Here’s part one of a two part poker article by Annette Oberstad (Annette_15). We thought we’d share it as we’ve recently seen some excellent live televised tournament coverage showing just how aggressive Annette can be. Whoa! Mad Woman?

How to win a poker tournament without looking at your cards…

Armed with just a single Post-it not and a Jedi-like prescience, Annette_15 famously won a $4, 180-player tournament without looking at her cards. Playing cheap tournaments blind can be a great way of honing your instincts and situational awareness. Here’s some invaluable advice from Norway’s foremost diminutive poker diva.

The Early Stages

You don’t want to be playing big pots in the early stages of the tournament because the stacks are so deep that people aren’t going to be putting chips in the pot unless they have a good hand. Instead, you have to figure out who the bad players are, because those are the people you’ll want to be taking the chips from later. So if you see people limping into every pot, you’re going to be isolating and bullying them when you have position, trying to take down the pots – pre-flop if they fold, and post-flop if they call. That’s the main thing you want to be looking at early on.

Peek-a-boo!

OK, so I peeked at my cards once. It was pretty early on in the tournament. A short stack called my raise and shoved all-in after my continuation bet on the flop. There were three clubs on the flop and I was getting pretty good odds, so I decided that if I had a club, I would call. I peeked, and sure enough, I did. I called and lost a big pot. So much for looking at your cards!

The Middle Bit

When the blinds start getting bigger, you want to start re-stealing if your stack is big enough. For instance, if you have 15 big blinds and the cut-off opens for 3 big blinds, you can just shove all-in because your opponent will fold a lot in that spot. If you get a little deeper, you can start re-raising people without having to go all-in – it really all depends on your stack size and how you feel your opponent is likely to play. Position is everything. If you’re not looking at your cards it’s pretty much the only tool you have. Youo can’t be opening under the gun with nine people to act behind you, because at least one of them is going to have a hand to play back at you.

End Game

Heads up is really tough – almost impossible. You can never call an all-in because you don’t know what you have – obviously. Plus your opponent will be playing at you really aggressively. It’s about always having the last punch. You have to be the one going all-in to give your opponent the opportunity to fold. Then you have to get lucky. When I won the tournament, I three-bet all-in on a ten-high flop and he bluff-called me with Queen-high and I had King-high. I was very lucky to have the best hand, but you don’t win a tournament playing blind without getting lucky.

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