I like to keep my fellow players off balance when I am playing Hold Em tournaments. I play quite a few hands. I might raise when in position or I might limp in. I might check raise from early position with just suited connectors. I might flat call with any 2 cards. My aim here is to knock a lot of my competition out of the pot and pick up a bunch of smaller pots, thus, building my bankroll and my wild table image.

Sometimes, or actually, a lot of times, when you get in and raise or limp with suited connectors or small pairs, you miss the flop totally. Been there done that. Now the game begins. If you are first to go, I bet always. Not a lot, but I bet. If you act later, see how others bet. If there is a larger bet and some calls, you might want to get out here. You took your shot and got out cheaply. When you do open the betting after the flop, a half to two third of the pot is a decent bet. Not risking too much to try and grab it.

Now, when you do hit the flop good, nobody has a clue as to what you have. Lets say you have the 76 of hearts and flopped 543 with 2 hearts. You now have the nut straight and a flush draw. You are in great shape to suck some chips up especially id someone else hit something on the flop. Now you bet out a bit, not too much but enough to make them hurt a little to call. You get those chips when you win and you are now increasing your tournament stack greatly. You now have a major advantage. You can get in some coin flip situations and if you lose, you can afford too. Tight players usually can't stand to lose the coin flips because they haven't increased their stacks enough because real premium hands don't come along often.

I started out years ago, a very conservative tight player. I did ok, usually even or small losses. I never really got ahead much. Then I studied the way Doyle Brunson played, and a few others. As you know, Doyle will play anything almost anytime. I decided I wanted to be more aggressive. What I found out is, to do this, drop down to the lowest levels you can play online and learn that way. A lot cheaper to learn. Try to play 6-8 hands every 10. Don't play the true junk like 72, 83, 92 etc. By playing a lot of shaky hands, you learn how to do it. You learn a lot more about poker being aggressive over conservative. Any idiot can play AA or KK or AK but to be truly successful and move up to a higher level, you need to know how to play 44, 98, 10 10, etc. It's fun also to play a lot of hands when it isn't costing you much. You learn how to play when you miss the flop, how to steal some blinds, when to bluff, if you're a being bluffed, and how to read players and keep track of betting patterns.

It has worked for many pros like Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen, Doyle, Gavin Smith, Phil Ivey, and the list goes on. I now can play 2 styles comfortably. Aggressive or Conservative. Both styles have their place and time in the course of all tournaments.

Thanks and Good Luck at the Tables,
Scott

I have compiled a free mini e-course designed to help your Hold Em game. Please access the course at:
http://hstrial-pokerbook.homestead.com/indexpoker.html