What are the best hands to play in a tourney?

I have always heard you should mostly fold in a tournament. What are the best hands you should play in a tournament.

Same as anywhere else, I would just add a couple in certain situations like low pairs and suited connectors when you can put a relatively small bet into the pot to see the flop and possibly take away a huge pot if your cards hit.

The best hand to play in a tournament is.....The winning hand

in tournament ,you have to consider the stack your opponents

The age-old tournament question...do you play tight early on to survive, or do you play loose early on, while the blinds are small, to build a stack?

Those who have been around the site for a while know I vote for survival. I defer to proven veterans like Tom McEvoy and T.J. Cloutier on that opinion. But there are just as many who go for the gold in the first hour. Quite a few of today's top internet players insist that high aggression is the path to the final table. Each side has the notches in their gun to back their argument. If one approach or the other was clearly better, everybody would play that way.

I have played on alot of different sites and played almost all of the games for NL heads up,sit-n-go's 3,5,6,10, player tables and the bigger turney's and i can't seem to find the best stradegy for the game at one time i think staying on aces or the big slick is the way to go and nothing but little cards flop then i stay on little cards and the big ones flop who knows i say if u win the hand u played it right!!!!!!!!!!!

I think alot has to do with what type of tourney u r in and the qualtiy of players. i like to play more hands live because u hae control over the psychy of the game more then online. online i sit and what for good hands and riase accordingly

Well of course AA is quite good to play
But I play just about the same hands in a ring game

go all in with AA or KK in a tournament whatever ur stacksize is

if u are the chipleader, or has very many chips, u should limp in with everything! just to see the flop, and take ur chances, cuz if u just hold on to ur money when u have a big stack, people will get scared. since almost everyone on the table will look at ur actions when u have the most cash

I think that the best hands to get paid off on are low pocket pairs, especially early in a tournament. If you can get in to see a flop for the price of a blind and hit a set...chances are you will get paid, especially if your opponent hit the top pair.

I am also of the impression that you should play conservatively in a tournament. The way I play, is a tight and light to moderately agressive until I am in the money. Once in the money, I loosen up, and try to accumulate a big chip stack. In NL tourneys, there are just too many variables to play too aggressively early. I always like when a very aggressive player gets a big chip stack early, because I will have a pretty good shot of doubling up on him.

Hope this helps someone!

I would reccomend playing a wider arrange of hands early hoping to hit some big flops then play tighter as blinds get higher yet be more aggressive in the pots you are in after the flop whether you hit or not because less people tend to be in the hands

Asking what kind of hands to play in a tourney is asking for an easy answer to a complex game. Everyone has their own strategy. No one is right... No one is wrong. I for instance like to play every hand towards the beginning because it won't cost me too much.

Imagine being delt 2 7 off and folding when it would have just cost you 30 of your chips to stay... and the flop comes 2 7 7. And a guy goes allin bluffing. You just missed a great potential to hike up your stack real early.

Another view would be that doubling up so early will not effect the end outcome of the tourney. These people would argue that having the most chips so early won't really achieve anything. How many times have you seen someone jump from 1500 chips to 10-20k chips within the first 20 minutes of the tourney? Do you really think these individuals will win? Most of them will have a good finishing spot... but ive never seen any of them reach the money.

Now consider the end of a tournament. Some people say to play tight. But isn't that what everyone is doing at this point? You should go alittle crazy here. Raise, All-in's, Check-Raise, Reraise. Scare 'em. Learn to target who. Those individuals who you can almost feel their assholes tighten with your aggressive style. But at the same time feel out those who think they figured you out... then offer them up something else to confuse them.

Whew... forgot what I was talking about

A couple of things. First, if you follow that school of thought, then why fold anything ever? I mean, the odds of flopping a full house on any two unpaired cards is exactly the same, so why not see them all? Second, in a tournament every chip is precious. Multiply that call that was "only 30 chips" by the five times you chose to see a flop with nothing in the hole, and there's a $150 big blind down the road you've already blown. Third, it's bad discipline. Don't do anything stupid at the $30 level that you wouldn't do at the $3,000 level. The value of your cards isn't dictated by the size of the blind or your stack. AA is still good and rags are still rags.

"In the early positions, you only want to play AK or better. If I am holding AQ (suited or unsuited) or worse in the first four seats, I don't want to put even a dime into the pot during the first few levels.

"You can lower your standards a little when you are in the middle position -seats five, six, and seven in 9-seated play. You can play a hand such as A-10 suited or above if all of the players in front of you have passed.

"I am not going to play little pairs, eights and below, in the first three or four seats. If I play them at all, I will only play them from the next five seats, and I am not going to raise with them in a full ring."

- T.J. Cloutier, winningest Hold 'Em tournament player ever, from "Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold 'Em

GUESS I'll give away a note but 4's on Poker HOST

Playing every hand will only make you lose quiker.
1) If you play every hand everyone at the table will pick up on it.
2) in a real tourney the blinds start at 25/50
3) Most of the time about 90%+ you will see a preflop raise of 3X-4X the BB
4) Playing every hand means you will be a underdog almost every hand as well

Loose players are the easiest to beat. And this is what happens to them.

a) They lose most hands

b) The table will tighten up on the hands they play but will make it more expensive for the loose player to see the flop by increasing the size of their preflop raises.

c) When trash hits the board, the loose player will not get paid because the other players already know that there is a good chance he hit the trash.


The Key to tourney play isn't trying to win every hand dealt. The Key is to have a high win % of the hands you play and winning big pots.

So play premium hands. Pay attention to position, the type of players coming in to the hand and stack sizes.

I have no idea what you just said.

AA, KK, AK, QQ, JJ, 1010, AQ, 99, 88, 77

nice quote from T.J. rammer.

You cant say what is the best hand to play in a tournament as there are way to many variables involved. But, playing the table will get you more wins than loses, and i mean watching how others bet and play. have to see who is playing tight and lose and play them properly.

g/l

Just play cards.

wat i mean is just play cards you know are decent to great!!

The best hands to play in a tunement are the best hands. How do u find them out? u have to c flops. U need to c many flops in turnys especially when the blinds are small. U have to c what u kan hit and then go from there

AA KK AK QQ all are good hands, but my biggest payoffs have always been by tripping a small pair. No one will give you credit for trips. My brother plays Aces the same way everytime. All in and try to catch someone else in with a big hand.

^ it depends

IF you play loose then you can

A) Become tourney chip leader way faster

B) go home way faster

at a tournament when I'm in a good position to win money, I play just the hands with A and something higher that 9, or a pair higher than JJ

It depends on how many people are left in the tourney, AA will win about 80% of the time heads up but only about 30% of the time against 10 players. Hope this helps.

ALSO KQ JQ JK <<< haha gotta love that smiley


PLAY RIGHT AND KEEP IT TIGHT

I LOVE seeing a pocket kings then posket aces..(i dont know why tho?)

short answer: premium hands

long answer: ready skalankys book

In every tournament I have played in, I can always look back to a few key hands the got me plenty of chips. It may be a K9 that I made two pair on, or a 7/8 suited that I straighted with. In my last tournament one of my key hands was a 4/5 off-suit that I saw from the small blind with 5 or 6 players in the pot. I flopped open-ended and turned the nut straight. In almost every tournament I play it will be something different, and a lot of times it will be a semi-junkie hand that most of your opponents will put you on.

That doesn't mean that you should get caught up in playing too much junk, but if the odds are right to play small connectors or a suited AX then get in there and see what comes on the flop.

i dont know about you guys but the best hand to play is always AA lol