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Everyone who sets out to play tournament poker has an objective in mind. If you asked everyone who entered the event what their ultimate objective is then they would all say that it was to win the event. This isn’t really grounded in reality because there will be many players in that event who will be more defensive minded than others. Also if this were an online poker event then there would be many players who had managed to win their seat in the tournament after winning a satellite. This basically means that the objectives become somewhat fuzzy when a player has won a seat into an online poker tournament for say $10 and the minimum cash is $120.

This is a return on investment of twelve times and this is considerable. While it is true that $120 isn’t a life changing sum of money, it is still a huge return on investment. Many players go into a defensive mode during the bubble and this basically makes it very difficult for them to have the proper mindset to win the tournament. However if you really want to win the event and a minimum cash is something that you are not overly interested in then you will need to maximise your chances of winning the tournament!

Part of this process is not to allow yourself to get too short. However many players slip from being comfortable to being too short in a very short space of time. This is why I believe in “pre-emptive” strikes in tournament poker because once you become very short then it is difficult to pull yourself back. Let us look at an example here to show you what I mean. If you have a stack of 4000 and the blinds are 100-200 then you have a playable stack of 20 big blinds. If you have only just reached your current level then you have some time to spare but not too much.

If the next level is 200-400 then you will be down to ten big blinds at that level. If this is an online event with rapid structures then you do not have an awful lot of time. Going through the blinds once during the 100-200 level and then the 200-400 level will take you down to 3100 with imminent blinds of 200-400 very shortly. Suddenly your twenty big blind stack is now less than eight big blinds and you are reaching desperation territory. If this were my tournament then I would be pre-empting this while at the twenty big blind stage.

Some players simply wait too long hoping and praying for good cards or good situations and when they don’t come then this is when they become desperate. But you have to remember that people will be getting lucky all around you and amassing chips. If this doesn’t happen to you and variance doesn’t smack you in the face then you need to give yourself the best possible chance of amassing a meaningful stack because it is very difficult to do that when you become too short.

It is often said that there is very little scope for bluffing in Limit Texas Hold em but yet this is simply not true. There is less scope for bluffing in limit hold’em simply because the betting is structured and so your opponents are always getting decent pot odds to call with even weak hands. Bluffing is easier in no-limit because you have the opportunity to hit your opponent with a sizable amount of money to call when you raise. But in limit hold’em then you can even bluff raise the river profitably in many situations.

Let us have a look at an example, it has been folded around to your opponent who raises from the cut-off and the button and small blind fold. Your hand is J-10 and the flop comes 9-8-4 rainbow and you decide to play your draw passively. You check call the flop and the turn brings the 2c and you check call again. The stakes are $2-$4 and so this betting sequence has placed $21 in the pot. The river card is another deuce and you check with the intention of check raise bluffing.

Your opponent bets $4 after you check and this puts $25 into the pot. Calling isn’t profitable as any pair, ace high, king high or queen high beats you. The pre-flop call was correct getting 3.5-1 pot odds. On the flop after you checked and your opponent bet then with $11 in the pot and only $2 needed to call with a straight draw and overcards then your play was solid again although you maybe could have check-raised bluffed the flop. When your opponent bets the turn then you are still marginal but fine to call as well as you will probably extract some more money on the river.

If you raise the river then this risks $8 for the chance to win the $25 that is already in there and so your pot odds are about 3-1. This means that you only need this bluff to work 25% of the time for it to break even. You should make this percentage because your opponent could have open raised with hands like K-10, Q-10 etc that would find it difficult to call a river check-raise bluff. So there are definite chances to bluff in limit but you have to be very observant so that you can spot them when they arrive.

When you are multi-tabling poker games then you can easily miss chances like this but this is really where the profit comes from in limit hold’em. The game is all about winning pots and when you can win pots in this way then you are really executing major coups in limit hold’em. This is because it is far easier to see the river and showdowns in this form of poker than it is in no-limit because the betting is structured. So when you can deny your opponent from calling the river with what would be the strongest hand then this is what really adds to your bottom line.

TJ Cloutier is a former professional football player in the CFL before an injury forced him to retire. Then he set up his own food company that went broke. After that he worked on oil rigs in Texas while playing poker on his off days.

He decided to quit his job when he started to earn more from poker. He loves playing in tournament formats yet hasn’t been able to win any of WSOP main events. He has the distinction of being the only person to in all the three Omaha styles.

Probably one of the more popular poker players in the world, Johnny Chan is only the fourth player to win the WSOP main event in two straight years. He is second when it comes to the most number of WSOP bracelets with 10.

Because of his extremely aggressive play style, he is nicknamed the Orient Express. In 2002, Johnny Chan has been inducted in the Poker Hall of Fame. His most recent win was in 2005 when he won over Phil Laak at the $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event. At present, he has won over $4 million in WSOP tournaments.