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 Hand Selection in Texas Holdem No limit Online Poker Tournaments.
Hand selection is important in tall types of online poker games whether it’s a online poker tournament or a cash game. This really applies to all Texas Holdem play. Now the hand selection strategies in a online cash game or ring game versus an a online poker tournament is very different.
In online poker games that are ring games you should have a tight selection of starting hands. This should remain that way unless you get to predictable then its best to throw in some marginal hands to mix things up and keep your opponents guessing. In a cash games since the blinds do not increase you can remain tight and only play premium hands. This is because the blinds are not constantly being increase so there is no pressure to play or get blinded out. In cash games I would remain tight / aggressive and throw in some raises with some suited connectors and semi connectors when I have the correct position. This works great in online poker games that do not have a blind increase. However in online poker tournaments your hand selection has to change in order to keep up with the constant increase in blinds.
In an online poker tournament or any Texas Holdem No Limit tournament live or other, you are going to have to adjust your hand selection to your particular circumstances. What this means is basically when you are playing in a poker tournament and the blinds are constantly increasing. You are going to have to re evaluate your starting hands based on your chip stack in relation to the blinds and also the average chip stack. The average chip stack is not as important but it should be considered. When your chip stack is over 22 to 30 times the blinds you should only play premium hands. This should pretty much remain that way until you drop down to about 15 times the blinds. Once this happens you are usually still doing fine however once you drop below 10 times the blinds you need to make a move. What will happen is that if you remain tight thru the whole game unless you just get lucky the whole way the blinds are going to gobble up your chip stack. So once you get down to about 10 to 15 times the blinds you need to start looking at making some moves to build your chip stack. When you get to 10 to 15 times the blinds you should still play strong starting hands however if you see an opportunity to steal and you are in position you should try to build youre stack up. Usually if you played tight by this time you have built a tight image which should allow you some steals now and by now the blinds are high enough to be worth stealing. Once you get down to below 10 times the blinds in an online poker tournament you have to contemplating making a move with a marginal hand in order to stay in the game. Once you hit 5 times the blinds you basically need to pick a marginal hand and push all in and try to double up.
Once you reach 5 times the blinds in an online poker tournament you should be making an all in move with any Ace or K you hit, suited connectors hi ones are good. The other thing to consider is to be first in the pot. If everyone folds to you and you are in mid to late pos it’s a good time to push all in with a marginal hand because there is also a chance you will not get called and just take the pot. The Key is top be first all in or raiser. If someone raised preflop you know you will get called and you need to consider that. You need a bit better hand for that. The other thing to consider is that person’s position and chip stack. Most smart players know when they start getting low on chips its time to make a move. So sometimes they are not as strong as they normally would be. The general idea here is to get in there while you are still somewhat competitive. Preferably when you make this move you want tight players in the blinds and medium stacks that will get hurt by calling you yet to act. That is the ideal situation. However if you have a decent hand you should just go for it and see what happens.
This is how your hand selection changes in Online Texas Holdem Poker Tournaments. Easiest thing to remember is to play premium hands early on and as your stack decreases and you get to about 10 times the blinds start considering making a move to double up.
If you have other ways of selecting hands for online poker tournaments please join our poker forum and share it with our members.
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