A little help for those starting out!

I am by no means a great poker player or pro. However, I do play a lot of poker and have a ton of experience both live and online. So I thought I would offer what I have found to be the most important aspects of this game. Call it my Ahah moment if you will. It took me hundreds of hours of playing and studying to finally "get it" and hopefully I can get you on the path of enlightment quicker.

I have been reading some of the posts in this forum and it seems that the first thing that a player notices is hand strength. I was reading the post about AK and it just screamed about the huge leak that most players have.

Tournament poker is all about stack sizes first. The actual hand you are holding is secondary. I suggest everyone that is wanting to get good at poker to study about stack sizes. i.e. How do I play a short stack? How do I counter a short stack? What do I do with 20BB's...with 30BB's.....with 40+BB's?

When you know what you should be doing with those stacks then you start to understand what your oppenets are doing based upon the stack size they have. Put the two together and you can find spots to win chips regardless of your cards.

Obv your premiums hands are going to be worth playing regardles of stack sizes for the most part, but by understanding how to play based upon your stack size you are going to give yourself more oppurtunities to win.

Also you probably always here people talk about "changing gears" in a tournament. That is knowing when to play tighter or looser and whatnot and that the best players change gears at the right times. The biggest indicator of when to change gears is based upon how big your chipstacks is in relation to the blinds.

I wanted to throw this out there to hopefully help some start thinking on that next level that they are not at yet. If you are there already great and please add to this thread with some advice and if not try your best to get there. I think this is a very important topic and now that I have written this I think I am going to add more to it in this thread (if anyone is interested) and make an indepth post on my blog about it as well. Which I will post here if this thread gets any attention.

If you have any questions ask. I love talking poker and just feel like giving back a little seeing as how forums is where I gained a lot of my information when I was learning.

Hope this helps.

Hello, and thanks for making this a little more clear (to me). I just started playing poker a couple months back and thus far am only playing free roll tourny's to develop my skills.
After reading your post, I realized that I do this instinctively in the sense that as my stack size grows, I tend to play looser against opponents with smaller stacks, and tighter against opponents with much larger stacks.
It seems to serve me well as I've been able to make up lost ground this way, and gain ground rather quickly when the premium hands and favorable flops come about.

So what I'm curious about is if there are recommended numbers to abide by when determining the right time to 'switch gears'?
(ie i'll play tight until i have 30xbb, then moderately tight until 40xbb, and loose at 50xbb)
Or is this all dynamically based on the table you're currently sitting at?

Glad I could help some. That is what we are all here for.

I guess there are some basic guidelines to go by......with that being said those guidelines should be tweaked based upon table dynamics.

There are two trains of thoughts when to determine stack size guidelines and that is M(your stack/blinds and antes) or bb's(your stack/bb's). I would recommend getting an understanding of both. When I was first starting I based my stack off of M. As I got more experienced I do the same thing now based on bb mainly just because it easier for me to figure out while at the table.

With that being said I guess the basic guideline I go by is something like this.

100bb+ - I recommend reckless aggression here. By that I mean I am opening most pots that are unopened when they get to me. Not garbage hands though.....I mean 72 and hands like 104 and whatnot are useless regardless of your stack, but I'm talking adding in all connectors and even one gappers suited or not.....maybe not your lower ones but 56 or 79 hands like that. I am opening those. I am cbetting a ton if the board is right. If I happen to get flatted and wind up OOP on the flop I like to check raise on most boards. Basically if I am confident that the board has not helped the others hand then I am cbetting in position and check raising out of it. I find that check raise OOP to be great because so many people know to cbet when their opponents check to them on the flop so it gets mad respect. If I get any aggression back i.e. 3bet pre when I open, or check raised myself, or anything like that I usually shut down unless I have caught a good flop. then I proceed with caution trying to get to showdown as cheap as possible unless I am confident I am ahead then I will be comfortable playing a larger pot.

50bb+ Kind of the same as 100bb+ except it is a lot more likely there is another stack or two that are close to your size and can ruin your day on a cooler. So I tighten my range up a little still opening if those stacks are out and if not only opening that wider range when I have position. Same type of play on the flop and pot control is even more important here.

40bb+ standard TAG poker for me here. Looking for decent hands in good position and opening them and playing them aggressively. One thing to take into consideration here when facing a tough decision. Is how much you have left if you fold. 20bb is the crucial point. If I will be left with less then that and I have a marginal decision I will usually call because I don't want to be left with <20bb's if I have a legitimate shot at a larger pot.

30bb+ time to steal blinds along with your standard TAG game. basically playing my good hands like I would any other time but opening up on the cutoff and button and sb to steal blinds if I get the chance. This just helps ensure that we keep a healthy stack a little longer. Hopefully just long enough to get us to that next premium holding. If we get played back at when stealing it is ok to fold and move on.

25-30bb's - Tightening up, but still looking for goods spots to steal the blinds. I am typically trying to steal with a little better hand here though so that I can defend if someone plays back at my steal. Now table dynamics is huge because when choosing to play back you have to make sure that particular opponent will either fold or at least that you are likely ahead of his range.

20-25bb's - Resteal mode. What I mean by this is you are looking for stacks that are in the 30-50bb area and when they open the pot you are looking to shove and steal their steal ala restealing. I don't really like making this play with weak aces. I prefer connectors and one gappers and any hand that is good enough to be getting it in anyways. The reason I don't like the weak aces is because to often when the player calls your shove they have an A and is your outkicked you have few outs. 46 off plays better against a9suited then a5 does. you know what I mean.

I don't have much advice for less then 20bb's because I basically don't let my stack get there. I would rather get it in with 20bb and have a chance at doubling to a playable stack then to blind down and have to double up just so could be in resteal mode at 20bb's

I hope this helps more. Check out my blog in my signature. I just started it so not a lot of content yet but I think you may find it helpful. I am working on a write up all about this stack sizing and changing gears as well.

Thanks, another piece of the pie for us beginners to give thought to.