Here’s Part Two of a poker article by Annette Oberstad (Annette_15). Here’s the link to Part One: Annette’s thoughts on how to win a poker tournament without looking at your cards…]

How to win a poker tournament looking at your cards…

Controversially, Annette sometimes plays tournaments while looking at her cards, although many think this gives her an unfair advantage. Here are some handy tips:

Don’t Overplay

Early on in a poke tournament you should be playing small pots in position with suited connectors, because those are the hands that crack big hands. You want to be able to crack Aces and Kings early on because players overplay those hands so horribly and you’re getting huge value.

Likewise, you mustn’t overplay your own big hands. The biggest mistake I see people making is overplaying Aces or Kings, or even A-K, early on. You don’t need to re-raise with A-K at the beginning of a tournament, because you’re going to be missing the flop and people will try to bluff you out – it’s just a really hard hand to play.

Be Selective

Players who don’t know how to play well post-flop commonly play too many hands and that gets them into trouble. They make small mistakes that cost them big later. If you call a raise with K-Q and the flop comes Queen-high, you’re going to lose a lot of chips to a raiser with kings. Usually it’s better to fold those hands pre-flop to raise. I’ll open-raise with K-Q but I usually won’t call with it. You don’t want to go broke with top pair.

I see so many players call from the small blind with A-J after position opens. It’s better to let those hands go when you’re out of position. Wait for a better spot. Even if you flop top pair; you don’t know where you are, and there are so many hands that can dominate you here. If you have position you can control the pot better.

Table Image

Pay close attention to table image. Because I’m known as being so aggressive, people play back at me hard. I can’t remember the last time I was deep in a tournament and didn’t get re-raised pre-flop! I’ve really had to tighten up my game.

Make the Transition

If you’re making the transition fro online poker to live, it’s important to continue playing your own game, just like you do on the Internet. Don’t worry too much about looking for “live tells”; they’re not that much a part of the live game. If you try too hard you’ll just confuse yourself. Sometimes I think I have a tell on a guy and I go with it and I’m totally wrong. It turns out he was actually drinking water because he was thirsty!

For more pro tips and poker comment check out the directory of tips from professional poker players here at PokerLabRat.com.

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