How to size your bets in online No Limit Texas Holdem Tournament play

When playing No Limit Texas Holdem tournaments, a player can bet as many chips as they want when it’s their turn to act. A lot of beginners have problems with not knowing how to much to bet in their online poker tournaments. They either bet too many or not enough chips . Being able to make the correct size bets at the poker table is what separates the winning players from the losing ones. Since every chips counts, you do not want to throw away chips when the pressure is on by not knowing what to bet . How Can You Loose With Pocket Aces?! If you stick to using properly sized bets in your online tournaments, opponents will be less likely to get a read on your hand. Have you ever seen a poker player fold every hand for an hour and then raise too many chips only to win the blinds? When they show their cards they revealed they had pocket aces! They did not get maximum value out of the hand because they bet too much. Have you ever seen those AA’s cracked by someone who stayed in the hand and got lucky on the flop? It happens all too often in online poker tournaments every day regardless of the buy-in level. So What Is The Goal in Online No Limit Texas Holdem Poker Tournament Play? The goal to winning tournaments is to win all the chips and be the last one standing. So the trick is maximizing your profit when you have the best hand and minimize your losses by making the correct sized bets. So how do you determine the size of your bets? Pre-flop When it’s your turn to act and your the first one in the pot pre-flop, you want to base your raises on the size of the blinds. Once the flop comes out your bets are usually made based on the size of the pot. Knowing how much to bet, raise, reraise, continuation bet and even bluff is just as important as the cards you are getting dealt. When deciding to raise pre-flop and if it’s folded to you, you want to be raising around 2.5 -3x the big blind. Keep in mind if there are limpers in the pot you will have to adjust your raise based on how many limpers. Limpers If there is one limper, you can make your raise 3.5- 4x the big blind. Two limpers 4.5 -5 x and so on. Once the flop comes out and if you hit the flop and think you have the best hand, most of the time betting is the best option. Build the Pot! You want to keep the bet sizes around 1/2 to 3/4 size of the pot. If you over bet the pot, you run the risk of scaring off all your opponents. Some people will check and try to trap the other player by appearing weak, but it is important to build the pot. The idea is to get chips! So why not build pots when you actually have a strong hand? Vary Your Game-Play It’s important not to make the exact same bet in every situation because your opponents might pick up on it and this will make you easy to read. Sizing your bets properly throughout the entire poker tournament will give you that edge the other players who just bet random bets don’t have. This should give you newbie poker players a good basic grasp on a few of the fundamentals of Online No Limit Texas Holdem Tournament play. But the best way to learn is to play! Keep posted as we will throw up some more knowledge bombs for all you poker junkies…..