For a player who is new to the tournament environment, but ready to give it a try, the natural question is "Where do I start?".  The aim of this article is to give a simple "crude but effective" strategy that will give even a novice tournament player a decent chance of finishing in the money.

A Primer for Playing No-Limit Hold'em Tournaments

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No-limit Hold'em tournaments are becoming increasingly popular these days.

They are a change of pace from the regular grind, and give players a

chance to win a big prize if they're lucky.  A player who is knowledgeable

about the best tournament strategies can also hold a big edge over the

opposition.  Conversely, inexperienced tournament players can be at a

significant disadvantage, even if they are fairly good at limit Hold'em.

First, the disclaimer.  It takes a lot of learning and practice to become

a strong poker player.  For most people, it requires hundreds of hours of

reading and playing, often over the course of years.  Tournament strategy

adds a completely new dimension to this expertise, and there is no way

you're going to become an expert overnight.  It is equally impossible for

a single magazine article to explore the full depth and complexity of

poker and tournament strategy. 

What we hope to accomplish is simply to give a succinct set of guidelines

which will help the relatively inexperienced tournament participant close

the gap, and perhaps even hold a slight advantage over the opposition.

These ideas have been field tested, and they are surprisingly successful.

The reason this system works so well despite its simplicity is probably

because many players, including veterans, fail to make the appropriate

adjustments to tournament conditions.

The primary goal in a tournament is simply to stay alive -- to outlast

the more reckless players and to still have some chips when the field is

reduced to only the paying positions.  The approach we recommend is to

play tight but aggressive, to avoid large confrontations (except when we

expect to have much the best of it), and to seize good opportunities,

especially late in the tournament.

Although the main objective is to survive as long as possible, that does

*not* mean you should fear being eliminated.  To be successful, you must

make the most of your good hands and situations.  In tournaments, safety

is worth money -- but ironically, it is the most courageous players who

are the safest, not the most passive ones.

In no-limit poker, all you can ask for is to get all the chips in the

middle when you figure to have the best of it.  You might have KK and lose

to AA, or be caught by someone with 52s -- it happens.  If you lose, you

lose, but don't let that make you second guess a good decision.  There is

no reason to regret such a loss, and you should do exactly the same thing

if the opportunity arises again.  With that philosophy in mind, let's now

look at some specific tactics for no-limit Hold'em tournaments.

How to play before the flop

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Rule 1:  Play only very good starting hands.

In early position, play only premium starting hands, such as Sklansky's

group one and group two hands: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs; TT, AQs, AK, AJs, KQs.

In late position, add a few more solid hands, such as those in group

three: 99, AQ, ATs, KJs, QJs, JTs, and perhaps AJ, KQ.  Play small pairs

only if it's cheap to see the flop and you expect to win a large pot if

you hit a set.

The idea is to play very few hands, but to usually bet and raise with

those you do play.  Contrary to popular perception, playing tight is not

the same as playing passively.  When you fold before the flop, it should

be thought of as an aggressive action.  You are simply refusing to invest

your money on a bad or mediocre holding, and are preparing to use every

one of those saved chips when you believe you have the best of it.  Being

selective in your starting hands helps you to survive in at least two ways.

First, in the time you are folding hand after hand, other people will be

playing, and some will be eliminated.  This brings you closer to the prize

money, even if the number of chips you have hasn't changed.  This is a

unique feature of percentage pay-back tournaments (events with more than

one prize, which is the standard).  If you're interested in learning more

about this mathematical fact, the best theoretical analysis of tournament

strategy can be found in "Gambling Theory and Other Topics", by Mason

Malmuth.  But since not everyone is inclined to read such a treatise or

spend hours absorbing its implications before entering their first

tournament, we've tried to have most of those principles built-in to this

simplified system.

The second advantage to playing only premium hands is that you minimize

the occurrence of situations which require delicate judgment.  Many

typical players frequently put themselves into difficult situations that

require careful handling, where a single error can cost them their whole

stack.  As a relatively inexperienced player, you want to avoid these

dangerous spots as much as possible.  By playing only very sound starting

cards, you will usually have a very strong hand, a very strong draw, or a

hand you can fold easily after the flop.

Rule 2:  If you are the first one in, enter with a raise.

Because of your tight hand selection, you will usually have the best hand

when you do play, so you want to make others pay to play.  This first

raise should be a meaningful size, regardless of your actual hand --

you'll play pocket Aces the same way as KQs, and your opponents won't know

what you have (except that it isn't junk).

In the early going, when the blinds are small compared to the average

stack, your raise can be quite a bit more than the big blind, say between

five and ten percent of your total stack.  For example, if everyone starts

with 1000 in tournament chips and the blinds begin at 5 and 10, consider

opening with a raise of 50 or more.  Later, when the blinds are larger

relative to the average stack, a good guideline is to raise the size of

the pot after your call.  For example, if the blinds are 100 and 200 and

you are under the gun, raising another 500 (making it 700 to go) is a

respectable amount.

Rule 3: If there are other callers in before you, raise if you have a

               large pocket pair, otherwise call.

With earlier callers, the pot will usually be large enough that you want

to fight for it immediately if you have a premium pair.  Raise the size of

the pot or more with AA, KK or QQ.  Now you are satisfied to either win

the pot right there, or to have someone pay such a high price to play an

inferior hand.

With lesser hands, your advantage isn't likely to be as great, so you'll

wait until the flop to see where you stand.  Notice that this advice is

somewhat at odds with Rule 1, and there is some middle-ground between

them.  The difference with having early callers already in the pot is that

they are more likely to call a raise, so your chance of winning the pot

uncontested is greatly reduced compared to being the first one in.  On the

other hand, if you have a good hand like AK, and there is just one caller

in before you, you may still want to raise in order to limit the number of

callers and increase the price of admission for those who do call.  You

should be more inclined to just call if your hand is suited or there is

more than one caller already in the hand.  You should be more inclined to

raise with good pairs or unsuited hands with an Ace, especially if the

only caller is a loose player (unlikely to have a particularly strong hand).

If there are several callers, you can call a small bet (say up to five

percent of your stack) with a small pocket pair, in the hope of hitting a

set on the flop.  As you gain no-limit tournament experience, you may also

wish to call in this good situation with suited connectors like 76s or a

nut-flush draw like A5s.  However, be advised that these hands require

more skill to play well, and may not be worth the trouble.

Rule 4:  Use caution in responding to a raise.

If you have not yet acted and someone has raised, play only if you still

expect to have the best hand.  If you have already entered the pot, either

with a raise or late call, and the pot is therefore substantial, a few

more hands can be played, but you must still exercise extreme caution.

Many starting hands that are normally good become highly vulnerable in

this situation.

Do not hesitate to fold hands like KQs or 99 if you respect the raiser --

you are likely to be either a slight favourite or a large underdog, and

this is not the best place for you to invest your money.  The danger with

cards like KQ is that you could hit your hand (a King-high or Queen-high

flop) and still be far behind (to AA, KK, AK or AQ, for example), in which

case you are likely to get eliminated.  Avoid the large confrontation, and

wait for a better moment to commit your stack.

If you have AA, KK, or QQ, or some other hand you believe to be superior

to the raiser's, then re-raise the size of the pot or move all-in with

your whole stack.  These are the best possible hands you can start with,

and you must not be shy.  To make the most of them, the right time to act

is now, before the flop.  As before, you will be delighted if you win the

sizable pot without a fight; and if you get called, you will be getting a

high pay-off for a reasonable risk.

With a hand that is not as strong but could well be the best, such as AK

or JJ, you can call and see the flop provided it doesn't cost too much

(say another ten or fifteen percent of your stack).  Now you'll commit to

the hand if you get a favourable flop, and get out if the board suggests

added danger.  If the initial raise is so large that you cannot get this

information for a reasonable price, then "discretion is the better part of

valour", and you should usually release the hand.

Note that the value of your hand also depends on your perception of the

opponent.  Against a player who seems to raise too frequently (suggesting

they often do not have a very strong hand), you might re-raise all-in with

JJ, or play AQ the same way you would normally play AK.  Unfortunately,

this can also lead to difficult decisions later in the hand, so you should

not go out of your way to punish a player you feel is bluffing too much,

until you acquire more experience.

How to play after the flop

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Rule 5:  When you hit a flop you like, bet big and raise big.

Once you see the flop, you will usually know where you stand.  If you have

an overpair (eg JJ: T-7-4), hit top pair (eg AQ: A-7-2) or a set (eg 22:

K-J-2), then you are ready to play.  You have waited patiently for this

good opportunity, and now you are willing to go the distance.

Betting the size of the pot is normal, but for our purposes a larger bet

of about twice the size of the pot may be preferable.  The reason for such

a large bet is that you are not too interested in getting called unless

the price is high.  You do not want to let a weaker hand draw cheaply, nor

do you want to be put into a potentially awkward situation if it can be

avoided.  By making these oversized bets (relative to the size of the

pot), you quickly force your opponents to make a critical decision for

their whole stack.  They must either fold, in which case you win with no

risk, or they must risk a large loss when you likely have a significant

advantage over them.

Choosing the size of a bet also depends on how many chips you have.  You

should bet up to about one third of your stack (leaving enough for another

meaningful bet on the turn), or else go all-in.  If you are up against a

single opponent, you should base these proportions on the smaller stack,

since that is the maximum number of chips that can actually be wagered.

For example, suppose you and your opponent each have 1000, and the current

pot is 150.  A bet of 300 now is a strong action, because it leaves you

enough for one large all-in bet on the turn if your opponent should call.

If you *or* your opponent had only 500, then a bet of 300 probably isn't

as effective.  You could choose to either bet 150 now (leaving 350 for

next), or simply move all-in immediately, depending on the circumstances.

If you've hit a flop you like and someone else bets, you can make a large

raise or move all-in immediately (unless there is a very good reason to

believe you are beaten, in which case you should fold).  Your opponent's

bet has indicated a good hand, but you have a golden opportunity to win a

large pot if your hand is just a bit better, which is quite probable if

you've started with the recommended hands.  Once again you must play with

courage and conviction, even in the face of possible elimination.

If your bet or raise is called and the turn card is not terribly

frightening, make another large bet or move all-in at that time.  You can,

of course, still lose, but very few hands will be getting proper odds for

a call and it will take a very good hand to beat you.  Again, that's all

you can reasonably ask for.  Most of the time the player that calls you

will be the underdog, and you have played well regardless of the outcome.

Of course, life isn't always so easy, and there will be times when you are

not so certain of having the best hand.  Perhaps someone moves all-in in

front of you, and you have top pair but a mediocre side card (eg. AJs:

A-T-5).  Perhaps the board is paired (eg. AK: K-5-5), has a possible flush

(eg. KQs: Kc-Tc-5c), or you have only second pair (eg. JJ: Q-8-5).  There

are far too many possibilities to discuss here, but you must simply use

your best judgement, based on the number of players in the pot, your

knowledge of the opponents, and other factors.  To be a tough player, you

sometimes have to accept some risk, and demand that your opponent prove

they have your decent hand beaten.  At other times, you must have the

discipline to throw away a good hand when it looks too dangerous to

continue.  Make your best guess and act decisively (usually raising or

folding, rather than calling).  If your decision turns out to be

incorrect, so be it -- you've learned something for the next time.

Rule 6:  When you hit a good draw, bluff if the conditions are right.

                Call only if the one-card draw odds are correct.

Bluffing is an essential component of poker tactics, and no basic strategy

can be sound without including a certain frequency of bluffs.  Put simply,

if you never bluff you are giving away too much information to your

opponents when you bet.  Even mediocre players will soon learn that you

almost always have a strong hand when you bet, and they will learn to

correctly fold, which is to your detriment.

In this basic system, you will use your good drawing hands for bluffs

because although they are weak they have a lot of potential for forming a

strong hand should you get called.  If you flop a four-flush or or an

open-ended straight draw, you will usually have overcards as well (eg AJd:

Kd-Tc-5d, KQc: Jh-Tc-5d), giving you a hand with many outs, even against a

top pair.

First you must decide if a bluff is warranted.  Against players who almost

always call, or against many opponents one of whom may call, you should

decline bluffing because the chance of success is too low.  More usually,

you'll be up against one or two typical players, and a bluff will be both

reasonable and profitable.  Bet exactly as you would with a strong hand,

forcing the opposition into a critical decision immediately.  (More

experienced players who normally use a wide variety of bet sizes can

improve their expectation with a well-chosen bluff size, but that is

beyond the scope of this simple system).

In particularly good situations, such as acting last after a couple of

reasonable players have checked, you can also bluff with as little as

Ace-high (eg. AQ: J-8-5).  This is a semi-bluff because you may actually

have the best hand, but still have a decent chance to improve if you get

called.  You may also discover that your bets are commanding a lot of

respect because you have already won several showdowns with strong hands.

This is a good time to increase your bluffing frequency, especially in the

later stages of the tournament when there is a lot to be gained from a

successful steal.

If your bluff gets called and you fail to improve your hand, you should

generally check on the turn.  Often your action on the flop will earn you&