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When playing no limit ring games or tournaments, it is important to keep your bet sizes the same. By raising pre-flop the same amount each time, it becomes difficult for your opponents to put you on a hand. If you end up raising less with your premium pocket pairs, your observant opponents will be more likely to accurately put you on a hand.

Typically, most good players will raise pre-flop three to four times the big blind. They will make the same size raise if they have pocket aces or 76 off-suit. This keeps your opponents guessing if the flop helped you or not.

It is also important to maintain consistency with your bet sizes post-flop. If you end up varying the size of your bet based on whether or not you were helped by the flop or not, your opponents will have a huge advantage. It will be almost as if your cards are face up. A bet on the flop after you were the pre-flop raiser is called a “continuation bet”. Post-flop bets are typically measured in relationship to the pot size.

A typical continuation bet is at least half the pot. Sometimes it is advisable to bet three quarters of the pot or a bet that equals the pot. Bet any less than that and you are giving your opponents the proper pot odds to continue with the hand. Betting more than the pot will most likely result in your opponents folding, and you not getting paid off on your strong hands.

Obviously the size of your continuation bet should depend on the characteristics of your opponents. When up against calling stations, you will need to bet a little more and likewise, against tight passive players you should probably bet a bit less.

Another factor to consider is the number of opponents. In a hand against multiple opponents, your bets need to be a little larger because there is a greater chance that at least one of your opponents is on a draw. If you are up against a single opponent, you will likely be able to protect your hand with a smaller bet.

The nature of the flop is also important when determining how much to bet. If you have top pair or an overpair and the board appears safe, you should make a smaller continuation bet as you want your opponents to call with hands like middle pair. If the board has obvious potential straight or flush draws, then you will want to bet more in order to protect your hand. You want to charge your opponents more, in order to hit their draw.

There are many factors in determining how much you should bet. There is a fine line between getting value out of your strong hands while protecting your hand against your opponents’ draws. Being consistent with your bet sizes will give you a big advantage over your opponents because you will be tougher to read.

Poker players often disagree about the proper strategy to employ in no limit multi-table tournaments. Many poker theorists argue that survival should be the ultimate goal. They believe that unless you are very certain that you will win the hand, folding is the best option.

They argue that you can’t win a tournament in the first hour, therefore playing a very tight game is the ideal strategy. They feel that if you survive until the later stages of a tournament you will have the opportunity to get lucky and make a run at the final table.

Many of the top poker pros deviate from this strategy and believe that taking risks early on in order to build a large stack gives them the best opportunity to win.

Instead of playing an extremely tight game at the beginning stages of a tournament, many pros will try to play a lot of hands provided they can see the flop cheaply. They feel that there are many bad players who will bust out fairly quickly and the top players want those chips.

The top players want to build their stack so that they will be able to push other players around. By building a big stack early, they avoid being worried if they go card dead during a later stage of the tournament since they will have enough chips to pay the increasing blinds.

The downside to this strategy is that by taking some risks early on, these players are much more likely to be knocked out earlier than a tight player. The funny thing is that some players don’t really think of this as a downside. They would much rather get knocked out early and join another tournament or a ring game, than play for hours and hours just to win back their original buy-in. They know that payouts in tournaments are usually very top heavy, and their goal is to make the final table.

Poker players can have success with either strategy. The key is to play a style with which you are comfortable. Playing a “survival” style will decrease your variance and allow you to play longer on average in tournaments.

The survival strategy might be ideal in situations where you had to drive for hours to get to the tournament and there are no other games available if you get knocked out. Online players can quickly join another game, so busting out early is not quite as disheartening.

Many poker players sit down at an open seat without giving any thought as to where they should sit at the table. Seat selection can have a profound effect on your win rate, as well as make for a much more enjoyable session. Take a couple of minutes to observe the table before you sit down, and choose your seat wisely. Typically, you want the aggressive players to sit to your right, and the more passive, predictable players to sit to your left. Aggressive players, especially ones who play a lot of hands, will be constantly betting and raising when they are involved in a hand.

Look at what happens when you have aggressive players to your left… Each time you enter the pot thinking that it will only cost you one bet, an aggressive player behind you raises, costing you more to see the flop. Post-flop you might see yourself in a similar situation. You may think you have the pot odds to continue in a hand, only to find it will cost you many more bets than you anticipated. You bet a good hand, only to have the aggressive players continue to raise. They are using their position against you to their advantage.

Now, when you are sitting to the left of the aggressive players, you will have more information when it is time to make a decision about how to play your hand. You will know how many bets it will cost you to continue with the hand. By having an aggressive player to your right, you will have the opportunity to raise their bets and isolate them against the rest of the field. You will force the opponents who act after you to call multiple bets if they want to outdraw your hand.

To illustrate the importance of seat selection, let’s say you have JJ and a loose, aggressive player raises pre-flop. You can then raise, thereby forcing your opponents to call three bets if they want to see a flop. The tighter, predictable players will be much more likely to fold hands like KQ and AT, so if an overcard to your Jacks falls on the flop, you can win a pot that you otherwise would lose. Isolating the aggressive player will give you position throughout the hand and make your decisions later on in the hand much easier.

Now let’s look at the dangers of having a loose, aggressive player to your left. You raise pre-flop with your JJ and the aggressive player raises. The other players at the table know this player is a bit of a maniac and therefore do not respect his re-raise and are consequently much more likely to call. After the flop, the aggressive player will be more likely to raise your bet even if he didn’t hit his hand, and you will find yourself paying multiple bets not knowing where you stand in the hand.

So take a few minutes and scout out the table before you sit down… you will find that your wallet thanks you.