Chain of action pre-flop in live tournaments.

[Yuv]

I have close to zero live poker experience. I've played a few cash games in Vegas this summer, where I played very passive and made some money by making good decision against bad players, but nothing close to a decent game.

I play with friends from time to time, but that is not really a serious game, usually played when everyone is wasted.

So basically, I have no clue. I'll probably post a few more questions by late December, to get ready for the PCA, but here's the first one : What do you do preflop?

It's the basic of the basic, but I really don't know. I'm only looking at my cards when it's my turn to play, right? So, what am I looking at, or for? Can I actually spot physical tells on someone on his preflop action?
More importent, what do I do when it's my turn to act? Say I'm in LP and someone opened for X3 BB from MP1. Do I make a range of hands to fold/call/raise before I look at the cards? If I have no live experience and very little chance to find physical tells and a much bigger chance of giving out some, wouldn't it be smarter to look at my cards before, so I won't have everyone staring at me?

It's all extremely newbie questions, but as I said, I'm a total internet donkey, trying to get ready fot a friggin WPT event, so help is very much needed.

[People_Mover]

I watch other people look at their cards. I don't look at my cards until it's my turn to act. Hopefully I'll pick up a read or two of the strength of the hands in front of me or behind me before I act. Sometimes you can see people take a deep breath before looking at their cards, then exhale in a way to know they have a sucky hand, or they look down, look up and around indicating a strong hand. Or sometimes they'll put a chip on top of their cards indicating that they are going to play the hand even though action is 5 seats ahead of them....No chip, no action from that person. Just little things like that are what I look for. Good luck!

[SossMan]

Some great questions.

My suggestion, which will likely be different than many others, would be to set up a 'preflop routine' similar to a preshot routine you see pro golfers use. Mine goes something like this:
cards get dealt to me
I look at cards quickly and memorize
I place my buddha card protector on top of the cards
I look at the players left to act before me
If there is time, and I'm planning on playing the hand, I concentrate (but not obviously) on the players to the left of me to see if they seem to be interested.
When it's on me, I act accordingly.

I think that the chance that you will give off tells when everyone is looking at you (if you wait until it's your turn) is greater than the benefit of the two seconds extra you get by looking at everyone else when the cards are dealt.

If I could give any advice, though, it's look left. Follow Caro's advice of almost anything faked is the opposite (unless it's super sappy obvious over the top, in which it's probably the truth). Concentrate on the few people to your left and maybe the guy or two to your right. These are the people that you are most likely to be playing against. Also, be sure to find out when your table is scheduled to break (approximately) to see if an image play would be worth anything.

good luck.

this might help.

[Firefly]

There was a good post pre-WSOP main event detailing stuff like this. I'll see if i can dig it up (or anyone else maybe can find it)

[Yuv]

[ QUOTE ]
this might help.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm a quick leaner, and after getting called for two string bets (both were the dealer's fault for not paying attention to my soft spoken "raise" announcement), I learned most of the cash game rules. My questions were on a slightly different subject.

[Yuv]

[ QUOTE ]
Some great questions.

My suggestion, which will likely be different than many others, would be to set up a 'preflop routine' similar to a preshot routine you see pro golfers use. Mine goes something like this:
cards get dealt to me
I look at cards quickly and memorize
I place my buddha card protector on top of the cards
I look at the players left to act before me
If there is time, and I'm planning on playing the hand, I concentrate (but not obviously) on the players to the left of me to see if they seem to be interested.
When it's on me, I act accordingly.

I think that the chance that you will give off tells when everyone is looking at you (if you wait until it's your turn) is greater than the benefit of the two seconds extra you get by looking at everyone else when the cards are dealt.

If I could give any advice, though, it's look left. Follow Caro's advice of almost anything faked is the opposite (unless it's super sappy obvious over the top, in which it's probably the truth). Concentrate on the few people to your left and maybe the guy or two to your right. These are the people that you are most likely to be playing against. Also, be sure to find out when your table is scheduled to break (approximately) to see if an image play would be worth anything.

good luck.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was looking for this exact answer, I must said. It scares the [censored] out of me to look at my cards when everyone is staring at me, I like your proposal alot better. Thanks.

[Yuv]

Follow up question - what do MOST people do preflop? Do they wait for there turn to look at the cards? If so, why am I looking to my left before my turn?

[ajizzle]

Haven't read the rest of the thread yet, so this may be just a lot of repeated stuff. But as a (essentially) first time live player, I would be more concerned with not giving off my own tells than picking up on other people's tells. This means preparing a routine for every hand, ever decision, everytime you are considering putting chips in the pot. Be aware of what you are doing with your hands, what you look at, breathing patterns, things like that. This is going to save you a lot more money, because as a novice live player, you just won't be able to pick up on the smaller subtlies of others' tells. They will be able to pick up on your's however.

[People_Mover]

because these are the people that will come over the top of you with the goods or the not so goods if they see you as strong or weak