Question about Tournament play

[Spyder]

As I noted by my post below, I've now played in two tournaments and have signed up for another tonight. On my very first (No-Limit) tournament last week I found that I was floundering with one BIG question:

How much do I raise?

As mentioned in a few of the popular books, there are a few reasons to raise a pot: To get money in the pot; To knock people out of the pot; and, to gain information.

How much should I raise the pot (in terms of big bets or percentage of the pot) to achieve those results?

Going All-in is a concept that I understand and am working on, so, I don't want to address that here yet. I just need to know how much to raise when I want to raise the pot.

Spyder

[LetsRock]

If you want a call, raise so that possible drawing hands still have correct odds to call (assuming your hand is big enough to cover their hand if they hit).

If you don't want a call, raise enough to kill any odds for draws. If they call they're making a mistake. Take into consideration that they may call anyway - can your stack handle this isze of a raise if they might call?

(You'll get more responses in the tourney forum BTW)

[Spyder]

Ok, lets say I have AA and am UTG...what am I attempting to do, and, how would/should I go about it?

Lets say I have AA and am on the button with 3 limpers ahead of me. Now what?

Now try JJ in both positions.

Now try AKo.

AQs?

TT?

I appreciate anything you can say, thanks /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Spyder

[jedi]

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, lets say I have AA and am UTG...what am I attempting to do, and, how would/should I go about it?

Lets say I have AA and am on the button with 3 limpers ahead of me. Now what?

Now try JJ in both positions.

Now try AKo.

AQs?

TT?

I appreciate anything you can say, thanks /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Spyder


[/ QUOTE ]

In general, think about what your opponents are like. It's considered a mortal sin here to NOT raise with AA, but if you have somewhat agressive opponents and you're UTG with AA, you might want to limp in hoping someone raises so that you can pop it right back. On the button, you're defintely going to have to raise. A pot sized bet is generally a good raise. A mini-raise just invites people to stick around.

With the others, again it depends on opponents. I might not even want to limp with AQs UTG against good, agressive opponents because you don't know what's going to happen behind you and you're out of position for the rest of the hand.

[LetsRock]

Well like jedi said, there's a lot of variables that go into these decisions. It depends on:

How early is it in the tourney?
How big is your stack? (can you take a chance or do you need to double up NOW?)
Who is my opposition?
Is it a multi or SNG?

There's no simple blanket answer. You need to consider each situation and determine - do I want a call or do I want to take this pot right now?

If my hand is really strong and my stack is very big, I'm more likely to look for the call so I can get a big score out of my hand. If I can't take the heat (getting outdrawn) or my stack is avg (or worse) then I'm more likely to try to take the pot right now (no calls).

There are very few blanket decsions in poker - it's all about making decisions on the fly and figuring out which angle is best for a particular situation. You might make the "correct" decision and lose anyway, but at least you made the right decision - that's poker.

[James Boston]

I'm not trying to cop out here, but there's no clear cut answer. There are just too many variables. If you want callers, make your raise small enough to entice them. If you're trying to protect a hand, make your raise considerably larger. In the smaller buy in online tournaments, protecting hands becomes a problem. Your opponents are not as likely to protect their stacks and they're also not aware of the trouble they put themselves in by calling large raises. Even though the is +EV for you, it can make for some really bad beats that can end your tournament fairly early. Other than that, here are a few of my personel NL guidelines. Take them for whatever you think they're worth.

1) Small-medium pocket pairs are more likely to win unimproved if you make seeing the flop very expensive. If called or re-raised, proceed with caution.

2) Suited connectors lose most of the value they have in limit. Only play them under very favorable conditions, and don't invest too much into them.

3) Play group 1 and 2 hands very aggressively. They can usually hold up against an aggressive opponent.

I know that's probably too vague and general, but maybe it will help.

[Spyder]

No, it was great information, thank you /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Spyder