RePost: No-limit Drill

I don't know why, but my post below was cut-off. Here it is again.


THE NO-LIMIT DRILL:

Buy into a small buy-in NLHE tournament and play in the following manner: Do not look at your cards preflop. Observe everything at the table EXCEPT your hand and decide if you can win the blinds/pot with a raise. If you think you can, then raise. After the flop, again assess whether or not a bet or raise will win the pot and act accordingly. If you decide you can't win the pot by betting alone, then look at your cards before folding to make sure you don't accidentally throw away the nuts. This drill will help you improve your ability to read players and stay in tune with the flow and tempo of the table. You will start to notice minute details about your opponents' behavior and become much better at perceiving when you can steal a pot. Of course, don't let your opponents know what you are doing.


You will be surprised at your results... both with how you do in a "drill" tournament and more importantly, how you do in subsequent tournaments.


Until now I have not been able to put a finger on why the drill worked so well. I now realize that getting an opponent to fold is more significant an event than many people realize. Whether or not they are folding to your bluff or folding to your value bet is not nearly as important as the mere fact that they are folding. Sharpening your ability to detect opportunities to win uncontested pots is the most important skill you can learn in NLHE, I believe.


I encourage anyone interested to give it a try and post your results. I have a feeling this tool is more powerful than I first thought.


Craig H.

Craig,


I think you posted something like this last year when you played a tournament. It's a good point.


In a small no limit tournament the players give off lots of tells. So, I agree with you to a point.


In my opinion, the best thing to do is don't look at your cards until it is your turn. Quite often you can tell who has a hand, just by the way they behave. Furthermore, look at the blinds and work your way counterclockwise. But, you should still look to see if you want to call or raise. You could miss an opportunity to trick someone out of their stack.


In the higher buy-in tournaments it's not as effective.


Good Luck


Mark