5 Actions to Take When You Go Card Dead

[teaulc]

It has happened to every poker player who has ever entered a poker tournament. You are playing in a no limit poker tournament. You are getting some good hands, and making some good plays. Your chip stack is rising steadily. You are feeling good about your game, until it happens. Hand after hand of trash. One rag hand after another rag hand. You fold. You fold again. It's rinse and repeat. You are bleeding out chips. What should you do? Don't panic! Figure out the size of your chip stack to the big blinds. If you have fifteen or twenty times the big blinds, you still have time to wait for a playable hand. If you have less than that amount, it's time to take action. Here are five actions to take when you go card dead in a poker tournament. 1. Use the "No-Look" blind steal move. The good news is that when you have been constantly folding your opponents will notice. They will be thinking that you are playing very tight and waiting for premium cards. This gives you the opportunity to win based on position and the action you take. The "No-Look" blind steal move is simple. You have a late position and everyone folds to you. You do not look at your cards! The cards are going to be so ugly, you will fold. So don't look. Pretend to look at your cards, and raise. You are playing your tight image and your position. Raise and watch everyone fold. 2. Re-raise a late position raiser. You will have a good idea in the middle stages of a tournament as to which players tend to raise too often. And you will also know which players are willing to fold when re-raised. Attack this opponent. When this player raises in a late position, and you have a better position, you should re-raise him. The reason you wait for a late position is you want to have fewer players behind you who may find a premium hand. Ideally, you want to make this play when you have some kind of a hand--even a one gap suited connector would be better than J-3 offsuit. You want your opponent to fold, but even if he doesn't fold, you have a playable hand to win the big pot. 3. Move all in when your stack size has declined to nine times or less than the big blind. The blinds can sometimes move up faster than you can accumulate chips. When you get to nine times or less than the big blind, you need to take action. Don't raise. Move all-in. Hands to make this move with are a wide range from pocket pairs, two paints, any Ace, suited connections, even any suited King. 4. Take a shot with any Ace. Let's say that you have not had an opportunity to make a play given the action in front of you. And you now have only six times the big blinds in chips. What should you do? Take a shot to build chips with an any Ace hand. While it sounds crazy to play a hand like A-7 offsuit aggressively, you need to play to win. And winning means taking chances. I have won poker tournaments by building my chip stack with this move. Example: Two players moved all-in, and I was in the small blind with a weak Ace. I pushed since I only had 5 times the big blind. One opponent had J-J and the other opponent had Q-Q. An Ace hit the flop and I was given a huge gift of chips. 5. Take a shot with any pair. This is the same situation as before, except you have a pocket pair. In the example above, if I had a low pair I would have also taken a shot. While my low pair would be an underdog, if I hit a set I would win big. Remember you are playing to win, and not to just cash. Embrace the risk in the game. The key thing to remember about going card dead is that it does not mean you have lost. It is a signal that you need to take more risk if you want to win the tournament. If you just want to finish in the money, maybe you do want to fold your way to some kind of financial return. I don't recommend it. It's better to win one tournament in 10, than to cash and just get your money back in all 10 events. No one has ever folded their way to victory. Risk is good!

[glceud]

Re: 5 Actions to Take When You Go Card Dead Thats not card dead, I'll show you card dead, your all card racks, every single one of you :wall