely you will meet regular players in these massive fields enough that you will sit at a table and know most of them immediately. There is no shortcut for watching and observing closely. As I have said before if you reach a point where you have a decision to make and you are not sure about an opponent then you have not been watching closely enough.

Consider your tournament status each round when you get on the button. Do you need to chip up quickly? If you are short enough you may be looking for the right hand with which to shove, or the right person to re-raise off a hand. Look for spots where you can use your position to bully a player that is capable of folding from a hand. Sometimes they will shove and you will have to let go, but many times they will fold. Tournament poker is about learning about your opponents and squeezing chips from them. Your actual hand is not critical, because you must play weaker hands due to the time constraints a tournament puts on you. Waiting for premium hands only is not an option, unfortunately.

Think about what it is you need to achieve in the short term to remain above chip average. If you have a large stack you want to pick up blinds and only engage when you need to. Remember many players shove against a big stack hoping to flip for a double-up. If you are forced to flip for a proportion of your stack then do it with a very strong hand so you have an edge. I prefer slowing down with a big stack but always assess its size against other big stacks, blinds and tournament average.

Hopefully we will get to compete against each other on the bwin.com poker tables and I will rue the day I ever gave you this advice!

By Malcolm Clarke

This may further persuade you to prefer playing online poker to live poker where such things are disguised thanks to the automated way chips are counted, handled and stacked in online poker. But discussing how to stack chips to disguise your inexperience for live poker tournaments this article will help you in that spot where getting that bluff through means the difference between bubbling out and cashing for you. As you will be aware already, not appearing as a poker novice gives you an edge on the competition and you can look novice if your chip stack is disorganised and not stacked in a professional way.

Remember when players do not know who you are they must look for anything to help them classify you. You could be a top professional online player that no-one has seen live or you could be a lucky fish who is dead money and it is a race for your opponents to get your chips before you bust out.

Chips need to be stacked and you cannot leave them in a big pile to disguise your chip stack size. Some players play with their stacks and create mini towers to alleviate the boredom between hands. Providing they are stacked in such a way where you can quickly count your chips and know where you are in terms of stack size at all times you are heading in the right direction. As the blinds go up in a poker tournament knowing your exact amount of “M’s” or big bets is important in knowing whether to call, raise or simply shove all-in.

My personal preference is stacking them like pool balls in a rack. For example, if I have $1.5 million chips I would stack them in stacks of $100,000 so ten of them would be in a large triangle. I know straight away that is $1 million chips. The rest of the chips would be stacked in similar round number amounts so I can quickly count them up. Any chips left over from the round numbers I keep together in a small stack that I either shuffle or sit on top of the chip towers so I can either use them to bet with or count separately. Quickly counting your stack makes you look in control and experienced.

Juan Carlos Mortensen, the 2001 World Series of Poker Main Event winner, is known for very elaborate chip stacks that when he has a large stack look like minor works of art. This reflects Mortensen’s very create mind and his style of poker reflects this. John Juanda, on the other hand, likes to keep his chips in a straight line. It is no co-incidence that his poker playing is very organised, solid and well thought out. What clues do you give away about your own play in your chip stack?

Only a very observant and good poker player will look at your stack and make assumptions about your poker game, but remember that these quality players are the ones we need to shield information from most of all. Stack you chips carefully, always know how many chips you have and change up your style of stacking if any player mentions that you stack a certain way. Keep your opponents guessing at all times during any poker cash game or tournament.

By Malcolm Clarke

The hand is as follows. $30,000 starting stacks with blinds 50/100. Barry raises to 300 and Trickett calls with 5h-3h. Flop is 2s-4h-9c. Greenstein continuation bets 450 and Trickett calls (Barry likes to c-bet). The turn is 6s making Tricketts straight. Greenstein checks, Trickett bets 800 and Barry re-raises to 2100. Trickett raises again to 6000 and Barry calls. River is 2c and Barry checks. What do you do as Trickett now that Barry has checked?

In my email response to the magazine which I hope earns me the set of chips as the prize winning entry I said that Trickett must check. I will describe below why I feel this way.

Greenstein is a tight player. The pre-flop action is not surprising but from middle position Greenstein is likely to hold something reasonable. I agree with Tricketts line that Greenstein would continuation bet a lot of the time so calling to the turn is fine. If we miss on the turn we can fold to a bet or take a free card to the river.

The turn card is 6s, giving us our straight. Barry checks so Trickett bets 800 expecting to take down the pot. Barry’s check raise is significant; he probably has something now, maybe a pocket pair like tens, jacks or better. But would he have checked with these hands on the flop hoping to check raise straight away? Possibly. Barry re-raise and then calling of Tricketts raise is the clearest indication yet of the strength of Barry’s hand. The flat call pre-flop by Trickett could have resulted in Sam hitting a set yet Barry re-raises anyway. Barry is out of position and betting so big suggests to me Barry flopped his set and is hoping Sam holds an overpair. I would suggest Barry has 44 at this point. Sam is happy building the pot with his hidden straight providing the board does not pair.

The river 2c pairs the board and Barry would now have the boat (full house). Barry checks to Trickett. This all but guarantees he has the best hand. Barry was the caller on the turn and would not call such a large amount to draw. He must have had the set already. The pairing of the board and then checking is giving Trickett rope to hang himself. Trickett must not bet into Greenstein who will probably check raise knowing he has the best hand. He is giving Trickett the chance to try and value bet because he knows he is safe no matter what and checking to showdown now is fine because it is so early in the poker tournament. Another reason for checking is that betting into Trickett completely gives away that despite all the dangers on the board he is still prepared to bet and therefore must have the full house betting into a double re-raiser out of position.

Checking also holds value for Trickett because the blinds are low enough to not bet at this point in the tournament. There will be spots where the action will give him the chance to value bet an opponent more likely to hold air than Barry Greenstein.

If I win the hand reading competition I will let you know. Comment below if you think that I have missed something or you see the hand differently. It is an interesting hand and if you do guess right what is going on congratulate yourself because many players would catch the straight and bet or die. Hopefully Trickett folded, if I am right in thinking Barry got a nice full house here.

By Malcolm Clarke

Hand History Reviews

This is a really powerful way to improve your poker game and something many players neglect. I should do more hand analysis sessions than I currently do. You can buy Poker Tracker for around $80 and this is a great investment for any player wanting to improve to the next level. You can configure the program to automatically put your hands into the program for analysis.

The program helps you see which hands you struggle to win and in which position, what hands are your most profitable and you can even replay the action in a specific hand to analyse how you could have played differently and if this would have been better or worse for your results. Reviewing hand histories is something only the serious poker players do and something recreational poker players should be doing.

Study Poker Strategy

Learning the required poker strategies to win in certain situations is paramount to your success. Rather than just playing your cards, learn to play your opponents. Read the poker books on spotting tells made by opponents that are written by the likes of Mike Caro and Joe Navarro, particularly if you play live poker. For online poker specialists, learn to multi-table and employ proper conservative bankroll management. If you have aspirations on becoming a professional poker player than doing this type of thing is a real step towards achieving your goal in poker.

Goal Setting & Planning

Take some time to write down everything you want to achieve in poker. Be realistic and practical. I would prefer to see players write “Win $5000 per month for the next six months” or “Play 2000 hands per day for the next month and show a profit” than “Win the WSOP Main Event”. But if this really is your goal then write it down. Think practically about making enough for a living and then start thinking about prestige achievements and raising your profile.

Next write down exactly where you are right now and devise a step by step plan for achieving the goals. Then go and do it. Each day check that you are attaining your goals and if you look after the small achievements then the bigger achievements will follow. You automatically become a more dedicated poker player and in turn the improvements in your poker game will be evident in your long term results.

All of the above techniques for taking poker more seriously should improve your level of poker play. Nothing comes easy and doing things the easy way is known as the easy way for a reason. Dedication requires effort, but it will be worth it when you start regularly beating the cash games and winning the bigger online poker tournaments. Your bankroll and lifestyle will thank you for the change you make from being a recreational poker enthusiast to serious poker player.

By Malcolm Clarke

How many times can I write an article about how I called an all-in bet against an opponent on the flop and was hopelessly behind because I did not believe what the betting was telling me before learning my lesson? I learned that the bets people make are generally true and that normally people do not give their chips away. If they bet strong they usually are strong. I wrote on my poker blog that “hero calls are only so if opponents are being tricky. Hero calls become zero calls instantly when they show you the nuts”. It helped clarify my thinking and helped me from being tempted when a tough decision arose. I remember the phrase in that situation and that extra few seconds of thought often prevents a big mistake.

Poker blogging is a good way to look at the game from a different perspective and helps to keep that perspective when poker can become a little immersive. Writing good quality posts requires you to research the poker scene and in doing so you will note that other players struggle with different elements of online poker and that you are not alone. This will keep you positive and give you the best chances of quickly emerging from a downswing. Of course when things are going well you are fine and there is nothing to worry about. Many players feel the response to a bad period of online poker is what separates the good players from the truly great winners.

When you are doing your hand analysis you can check down your lists of named and shamed mistakes and that acts as a refresher just in case the urge to repeat a mistake occurs. With the mistakes you often make fresh in your mind that instantly brings you to a higher level of online poker, whether that be in an online poker tournament or cash game. You can also see what type of error you repeat the most thus focusing your attention on the areas of your poker game that need the most work and improvement.

If you do not feel like running an online poker blog is for you keep detailed notes instead and show them to your friends. You will learn to think before repeating an error to avoid being mocked. My own mistake of overplaying AJ early in an online poker tournament was berated repeatedly by my professional poker friend, it was hard to hear because I knew he was right and I was wrong. I now instantly fold the hand early in a poker tournament remembering his criticism. This has stopped me busting numerous times and I know there are many other lessons I have still to learn, all of which will improve my poker game.

To improve your poker game you must swallow your ego and accept that improvement can be made by every poker player who has ever touched a chip. Unless you are a millionaire many times over from playing online poker you have plenty to improve on and plenty to master. Even Durrrr has things he could do better, so lets get to work.

By Malcolm Clarke

Deeb is such a large volume poker player in the tournaments that he admits that he is aiming to play 10,000 online poker tournaments per year. Most of these will be Sit and go poker tournaments.
New players would be a significant loser at the tables if they tried to emulate his multi tabling of the MTTs but with practise (a lot of it) Shaun has mastered the techniques needed and shows a good profit whilst playing at his high level of volume. He recommends players take baby steps and they can make the grade.

Deeb is constantly in the running for the online player of the year titles, which requires large playing volume to be played to stay in contention. He has said that he runs between ten and twenty tournament tables at once and plays nearly every tournament on Pokerstars, his site of choice, to help him gain the necessary points to remain on top in the online poker races. This massive amount of experience should stand him in good stead as now that he has turned to the live poker scene to increase his profile and capture a WSOP bracelet to go with his numerous online plaudits.

Shaun’s attempts at crushing the live poker scene have not gone as smoothly as many players suggested after his online dominance. He played at the WSOP in 2007 and whilst he cashed three times he did not make it to the final table in any of the events. He did not play the WSOP in 2008 preferring to concentrate on his online play but made a return in 2009 and posted five cashes but again no final table appearance. On August 6th 2009 he won the EPT High Rollers Event for $86,000 and has other small cashes and wins in his fledgling live poker career.

His online wins are far more impressive. He has won the Sunday Warm up in 2008 for over $100,000. He won the Tuesday tournament at Stars for $81,000 and the big tournament on Full Tilt that takes place on a Monday for $84,000. He also won a WCOOP bracelet in 2008. Deeb is prone to berating opponents on the chat and has alluded to being prone to tilting which has affected his results. Deeb attributes his ability to profit from online poker to the 180 man Sit and Go poker tournaments which he plays on a regular basis and has profited very well from them.

Deeb is an excellent example of someone who plays a discipline of the game that he knows he can profit from and rolls out this opportunity to the max to bring in lots of profit. He then invests this money into bigger online tournaments and uses his sharpened skills to look for the big prize payouts by capturing one of these big events. So far, this strategy has paid off for him as he has over $600,000 in live cashes and well over $2 million online. Due to his lack of volume in live events (he is not a regular on the circuit) we have not seen the best of Deeb yet. Most poker experts consider it only a matter of time before Shaun takes down a big event and earns the reputation in live events that he enjoys online, where he is one of the most experienced and feared players on the virtual tables.

By Malcolm Clarke