Live tourney tips

ok so you are real new to playing live tourneys and this is your start up guide.

1. watch your opponents every chance you get, people that are new to live poker and even some veterans can not control themselves when they look at their hole cards and will often tip off the strength of their hands when they see their hole cards. This also goes for the flop, turn and river.

2. Dont act to quickly, Justin Bonomo is a pro at this. When action gets to him he does not act right away he thinks and thinks and thinks. He is what you call a thinking player. He watches you, looks at his cards then looks at board then looks at you again. This is very nerve racking to you and he can pick up how comfortable you are with your hand this way.

3. Get a good nights sleep, dont wake up at 7am after going to bed at 2am and drive a couple hours to go play. We need our brains to be working 100% and if you are playing on very little sleep it just wont work. Same can be said for drinking while you are playing.

4. dont talk, we are not Daniel Negranu (sp), otherwards we can not pick up tells from someone by asking them what they ate for breakfast this morning. Only real experienced players should attempt to pick up tells by getting them to talk. I played a live tourney a couple months ago where we were down to 18 and the guy next to me kept talking and talking and by the time we got in a pot together I knew exactly how to play him and just took chips from him at will. He busted out shortly after, the morale of the story? just shut up and play your hands?



thats just a start up, add if you like.

"Otherwards we can not pick up tells from someone by asking them what they ate for breakfast this morning."

Hahahaha thats funny as hell. Anyway just thought I'd post since no one else replied. Yeah these are good tips for new players and here is an interesting article by Howard Lederer with an interesting tip for live play as well, which I found funny. Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker - How To Play - Pro Tips Archive

If I can offer a few others:

Learn the rules of the game

Not what hand beats what and who acts when, but the actual mechanics of the game. Do you know what a string bet is? Do you know what happens if you muck your winning hand before the loser gives up their cards? Do you know what happens if you throw out one oversize chip without verbalising your action? Do you know which is binding - what you do, or what you say?

Chances are, if you've only played online you won't have come across most of this stuff (I'm a live game dealer, BTW, so happy to explain any of the above if anyone's unfamiliar) and experienced live players can use it against you.

Try not to get bored

Again, if you're used to playing online, be aware that you'll be playing a lot less hands per hour live. Some people get the temptation to stray away from their usual game just because they haven't played a hand in the past half hour - try not to let that happen. Use the time to study your opponents instead. Or to master your chip tricks...

Learn some chip tricks

This may seem silly and cosmetic, but you'd be surprised... quite often, the people who look uncomfortable handling chips will get tagged as weaker players. Now maybe you can find a way to work that in your favour, but learning a couple of chip tricks just so you don't stand out won't hurt

lol Interesting yet true point about the chip tricks.

interesting article .Thanks for the info

Playing in a live tourney for the first time this friday. Could you explain those rules that you mention please? Not too sure about them.

shove lots in later stages from late position. no one wants to make a bad call for their tournament life, so exploit that and shove very wide

no thats gambling and risking yr whole stack and hoping someone will fold, after one or two hands it will be obvious.

yes i definitely agree with this stormswa....lets say u get AA preflop, never grab yr chips to quickly to make a raise, becuase the other players will figure out that you have a big hand. also always look at the flop and immediatly look at your opponent and see how he/she acts. if they kind of sit back and this doesnt go to everyone, about 90% of the time it means they missed the flop, if their head is kind hmm how should i say this close to the table and their eyes are kind of looking at the flop, means they either hit something or they are on a good draw. well there are a lot more things that you have to pay attention for but you will eventually learn everything if you just pay attention to how everyone acts.

Sounds like this guy I saw on a WSOP final table the other night. It was a 2006 table I think and his name was "All-In Tony" Cuz he'd basically either fold or move all-in pretty much. Knocked out in 2nd. It was kinda funny cuz if he didn't go all-in other people would raise him and most of the time he'd fold.

Nope, it's called good poker. You're obviously not going to be shoving a 30BB stack, but LP steals are essential, and are especially effective against newer players who don't know what you're doing.

nice tips btw, storm.

in someone else's post they suggested not looking at your cards until your turn..i thought that made good sence..people can't get a read that act before you

ALWAYS!!!

Sure thing. Note that these rules are pretty much universal, but some casinos or card rooms (and especially home games) might alter them, so you might need to check with your dealer / friendly floor person


1. A string bet is when you put chips out to make a bet in more than one motion (ie: put a pile of chips on the table without a verbal announcement, then reach back to your stack and put a second pile of chips out).

What will happen in most cases is that only the first amount you put on the table will be allowed to stand as your bet - if that's under the size of the current bet / minimum, it'll normally be ruled a call and you'll have to put in enough to call, but no more.

The reasoning behind the rule is you could in theory put out one pile of chips and watch your opponent, then keep adding chips (or stop adding chips) if you pick up a tell.

There's an easy way around this one - just make sure you verbally announce your action before you make it. If you say "raise" first, you should be able to go back to your stack as many times as you like.

There was an example of this rule being called out in the heads up section of one of the early WPT Season 2 episodes


2. The mucking your cards rule says that as soon as your cards touch the muck (the pile of folded cards in front of the dealer), your hand is dead. So even if you had the winning hand, if your cards touch the muck while the loser still has theirs, they'll win the pot.

It's rare, but some opponents who know the rule will try to exploit it, say something like "good hand, you got me" and then hang onto their cards and wait for you to muck yours. It's a really, really dirty tactic, but it does happen (read about it being attempted at least once in this year's WSOP).

Simple way to avoid this one: if you've turned your cards face up at the end of a hand, wait for the pot to be pushed to you and let the dealer muck them for you.


3. Throwing out an oversize chip (ie: a $500 chip when the bet is only $200) has different consequences depending on the action in the hand.

If it's the first bet of the rouond, it'll be ruled that you've made a $500 bet unless you announce otherwise (ie: you can say 'bet $300" and your $500 chip will count for a $300 bet)

If someone else has already bet in that round (say, $200), the oversize chip will be ruled as a call unless you announce otherwise (ie: unless you say 'raise' when you throw the chip out, it'll just count for a $200 call)


4. Normally, verbal announcements are binding and overrule your unannounced actions. If you say 'raise' but only throw out enough for a call, you'll normally be obliged to make at least the minimum raise, for example.

There's a grey area for unannounced actions - some places will hold you to your action and force you to bet at least the minimum if you make a forward motion with chips, then say 'check', but it's a more difficult one to enforce as what constitutes a 'forward motion' can be argued.


5. I didn't mention this one above, but don't talk about a hand that's in play if you haven't got cards. It's frowned upon to say things like "he must be on a flush draw" or "look, he's getting nervous" or something if you're not in the hand.

Also, there's an odd guideline where you do have cards in a hand - you're not supposed to tell anyone what hand you have. You can lie about your hand, but you're not supposed to tell the truth about it (see Paul Phillips in Episode 1 of WPT Season 2 for this one). Again, it'll probably be viewed as being unethical rather than being illegal (unless you keep doing it) but to be on the safe side, just don't do it.


These are the rules ones you'll get called out on the most - no doubt there'll be an old dude there who'll want to call some obscure rule on you (there's at least one in every casino, I'm told) but these are the basics. If in doubt about anything, just ask the dealer.

1. U cant say..."i call and raise you"...lol...not the old west!!
2. make all chip actions behind ur cards..anything in front can be construed as forward motion
3. verbals are binding!!!
4. not in the hand..dont chat about the hand...in our league it is referred to as "THE MUGSY RULE" after our dear, but loud and chatty, friend!!!

LOL - gawd knows who we'd name the chatting rule after at our regular game

Another one that can't hurt too (some places insist on it, others just make it optional) is to 'cap' your cards if you're going to play the hand. It means putting something on top of your cards, to say to the dealer "don't muck these cards, I'm playing them".

It can be something as easy as a chip. Or a toy shark, if you're Humberto Brenes. Or a disposable cigarette lighter if you're like that George "Crete Forever" guy and think the Aviation Club is just too classy and needs to be brought down a notch

dont ask a barber if you need a haircut.

Cheers for the help, mate. Think I'll be pretty nervous but I'm going for the experience really. Could get lucky though!

some good points there Oz.

One of my friends doesn't play online but he does play regularly at Crown. He got caught out the other day by, let's say an "unscrupulous" character, who had my friend convinced he had won the hand and his put his hand down in front of him. the villian called it a mucked hand and my friend, although holding the best hand, lost the pot.

do you deal of Crown, Oz? I'm in SA but keen to head over for some live action soon

Yep - angle shooting like that is sure as hell unscrupulous, but there's at least one in every card room. The biggest problem for online players is that they wouldn't even be aware that rules like that exist.

The games I deal are corporate events and pub games, BTW - the biggest problem with dealing at Crown is that dealers aren't allowed to play there