Here’s a blow by blow or maybe hand by hand account of a recent free poker tournament of mine, I hope it gives you some guidance on how to think and play in such situations.
Tonight’s game is 10 of 31 paid, good odds here about 1 in 3 so lets play it smooth for a little and see what happens. Some hands that I’ve played early are 52 suited in the small blind and K9 off with 6 to 1 pots odds, AJ off I slip in cheap. Pot odds are simply the ratio of the cost to call to the size of the pot example $100 to see $600 pot would be 6 to 1.
Up about 1k playing the K9 aggressive with Q9Q flop and hitting a free A on the river with AJ. I tell people this countless times that they have to bet in these unsure situations if no one else has either wise you have nothing else to go on.
I bet 3x with my KK and get one caller, the flop comes up 5,8,10 and he bets so I string his J10 along for another 1k. Slow playing should most often only be done when you have an unbeatable hand but the action here is few and far between.
Some hands I’ve limped in with are A2 suited, A3 suited, AJ off, and 88 because of implied odds. Implied odds are basically how much money the other player has and knowing you can bust someone with the right hands calling $5 with junk may not seem as bad if you can win his 50k doing so.
There are certain cards I have passed on now that the blinds are higher and pot chances even smaller, such as, K10, J10, Q8 suited, and the Q8 ended up being a very poor fold. I’m now around an hour and a half into play & my wallet still holds two grand which I had built up before- plus a further five hundred and sixty dollars with other minimal pot plays.
It’s too early to go flat out so I fold an ace / queen as I can smooth play to the final table. Being able to fold a decent hand has taken a lot of time, practice and control before the bubble- like all things- time helps master this habit. The bubble means the last person to leave the game before pay out. I finally finish in sixth place and I’m pleased with this- if you can regularly find yourself in these positions you can earn a wage. The idea is to start small, play free poker tournament sites and climb the ladder as you become more experienced.