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Free Poker Tournaments – Building Pots With Big Hands
By Hikerpro | March 6, 2010
It is a common misconception that by playing your hand slower you will win more games. Sometimes this may be true, but in many cases it isn’t, especially when you have a big hand. I see slow playing happen so much more often than necessary when I am playing both live and free poker tournaments online but I think that playing a more simple tactic works better.
In my opinion it is pretty risky to play big hands slowly. First of all, you are pretty likely to be outdrawn by the other players, and more importantly slow playing is actually, in most cases, much less lucrative than playing a hand faster.
Better Betting
If you want to build a big pot with a big hand like a set, you need to be betting. You need to raise pre-flop, bet on the flop, bet on the turn, and fire your last bullet on the river. In other words, you want to gradually get all-in.
You may think you’ll scare away opponents with continuous betting, but this won’t be the case if they hold a reasonably strong hand. Big pots happen when a big hand runs into an even bigger hand. If your opponent folds before you get all your chips in the middle, it simply wasn’t meant to be.
What you don’t want to do is scare your opponents away with ridiculously large bets or raises. Nobody will call you if you bet $800 into an $80 pot. Nobody will call you if you raise it up to $1000 after an opening bet of $40. You want to keep your bets and raises small.
A good idea is to give this approach a go when playing free online poker and free poker tournaments. This way you can gain experience in this type of play without losing real money.
You want to convince your opponent that he or she may possess a strong enough hand to stay in the game. You want your opponent to make mistakes.
Keep your fellow players pot committed. Avoid betting big and announcing to the table that you have the best hand.
There is also a downside to not betting and just checking. Obviously, you can get outdrawn on. That’s a common concern.
However, checking also fails to build up the pot. You may eventually get your opponent to bet at you, but you he or she may just check behind-and thus, you’ll be losing some profit from winning one less bet.
Exceptions to the rule
There will be occasions when it is best to slow play. For example, it’s a smart move to slow play when you flop a royal flush, a straight flush, quads, a full house, the nut flush, or the nut straight. Those are very strong hands. There’s little chance to you’ll be beat. You want to give your opponent every chance possible to bet his second best hand.
When playing against aggressive or loose players then its worth playing slow, as they are likely to bet as players check. Make the most of their aggressive play.
Yet, in most cases, you do want to bet out or raise. You want to build big pots slowly by betting every chance that you get. Remember, its well worth practicing these tips by playing free poker tournaments sites, such as NoPayPOKER.com where you wont lose any of your own money but can still win real cash. That way when you get into a higher stakes cash situation you’ll play it right and hopefully scoop it up!
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