Observe opponents’ strategies

I recently played an interesting hand in a $1,500-buyin tournament. Everyone started with 15,000 in chips. Blinds started at 50-100 with hour-long levels, meaning there was lots of time to wait for strong hands. I realized that everyone at my table was implementing that strategy, so I quickly adjusted and attempted to steal pots that no one seemed especially interested in winning. This allowed me to double my starting stack within three hours, with little risk.

You’ll find that when you’re constantly pushing around opponents, the observant opponents will eventually assume that you’re overly wild.

This hand took place with blinds at 150-300, with an ante of 25. A weak, tight player who was clearly waiting for strong preflop cards raised to 750 from first position. Two players called, one from middle position and the other on the button. I looked down at A♦ K♣, normally a premium hand, and decided to call from the big blind.

When facing a first-position raiser who almost certainly has a premium hand, you’ll often be in trouble if you bloat the pot from out of position, even with a normally premium hand — especially with other callers also in the pot. You must realize that, against a single opponent, A-K will win only around 40% of the time against a range containing A-A, K-K, Q-Q, J-J and A-K, which is almost certainly what you’ll be up against if the initial raiser decides to reraise. If you reraise and the initial raiser just calls, everyone else will likely call, forcing you to play a four-way pot from out of position. Since both of these results are bad, calling is usually the best play, because it forces opponents to stay in the pot with hands you dominate while also under-representing your hand.

The flop came A-10-8. I checked, as I would do with all of my hands, and the initial raiser bet 2,000 into a pot of 3,375. Everyone folded around to me.

While I’d normally call in this situation to keep my opponent in the pot with a hand that is likely drawing thin, such as A-J or K-K, I was convinced that my opponent liked his hand. Since I had an ace, it was quite unlikely my opponent had A-A. I also thought it was fairly unlikely that he had 8-8, because he would have limped with that preflop. (For the record, raising with 8-8 is a much better play than limping.) So unless he had 10-10, I was either chopping versus A-K or ahead versus A-Q or A-J.

I did not get the vibe that my opponent would fold a strong hand. Most amateur players who employ an overly tight preflop strategy tend to go way too far with marginal made hands, because they feel that since they so rarely enter the pot, they must win every pot they enter. So I went all in.

My opponent called and turned up his A-Q. He was shocked when I turned up A-K, because in his mind, I “must” reraise with that hand preflop.

Even though I got it all in with 86% equity (meaning I’d win 86% of the time), my opponent caught a queen on the river, winning the pot.

Yes, it was a bad beat, but I still had 19,000 remaining.

Even when I got unlucky, I still had a nice stack that I used to make a deep run. Always pay attention to your opponents’ strategies and adjust your play to take advantage of their mistakes.