Pre-Flop

Before the flop you have two options which are to slow play your aces or come out strong and let people know that you’re holding a hand. I prefer to usually almost always raise the pot pre-flop with aces because I hate it when someone limps in with junk and beats you on the flop. There is nothing worse then losing a big hand on pocket aces when you limp into the pot initially because you’re thinking you can trap your opponent into paying you off.

Flop

If you decided to raise the pot and you got a caller then you should quickly analyze the flop. If you didn’t hit a set and there are flush and straight options out there than you should either push all-in and take the pot down or fold in this position. You don’t want to keep your opponent in the pot with any draws on the board because you never know what your opponent could be holding and it could bear you if they hit a draw.

If you decided not to raise the pot pre-flop, than you’re not going to know where you stand in the pot. I would recommend throwing out a bet right now to see if anyone makes the call. If someone makes the call then you need to start looking at whether or not your opponent could have a straight or flush. If there are no draws on the board, than they could have flopped a set or two pairs. Generally you’ll see two pairs a lot more then a flopped set, but two pairs will beat your single pair of aces unless something comes on the turn or river to help you out.

After the flop if you still have an opponent in the pot you need to decide whether or not you’re winning the pot and either make a big bet or fold your aces. If you slow played your aces pre-flop and you think your opponent has you beat then don’t be scared to fold your aces. In fact folding the aces is a lot better then playing the aces and losing because everyone will see you lost by slow playing your aces and might even put you on tilt.

I rarely ever play aces past the flop unless the poker strategy call for me to be all-in and someone calls me because it’s just to risky to slow play your aces in most situations. Don’t lose a big pot with aces because you tried trapping your opponent, it will most likely make you feel sick to the stomach and it will hurt your bankroll.

Be Patient

In large tournaments on FullTilt you’ll always see about 20-50 people go out of the tournament almost instantly and that’s because most people don’t have patience. You need to have some patience and wait for your big hands to come in the early stages of a multi table tournament. You don’t want to get burned early on and take a hit to your stack, because you’ll want it to use when you get a big hand.

Don’t Be Scared

There is one thing to be patient and one thing to be scared and you don’t want to be scared. When you feel you have the best hand don’t be afraid to push or call an all-in. A lot of players you’ll notice will play marginal hands and you don’t want to be bullied by a weaker hand. When you got the goods, push your stack into the middle and just hope it holds up. You need to win a lot of chips in a multi table tournament so you can’t sit and wait forever to play some cards.

Sit-Out If You Can

If you get enough chips to play poker online and you have a fairly large stack over the rest of your competition then don’t start trying to steal pots and buy hands from players. In a multi table tournament players go all-in almost every hand so you’ll be sure to get a caller if you push and you don’t want to risk your chips. It’s hard to get an early lead in a large tournament so if you happen to then try sitting back a bit and only play your premium cards when they come. Blinds won’t be an issue for you so you won’t need to be afraid of getting eaten up by blinds.

Near The Money?

If you make it near the money places and you’re in a good position to win some money don’t play many hands until you’re guaranteed money. You shouldn’t risk your entire tournament life until you’re already down into the money. Now if you’re barely hanging on you need to make a stand because blinds will be enormous at this PokerStars download stage.

You need a bit more then just skill in a large tournament such as The World Series of Poker because you’re going to need to survive more than one all-in hand which is hard to do even with the best hand. I’ve seen many people get rivered when they had the best hand on the turn so you need some luck for sure, but without skill you’re never going to win anyways so make sure you learn how to play MTT’s.

The six day World Series of Poker Europe Main Event finally came to an end on Thursday, October 2nd as seasoned pro John Juanda outlasted the 22-hour final table to claim the 1st place prize of £868,800, and the prestigious bracelet.

In what would become the final hand of the WSOPE Main Event – Hand #484, to be exact – Juanda never faltered. From the button, Alekhin moved all-in with Ac-9s. Quick to call, Juanda revealed Ks-6c. When the Flop came down 6d-6s-2d, it would become one of the most one-sided poker hands in WSOP Main Event history. Alekhin’s hopes were already sitting on the rails when a Qc fell on the Turn, and another 6h on the River drove the blade deeper.

John Juanda, who endorses PokerStars Download would be crowned victor with Quad 6s dominating Stanislav’s mere Ace High.

Juanda’s highly skilled heads-up opponent and eventual runner up at the WSOPE Main Event, Stanislav Alekhin, who is considering joining the PokerStar.net team, was virtually unknown before the amazing finish that earned him a 2nd place prize of £533,950. In a post-game interview, the Full Tilt Poker Pro praised his Russian opponent for his incredible skill, stating that Alekhin was virtually impossible to read.

John has previously collected 3 WSOP bracelet’s over his illustrious poker career, but this was his first Main Event win. The Indonesian-born poker pro, now residing in California, earned his first WSOP Bracelet in 2002 playing Triple Ball Lowball Ace-Five, and another two in the 2003 WSOP playing Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo Split and Pot Limit Omaha.

Juanda was filled with elation after the victory and quick to joke about his prior victories. “It’s so long ago when I won my last bracelet, I can’t remember. It’s embarrassing. Some people have to keep up with the Joneses. I have to keep up with the Ivey’s and Cunningham’s and Negreanu’s (of PokerStars.com). I wondered if I will ever win again.”

On a more serious note, the Full Tilt Pro continued, “Today there are so many young, excellent tournament players from all over the world, like the two young Russians and the Scandis; much more than it used to be. PokerStars Daniel Negreanu said that we have to step up our game.”

* The first thing you need to take note of is that these tournaments are generally lengthier then normal single table sit and go tournaments so you need to have patience and of course the time to play the tournament in full. Since the top five players out of ten make money the action is generally pretty slow except for when two players have monster hands pre-flop and get there money in before the flop comes.

* Early on in these double-up UB Poker tournaments is a good time for you to start playing some pots early to see if you can hit some big flops. The reason you want to play early in the tournament is because the blinds are really small and you can normally see the flop for cheap. So when you have suited connectors no matter the size it’s smart to check out a flop and see what your options are from there. As the tournament progresses you’re going to need to slow down how many pots you’re playing due to the blinds becoming bigger so play some hands while the blinds are small.

* When you get down to six or seven players while playing, and you have a decent amount of chips and are sitting in first or second place I suggest slowing right down at this point. You should have enough chips if you’re in first or second to just wait out the seventh and sixth place finishers and win money. When you start playing hands you shouldn’t be this late in the tournament you’re going to end up getting burned on a bad beat and that’s the most terrible feeling there is especially if it costs you from winning money in the tournament.

* If you ever have the short stack go all-in near the end of the poker tournament and you have a hand you really need to think about whether it’s worth calling. Of course you want to knock out the player and end the tournament, but if you lose will you be in last place or will you still have a chance at coming back? You need to ask yourself these questions before making the call because sometimes no matter how good your hand looks it just isn’t worth risking the whole tournament in hopes of knocking out the final opponent. Let other players do the dirty work for the most part and only play your monster hands when you do play.