What do i do?????????

[tazz11]

Hello ,

I have been playing texas holdem for over a year and have been watching it on tv for that long as well I do have a few Q for you guys and gals. I play free chip games and also free roll tournys the i dont play real money games . But with that being said i would like to know a few things .The frist is how do i go about getting past the players who bet allin at frist ?I only play suited cards and ace , king , queen,jack, and tens and of cousre pocket pairs .Second ive made it to about two hours into the tourny a few times but always fall apart any help i would really like that.Third today i was in a tourny and it was running for about ten mins and i was dealt Pocket pair Aces so i checked then the crazys raised it up and put all in i only had 965 chips so that put me all in when all cards were turn over for all players i was the leader before the flop the second highest player had Ad Qd and to make a long story short i was beat with a flush of Dimonds .What should i have done should i have folded to live another day or did i play the right way with the Pocket rockets? thank you for your time i wait to hear from you

[HalfSugar]

1) Play tighter than a duck's ass to start with in a tourney, the idiots will disappear quite quickly.

2) U gotta learn to change gear and mix up ur game to keep every1 guessing. Steal blinds as they rise, esp from short-stacked players.

3) Of the 220 starting hands, u get AA and lose after going all-in pre-flop.......NOTHING U CAN DO! That's life and it sux at times

[Absolution]

You have to tighten up and if you don't get cards against those idiots, expect to lose (even when you get cards it's still not easy). Any suited hand is not good. K2s is pretty much crap for instance, but the freerollers love it for some reason. Freerollers are mostly luck and you just have to deal with it. Don't bluff at all really unless you get a receptive table. I've got down to the final 50 people and tried some bluffs and they still called with crap so you are never safe against those landmines. Oh, and pocket aces aren't that great against 3+ other people. You are probably an underdog to win that pot even though you have the best starting hand. Aces are good against 1 or 2 other people.

You just need discipline and that's the hardest part. You have to be willing to throw away those pocket pairs when you are obviously beat. I haven't seen many freerollers who can.

[nicthestick]

You cant slow play AA and expect to win with it. EVER!!!!! Freerolls are a marathon, not a sprint. You need to be in for the long haul. Play good, Solid Poker, and you should do well in the goofyrolls.

[tazz11]

I would really like to thank everyone who posted there two cents i thank you very much i will use that infor to see i do today .I will post the out come after the tourny . Again thank you all
:D

[Always_Bored]

Another thing that will improve your game is if you play for money. People call way to many bets that they shouldnt in play money. Its hard to knock someone off a pot because there is no loss involved if they stay in. I wont even play with play money anymore because its just not fun. I rarely even play online anymore.

[wEbMaStEr]

Another thing that will improve your game is if you play for money. People call way to many bets that they shouldnt in play money. Its hard to knock someone off a pot because there is no loss involved if they stay in. I wont even play with play money anymore because its just not fun. I rarely even play online anymore.

I would go as far as to say Don't play free money games except to get to know how the site works.
i think the free money tables actually HURT your game and i don't think the action bears any relation to poker whatsoever

[tazz11]

Well today the tournys i played i didnt do very well i just played bad .the last one i played i had a guy that sat to the left of me and no matter what i bet he would always rise and never back down so i couldnt gain any thing even when i had a good hand he would put all in and it just throw my game off so i didnt do well at all today.But what i can say is the free roll games have halped me alot when i play next door with real money .I feel it gives me a advatage of some sort .two weeks ago i went over there with ten dallor in change and play a few hours and came back with 65 dallors so i think i have learned what to do and when to do it .I dont like the idea of playin for real money on the net because i have seen many times how i would have a great had and bet and lose but the next hand i would have lets say kd 8s i fold and the flop shows kk 8 i have seen that happen i dont like the computer poker its to risky for the program to say who wins and loses .i hope you understand what im sayin .thank you for your time and help god bless you all.

[Silencer]

I have a relatively simply strategy for starting tournaments that usually works out pretty well. Simply don't play the first hand or two. Ok so there are a few exceptions which I'll go over but generally speaking if you avoid the first couple hands most of the idiots will get knocked out and the ones that don't will be really obvious and you shouldn't have trouble with them.

An absolute rule in my mind for the first 1-3 hands is to only play a few premium hands, specifically QQ, KQ, KK, AK and AA. Anything else you should fold nomatter what. Now if you do get one of these 5 hands than you MIGHT be able to play it depending on the situation.

If you are in early position and nobody has gone all-in yet just call the blind. Do not raise nomatter what, even if you have AA. If you raise it is virtually garunteed that somebody will try to be clever and impress everybody by re-raising all-in. Simply call and see how many people behind you go all-in. If only a couple people do you can probably call since you have such a good hand but if more than a few call you should fold nomatter what you have.

If you are in late position it's better because you can see how many people are all-in before having to act. The same rule as above applies. If only a couple people are all-in you can probably call since you have a great starting hand but if more than 3 or so people are going to the flop you should fold, even if you have AA. AA may be a good starting hand but when 4+ people see the flop it isn't that great anymore and there is a pretty good chance that somebody will get lucky with two pair or three of a kind.

Once the first few hands are over you can start to play normal again but you might want to reconsider your starting hands. Here is a basic list in (rough) order from worst to best.


- 23, 24, 25, 34, 35, 45
- A2, A3, A4, A5
- 99, 1010, JJ
- 910, 9J, 9Q, 9K
- 10J, 10Q, 10K, 10A, JQ, JK, JA
- QK, QA
- QQ, KK
- AK, AA


The first two rows should only be played when it is very cheap or free to call or when there aren't many other players. By themselves they are weak but they have more potential than most other hands so it's nice to play around every once in a while with them. It can also be worth a lot because most players will see you playing only premium hands and then when a good flop with low cards hits you they won't put you on it. You need to play it like a draw though and if it's too expensive to continue or you don't hit anything on the flop get rid of it.