ABSOLUTE POKER

The first thing you need to know about World Series of Poker Tips is that the regular poker-playing tips apply here, in addition to some of the adjustments necessary for tournaments. It's important to increase your stack slowly throughout the tournament. Going for the big wins early on may be repairable if you don't succeed, but later on, too much aggressive playing will get you eliminated before you realize you've made a mistake. Observe your opponents' betting patterns in different situations as the tournament progresses to get an idea of their style of play. Make a good opponent model so you'll know exactly when to push and when to bluff.

Another Tip is never invest a significant amount of your bankroll in any given tournament. Tournaments involve a lot of luck and are generally feast or famine.

Pay attention to the changing game stacks and adjust accordingly. If the blinds are about to be increased to the point where you will be all in soon, take a risk and go head strong with a borderline hand before you will forced in with the blinds. In general, you want to increase your stack slowly throughout the tournament.

Learn which hands do well in heads up situations. A hand like Ax offsuit is a poor hand to play, but is a decent hand to go all in with pre-flop, as it has an advantage over most other hands. Pocket pairs do well, but suited cards go down in value.

Another good tip is to pay close attention to how your opponents act when they are in the blinds. Some will be very tight, so steal their blinds. Others will zealously defend their blinds so smack them when you have a strong hand.

The ‘Gap’ concept is critical in tournaments. Simply put, you should be more eager to enter a pot with a raise than you would in a ring game because stealing the blinds is very valuable in a tournament and even more at the World Series of Poker. On the other hand, if someone has entered the pot already with a raise, you should be prepared to fold. You want to avoid confrontations in tournaments (unless you have the nut hand) and instead just easily win small pots to build up your stack.

Tips for a Single Table Tournament:

• Be careful of playing aggressively on suited connectors. Their value is lower than expected since people are going to be short stacked, so if you still decide to call, only do so at the beginning of the tournament.
• Pay attention and keep track of the players you're competing against since you may run into them again if you continue playing single table tournaments with the same buy-in.
• Play for third or first. If you are low on chips at the end, try to ‘stay in’ by going headstrong with a very strong hand like a high pocket pair or AK/AQ. If you are the chip leader, play aggressive and steal people’s blinds so you can maintain your lead and win the whole thing.
• If it is early in the tournament, call small bets and raises with pocket pairs so you can bust someone at the flop if you hit.
• Remember that suited connectors go down in value because people tend to be short stacked even at the beginning of the tournament. Even if you suited connector hits, there is a low chance you will be able to extract a lot of money out of your opponent in relation to the pot. These hands are only worth a call at the beginning of the tournament of the World Series of poker.
• Keep good notes of the players you play against, as you will frequently meet the same people if you consistently play single table tournaments at the same buyin.

Tips for a Multi Table Tournament:

• If you're short stacked and it's already much later on in the tournament, consider going all in pre-flop to try and steal the blinds even if your hand isn't looking so great, rather than waiting and going all in on the flop.
• There tournaments are long and last awhile, so be prepared for a full-day event and pace yourself. Place your bets wisely.
• Relax and be prepared to play the whole tournament. Multi-table tournaments can take awhile, sometimes even six hours. If you do not wish to play this long, chances are you will unconsciously play bad so you might go out sooner.
• Remember the relative value of your chips. Especially in the World Series of Poker.Your first thousand chips are worth more than chips 10k-11k. Because of this, you need to be more cautious when you are one of the smaller stacks but more aggressive if you are a larger stack.
• Don’t bluff much at the beginning. When you open with 1k chips, winning another 200-300 is not that important, survival is more important. Try to value bet and win a few huge pots when you have a really good hand.
• Later in the tournament of the World Series of Poker, don’t be afraid to stick all of your chips in pre-flop, especially if you are shortstacked. If you will be all in on the flop no matter what, might as well increase your chance of just stealing the blinds by sticking it all in pre-flop.