Poker tournaments are so much fun to play because of the small stakes that are involved. Of course, some players may find them to be frustrating but for the most part, you get to enjoy yourself and are quite lucrative if played right. Most best online casino usa offer Poker tournaments so they shouldn’t be too difficult to find. Below are a few tips to winning at Poker tournament.

Prepared For a Long Session

Usually, the tournaments take long to complete. Because of that, you really need to be prepared. Remember, patience pays. Make sure you have everything you need before getting started.

Prepared For Some Crazy Swings

There is a huge variance in small stakes poker. This is because there are many opponents to deal with. Also, the opponents may call your raises with some crazy holdings, which makes the outcome unpredictable. This makes the situation frustrating in the short term. However, it can actually be favourable in the long run. Therefore, we suggest that you make sure your bankroll is good enough just in case you need something to fall back on.

Value Bet Your Hands to the Max

Make sure that you keep everything simple and just letting the cards fall however they want to. In addition, it’s important that you get the maximum value from the hands that you would have made. Consider betting more as this allows you to take advantage with your strong holdings or online casino games, in case other players call your bets.

Don’t Worry About Playing a “Balanced Style”

Remember, when playing small stakes poker tournaments, you can be as unbalanced as you want. In fact, you don’t even need to worry about revealing you playing patterns. Just make sure that you vary your bets just so that you are not read easily. Who knows, you might just be playing against skilled poker players who can pick up those things quite easily.

If you decide to disconnect from virtual play for a while to play in a live setting, you need to think about how body language and physical appearance are going to affect your performance. In a real-life setting, poker players try to read other players by looking at the way they are dressed, the way they hold themselves, and their facial expressions, so you need to be careful not to give the wrong impression (unless you want to give them false tells, of course, but that’s a risky strategy). 

I’m not saying you have to wear a big cowboy hat like those guys in poker movies, but you will need to think carefully about how you dress and how you’re presenting yourself to the other players at the table.

What to wear

The number one tip would probably be this: don’t try too hard! If you show up at a live poker game wearing a tuxedo like a James Bond wannabe, people are not going to take you seriously. This isn’t a movie! Lots of poker players favor clothes that cover their faces, such as hoodies, hats, and sunglasses, as these can help to minimize visible physical tells. But, conversely, they can also draw attention to you, perhaps mark you out as someone who lacks the experience to control their physical tells and might, in specific contexts, be perceived as a sign of weakness. 

Another potential downside to covering your face with hoods and glasses is that you may be preventing yourself from using your facial expressions to give false tells. As we mentioned earlier, this can be a risky strategy, but if you’re an experienced live-action player and confident in your ability to manipulate your opponents’ thinking with false physical tells, then ditch the sunglasses and hoodies.

You need to think carefully about all of these variables, where you’re playing, who you’re playing with, and what you feel comfortable wearing when planning your outfit for a live poker game. As it’s essential to stay relaxed and calm during a poker session, choosing clothes that you feel most comfortable in is probably the best approach.

Body language

The other factor in this equation is body language beyond the facial expressions mentioned above. It’s common to hear statements such as “80% of all communication is non-verbal,” and, while there is some debate on the exact figures, what is doubtlessly true is that non-verbal communication, i.e., body language, is incredibly important, especially in the context of a live-action poker game. 

Strong = weak

A very general rule to follow is this: strong body language means the player has a weak hand, and weak or disinterested body language means the player has a strong hand. For instance, if a player puts on a brash and confident air when making bets by raising their voice, slamming chips about, and being very emphatic in their movements, then they may well be trying to overcompensate for weak cards. If, on the other hand, a player sighs dejectedly, folds their arms, and leans back from the table during play, they may well be sitting on a great hand. 

These are very general rules of thumb, of course, and you’ll also need to observe other player’s behavior over time, looking for patterns and trying to construct some frame of reference. Try and gauge what their normal behavior is and watch out for deviations from it, then you will start to get a more definite sense of how to interpret their body language.

For example: what is their regular breathing pattern? Can you notice their breath becoming heavier or shallower? Do they like to maintain eye contact, or do they prefer to look away? Is their general body language open, or closed? When you have established some reference points, you will notice when their behavior deviates from this norm, which may well indicate that the player is holding some good cards. Be observant of and responsive to changes in your opponents’ body language, and you could find yourself improving your game.

In short, poker is a complicated game, and successful players have to be able to process large amounts of information from several channels to win. Your opponents’ physical appearance is one of those channels. Tune in to it.

Mastering poker is no easy feat. Whilst most card games have a relatively straightforward set of rules, to start with, poker requires a good understanding of the ranking value of different card combinations which include:

• High card
• One pair
• Two pairs
• Three of a kind
• Straight
• Flush
• Full house
• Four if a kind
• Straight flush
• Royal flush

As you can see, there are quite a few combinations and rankings that you will need to understand. Then, you also have to get your head around the tactics involved and the psychological side of the game. You will have heard the term ‘poker face’, which originates from the way poker players are able to conceal their expressions, so they don’t give their game away to their opponents.

When you’re sat with an unbeatable hand, you need to make key decisions regarding psychology – raise the stakes too much and you could cause your opponent to fold early. This is just the start; there is so much more to understand and get to grips with if you are to become a good poker player.

Learning the basics

Different people like to learn in different ways, so it is best to find the right way for you. Some people prefer to watch YouTube videos that explain the rules, whilst others like to read books. There are loads of websites dedicated to teaching novices the ropes if you like to do your research that way.

Other people prefer to learn poker by playing the game, either without any money at stake or using very small sums whilst they develop their understanding. You can take a look at our recommended live games to have a go at one of the poker games if that is your favorite way to learn how to play games, or just come back to it when you have built a good understanding of the game.

Like most games, the more you play, the more you improve, so playing regularly will help to get you quickly up to speed. As your understanding of the rules advances, you can start to think about applying more complex tactics to your game. David Sklansky’s books on poker, such as The Theory of Poker, are a good place to start if you are looking to take your poker to the next level after mastering the basics.

As a successful professional poker player, Sklansky has been sharing his tactics and insights into poker through numerous books and videos; there are few players in the world who can offer his experience and knowledge.

“poker 005” (CC BY 2.0) by raffaelesergi1977

Styles of play

Poker players tend to rotate through different styles of play:

Tight – A more cautious approach with few risks

Loose – A high-risk approach

Aggressive – Putting pressure on other players with big bets

Passive – Allowing the opponent to dictate play, with more calling than betting

The more comfortable you become with floating in and out of these styles, the better chance you have of success, as you become less predictable. This is particularly important if you play with the same players on a regular basis.

This is just a very quick introduction to the best ways to develop your poker knowledge and skills but, in reality, it can take years to master. However, if you spend the time to educate yourself and practice, you will have a really good chance of becoming a poker master.

Card games and betting often go hand in hand, and casino or online play poker have taken the world by storm. Televised events regularly offer prize pools worth hundreds of thousands, and poker professionals occasionally scoop multimillion wins as if it were casual. The popularity has led to the development of many variations, aside from the traditional types of poker like Texas Hold ‘em and Omaha. As a result, online sites, especially, are in a race to make the most innovative game.

One format to come out of the online boom is a fast-fold poker known on the 888 platform as SNAP poker. This variation centres on the same rules of Texas Hold ‘em but with one big twist: when you fold, you are instantly seated at the next available table and dealt another hand. It’s poker, but much faster!

What is SNAP poker?

As mentioned, SNAP poker is a fast-fold format available at 888poker. You can play it both as a cash game and as a tournament, and it is available at many different buy-in levels. When a player folds, they are randomly seated at a different table and dealt a new hand. The SNAP fold button even allows players to fold before their turn and move straight on with the next hand. Other players will not see the fold until it is your turn.

In cash games, there is also the option to fold and watch. That means you can move onto your new table and get a new hand but also, watch the action of the hand you recently folded. The folded hand will pop up on a new screen for you to observe.

The basic idea of SNAP poker is that you play a lot more hands. You don’t have to sit around waiting for a decent hand for a long time. You can fold and move on. You can probably play around 3–4x more hands per hour in a SNAP poker game, too, compared to a regular cash game or tournament with a similar structure. It’s also easy to join the games from your lobby.

SNAP is appealing for recreational players who want to be involved in action but also want to bet with a big hand. It allows you to jump right in and play fast, which is also good news for anyone on a time limit. But what about serious players? Is there any strategy that can help you to win these games?

Key Differences Between Texas Hold ‘em and SNAP Poker

It’s critical to get to grips with the key differences (and similarities) between a standard Texas Hold ‘em poker game and SNAP poker to understand what strategy to use first.

SNAP poker uses the same rules with a big blind and small blind, dealer button, hand rankings and betting sequences. It’s almost the same game. The two key differences are:

• You move a table after every single hand.
• You, and other players, can fast fold.

These differences create changes in the dynamics at the poker tables. The main differences to remember are the fast-fold and table changes, which mean that there is less information to use.

Poker is already a game of incomplete information. You don’t know what your opponent holds, so you aim to fill in those gaps by observing how they play, making notes and perhaps using your poker HUD to record statistics.

In SNAP poker, you will not get the luxury of watching your opponents over multiple hands, as they will move a table. By the same token, they do not see as much information about how you play. There is little in the way of history and even less in table dynamics and hand reading.

To put this into perspective, let’s say the player pool is 500 players in a SNAP tourney or ring game. The tables have nine people on them. On average, it will take you 55 hands to see the same player again (500/9). So, if it takes you 20 hands to get any meaningful read on a player, you could be waiting for 1,000 hands for this to happen in a SNAP game.

Adapting to SNAP Poker

How do you adapt to this information gap? The answer is to play a more basic game based on mathematics and make the right plays against what are unknown players. You can also exploit the fact that the other players can’t make a read on you. Finally, you can also take advantage of the fact that more people will be fast-folding pre-flop as well as post-flop if they run into any trouble.

Remember, poker is not like roulette, which has fixed odds. With the right knowledge, you can become a better player. Given these adjustments, you can think about the following strategic tips for SNAP poker:

• Make optimal plays based on mathematics and rely less on your ability to read other players.

• You don’t have to worry about making complex plays (apart from in late-stage tournaments), levelling opponents, mixing up your play, balancing your range or getting creative with your betting. All these will be unnecessary and ineffective without any history between players. Play ABC poker for the most part.

• Don’t only fold waiting for premiums. That’s what everyone else does. Exploit the fact that everyone else folds by making small, selectively aggressive plays, such as stealing blinds, C-betting the flop and three-betting pre-flop.

• Play fewer tables of SNAP poker to make up for the speed. Even multi-tabling a few of these games can be too fast for most players. Expect a lower win rate than the equivalent standard format game if grinding, but remember, you can put in more volume per hour — even with a lower win rate, they can be more profitable.

• Without the information of hand reading and observing opponents over long periods, you must rely on the other factors that are still left. They are: your starting hand, position, number of players in the pot, opponent’s position and their betting pattern over the single hand.

I hope that these tips are useful when playing fast-fold format poker games like SNAP poker. The basic idea is to use your best ABC maths-based poker strategy and consider the information gap. Use it to your advantage by making simple aggressive plays. Your opponent will have no idea that you have raised the button 20 times in a row! Have fun, and happy learning.