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How To Survive Small Tables In No Limit Texas Holdem
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In the last, adrenaline-filled, days of a Texas No Limit Hold ‘Em Tournament, when the blinds are slowly eating up your stack and your fingers are about to fall off into poker oblivion, it is understandable why a lot of players cringe when crunch time finally comes.
Don’t let that happen to you. Remember that your emotions can totally shatter your hopes of winning and sticking to rather mechanical yet logical approaches to the game will get you the top.
Be a Pot-Eating Freak
Aggression should start to show up here. Waiting for premium or good cards like A-10 and K-Q will munch up your stack. And once you do get them, you’ll probably only have about three to eight rounds left to play! That’s why you should be bold and keep on hammering those chips on the table!
With only four to six players in the table, it is highly unlikely that someone will have good hole cards, so it is necessary that you call the high blind and lead out with a probe bet of around a third of the pot if the flop is favorable. For example, you get J-5. It’s an average hand, but you should call the high blind here, hoping for a good looking flop. It shows down 2-5-9. Since you have middle pair with a rather good kicker, you should make a value bet of around the size of the pot. It drives out most opponents and wins the pot immediately. That is the flow of plays most of the time in small tables, so it’s integral that you squeeze into pots, jostle for it and muscle them out, winning the pot.
Have Lower Raising Standards Pre-Flop
Since plays tend to go fast and rounds end quickly in a snap, it’s important that you drive out small cards held by opponents in order to avoid them getting lucky in the flop. So raise cards like A-5 and Q-9 like they were Big Slick, so small suited connectors like 5-6 will be less likely to call your raise given the current pot odds and the outs for the hand.
But lower raising standards mean more difficult decisions when the flop comes. Suppose you have Q-3 and the flop presents J-7-8. It is a very scary flop because there is a possibility of an inside-straight draw if anyone is has 9-5 or 10-5. But then, he may also don’t have them. This paves way for my argument of posting down a probe bet or a continuation bet (if you raised pre-flop). Hit it up with a bet of around half the pot. If your opponent calls, be wary because he has a drawing hand, so check only if 9 or 10 shows on the turn card but bet if it doesn’t. If he/she still calls, it’s sure that your opponent has a pair of jacks or eights. And when he/she does bet, throw away your hand.
With all the tension that resonates from adrenaline pumping short-tables poker, it is necessary that you go with the flow. Once again, you can’t be conservative in this time, given that only around ten cards will be dealt from 52, lessening the chances of getting good hole cards. Thus it is important to stomp your way and be aggressive in the waning moments of the competition.
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