You finally accumulated the big stack at your table in tournament play and you are sitting pretty with the biggest stack in the tournament just sitting there waiting for the action to start on your table. This is a position that very few players ever get in and you are sitting there with the possibility of being the biggest stack at the table or the coldest. But there is still one major problem. How are you going to get that stack out?

Receiving that call option from your big stack opponent when you have a big stack available is one of the worst situations that can happen to you. Even many pros cannot acquire that big stack without taking a lot of risk, and that is not what we are looking for in a tournament.

Many times a player will mistake sitting on the big stack as being the reason they are a big stack in tournaments. You do not want to be thought of as the guy sitting on the last of the big stacks because that tells everyone else you are playing pretty tight. D artifact this tells you weak hands may be coming your way and you are probably not as strong as you think.

The first thing you need to do is realize you are playing against a lot of inexperienced players. Very few players at your table really understand the concepts of working with short stacks and big stacks. Most players make the mistake at some point that they think the bigger stack is the best. That is not necessarily always true. In fact, the player that starts with the biggest stack can have the smallest chance at winning the tournament.

If you are not getting any action you may want to consider giving some of the smaller stacks a look. Most of the time they are playing really tight and if you happen to not have a great hand you can take them out in one hand.

Patience is one of the greatest tools that you can use in a Vodka138. You know the saying “Texas Hold’em takes 5 minutes to learn and a lifetime to master.”

You need to take the time to learn how to play each hand in poker tournaments. Sitting on your poker chips waiting for a great hand can be the equivalent of losing money in the long run. Learn the strategies of the game. After you finish off reading this section you should definitely play more hands as you will definitely need to if you want to increase your chances of winning.

Short Handed and MTT Play

Most players that are not familiar with these types of games are not going to think that they are playing poker. In fact, these types of games are exactly how you would play paper poker. There are no flops just a single card facing upwards and a community of cards.

In MTT play you want to play much more hands as you will frequently be able to enter the pot cheaply against your opponents raises. Playing your premium hands and drawing hands will allow you to do this.

It is very hard to win a tournament playing short handed. You really need to hit a premium hand to heavily increase your chances of winning.

First, remember that a 40% chance of winning means you have a 20% chance of losing if nobody has any AA or KK. The higher the cards, the less likely you are going to win. Therefore, you need to be sure that you are only playing strong starting hands when your up against other strong hands.

Unlike Hold’em, you are not going to see a lot of flops with these types of hands, so you want to be sure of both your pre-flop and flop cards. You also want to bet strong when you have a good hand. Your goal should be to intimidate your opponents into folding away their hands.

There are a few things you need to remember when playing short handed Texas Hold’em. For instance, you still need to have a strong hand to entry the pot. You can’t slow play a hand like 72 offsuit just hoping that you will get the right cards. You need to play your hand in a strong fashion.

Secondly, you don’t always need to have the best hand to win; you just need to have a stronger hand than your opponents. Many times you will see players make huge pre-flop bets with a hand like JQ or KQ against weaker hands. The reality is you will very rarely beat a hand that is weaker than you. Going into the flop with a strong hand discouraged many players from continuing to the next round.

The simple play in short handed Texas Hold’em is to loosen up your play when you are the favourite or are up. You want to punish the other players who are looking to steal the blinds. If you have a very strong hand, and you are in late position, you can raise very aggressively with no concern for your position.