No limit holdem tournament and cash games
reward those players that can get their opponents to do what
they want them to do at the exact right time. This is a strategy
I like to call training my opponents. What I am doing in fact,
is training them to give their complete stack to me. In sit
and go tournaments this is especially critical a skill, as
you have a limited time to pull it off. I would estimate that
of all the sit and go tournaments that I place in the money,
I have trained at least one of my opponents during that time,
and captured his stack.
To pull this strategy off, you essentially have to encourage
your opponent's lack of emotional control to the surface of
his game, and especially when playing against you. You may
think this inherently involves being aggressive with assertive
pre and post flop betting. In many cases that may be true,
but there is also opportunity for training your opponent by
while acting passively.
It is rather a simple procedure to do this when you are tournament
chip leader. In position, you should be raising frequently.
You don't even have to make significant raises. When the blinds
get juicy enough a minimum raise when the big blind is 100
may suffice. Depending on your stack, you should try for 300
chip raise in that spot though. However when the blinds get
to 100 and 200, there are usually players on the bubble, so
a minraise is just fine. The reason you do this twofold. You
are looking to increase your chip lead while avoiding flops.
If you feel your opponents are likely to fold it doesn't matter
what your cards are. Play it blind. If your opponents fold
2 of 3 times, your stack will grow and your aggressive index
will be of the charts.
The other reason you want to do this is that the move will
disguise a quality hand when you have it. That is when the
training comes in. If you have raised an opponent out of the
pot preflop several times, he is bound to bounce back on at
some time or another.
What do you do then? Well depending on your stack size and
hand strength, you could call based on pot odds. Let's say
you have 86s and it's only another 450 to call into a pot
of 800. To me that is an easy call.
If the odds simply are not constructive, then fold. Fold
with dignity not anger. Fold with an understanding of the
game, not frustration with it. You see, your opponent's reraise
all in is exactly what you want him to do, whether you win
the pot, lose it, or concede it.
You may also be in a short table position where you are the
short stack. In this situation your big stack opponent is
likely to be playing aggressive with you. Fold until you get
a quality hand and just call his bets until the river, then
reraise all in. He will soon be more cautious with you, and
will mark his preflop betting to the point where you will
get to see some cheap flops with low quality hands.
The concept here is that you will take his stack, or double
up at an opportune time - likely when he loses his cool and
makes an abrasive reraise all in when you have the goods.
You have then trained him effectively.
Without a training strategy you are much more reliant on
quality hands and more easily readable. You simply are not
going to get paid off as often. And when you do get a quality
hand, another player will have an equally strong hand (or
at least competitive) and may very likely win a big pot from
you.
