Okay.

So your at a tournament and you are dealt Ace Queen.



You are close to late position and you decide to throw in a raise. You make it 4 times the big blind, which happens to be 400 chips.









One person calls you.



Let's say the flop comes 229



Now. You are FIRST to act.



What do you do?? Should you check and hope your opponent checks for a free card?



NO! You have to bet! First of all, unless he has a pocket pair you have him beat at this point in the pot.



I recommend that you bet half the pot, which would amount to around 450 chips.



This signals to your opponent that you are STRONG and he cannot take this pot from you.



Weakness in Hold'em is not a good trait to exhibit. Any type of weakness in betting or simply checking is how your opponent will rake pots away from you.



Now, lets say you bet half the pot and you are re-raised. What should you do at this point? It depends on a number of factors including:



How your opponent has been playing

The size of your chip stack

What stage of the tournament you are in

The size of your opponents chip stack

The number of outs you have



There are so many factors in tournament Hold'em that you always have to be factoring before you make a decision.



Texas Hold'em takes a couple minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master.



Until next time, good luck at the tables!!



Sean Moranse is a professional poker player. He has won numerous major tournaments. He was named as one of the Top Ten Online best players by Poker Rankings Online, the authority in online poker rankings. He has compiled an award winning poker course that is available at http://www.tournamentwinner.com

By: Sean Moranse

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