In the early levels, you'll be tempted to play many hands because it doesn't cost much to play in relevance to your bankroll. First rule - don't do it. The reason you want to be rather careful in the early rounds is because many of your weaker opponents will be doing exactly that - playing too many hands. When you get a flop with half the table calling, you are going to need a very strong hand in order to win most of the time. By playing premium hands, you stand a better chance of making top pair w/ strong kicker, nut straights and flushes. |
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Pre-flop hand selection
Same hand selection you would play in a regular cash / ring game on Party Poker. If you need to know what are good poker hands, read the poker hands page to see the rankings of different texas hold'em hands. But basically, any two face cards or cards above 87 suited.
Play very tight on the flop and don't get involved too often
The reason you need to play tight on the flop is because you'll have all sorts of bad players calling you down, regardless of how much you bet. The times you do want to bet is when you have a strong hand in context to what the table shows. Top pair with Ace kicker is nice, as are two pair, high straits (not ignorant straights), high flushes (Ace/King high) and trips with high kicker or sets.
Part of the reason you need such power is because when you do bet, you need to bet big. Don't bet over the pot amount unless it's very small, but you should always be betting at least half the pot to deter your opponents from calling you down. When the flop is not threatening, I usually will bet half the pot with top pair, but if there are two suits or two connectors on the table, I will usually bet the entire pot.
One move that you may wish to add to your arsenal is the all-in bet on the turn when you are in the lead on the turn. I only use this move when I am faced off against weak callers who are most likely on draws. The reason I bet all-in here is because I simply don't want to give them the chance to draw on me and want to punish their bad play as much as possible. Use this only when you are against players who constantly are drawing however, as you don't want to move all-in vs a slow-playing two pair, set or other big hand.
Pre-flop raising hands
This is my own strategy here, but in the first few levels, I almost never pre-flop raise. The reason is because at the low levels, a bet of 3x the BB isn't going to deter most players from calling here. An example would be holding AK and not wanting the SB or BB limping in with junk and flopping two pair on you. If it's Level 1 and you raise to 45 with 4 callers in the pot, I can guarantee you all of them will call. Even a pot sized bet of 60 isn't going to help here.
The only kind of bet that will deter players from calling are large bets in context of stack size instead of pot size. A bet of 100 for instance in Level 1 will stop people from calling however. The only problem is that a lot of people just won't call with that kind of raise, except for those people actually holding something.
So, in most situations, my goal is to simply see the flop and then play as needed. The only hands I usually bother pre-flop raising with are AA, KK and QQ in any position or AK from early position. With AA, KK and QQ, my goal is to sucker bad players into heads-up match, so I'll usually bet big and hope for a caller or someone to go over the top. If I get a caller, if the flop isn't too scary with overcards, then I'll pretty much move all-in and hope for them to call and not have made a set. With AK, I usually just raise 3x the BB to deter the tight players from calling.
Don't bother with bluffing or tricks at this level
The worst move you can make at the early levels is to try and bluff your opponents at the early levels in a game. Anyone playing at Party Poker single table tournaments will know that people play crazy in the early levels. Bad players will call you down because they don't know better and good players will call you down because they think you're another crazy player. You'll get away with it a few times of course, but in the long run it's a losing proposition to play tricks early on.
Observe your opponents early-on and take notes
During the first two orbits, observation is critical, because bad players will let themselves be known by making noticeable mistakes. They will overbet before the flop, make horrendous calls and otherwise broadcast to the rest of the table that they are wild or clueless. Your job as a poker player should be observing these players and taking notes on these players during that time. You should also note down who isn't playing as these will be the tight players that will probably give you trouble later in the game.
The weak players can make or break you early on
In the $10+1 SnG games especially, you will often see a players bust out very early, moving all-in during the pre-flop stages with hands like Ace/Ten, small pocket pairs or other mediocre hands. These players are what I refer to as the 'WPT' players, who know only the poker they see on TV. As a result of this, they only know how to raise with pocket pairs and Ace/King; or bet all-in after the flop.
Playing against these guys is a high-risk, high-reward scenario because they'll be willing to go all-in against you with a bunch of small pockets and Ace/x hands, but you will be gambling with a coin toss if you are calling with hands like AK, AQ or AJ vs these players. This is why I only recommend playing JJ+ hands vs these guys, because you want a good chance of winning anytime you need to commit your chips.
Advanced Strategy: Loosening up your pre-flop game
If you are able to get away from your hand (fold when necessary), then it can be profitable to play small (54) or medium connectors (65-87) in the first two levels. The only reason to play these hands here is to try to make a straight or draw to one (if the odds call for it). In the first few levels, you have a good chance of getting paid out by weak players if you hit your hand. Just remember that you must be able to get away from these hands however, since you can easily be sucked into a bad draw if you get too lax. Also remember to not put money in on the ignorant draw (the lower end of the straight).
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