The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

If you are fortunate enough to build a big stack of chips, you have the advantage of taking down pots uncontested and bullying smaller stacks with the threat of eliminating from the game. It is usually a good idea to always enter a pot raising so you can establish the psychological dominance immediately while other players decide whether or not to continue on with the hand.

The is especially true if you're one of the blinds or on the button, and everyone has folded to you. Now you have to consider your image to the other players while you decide if you'll carry on with the two cards in front of you: Have you played lots of pots, or are you somewhat tight? If you have a hand like J-9 and have played lots of pots, you probably want to pick another time to try to steal. If you've played relatively few pots, it might be okay to try to steal at this point.

If you decide to play the hand, I'd raise 90% of the time, maybe just call if there's a chronic blind "defender" who'll call with any two cards. But the point is to take advantage of being one of the big stacks, from time to time you should take your marginal hands and raise in efforts to get your smaller-stacked opponents to fold. Because they see you have the ability to knock them out of play, they'll show you much more respect if they decide to contest a pot. Those extra chips will come in handy as the blinds keep on rising.

Now if you're up against another big stack, depending on the way they're playing, I'd likely only want to get involved in a hand against them with premium cards. For example, if I'm holding Q-J suited and raise, but then get re-raised by this big stack, I'm pretty sure my cards are finding their way into the muck. Remember the purpose of raising with these types of hands: to bluff and steal chips. If your hand gets caught in the cookie jar against someone who can bust you while you still have a healthy chip count in the tournament, I'd pick a better spot and not be too stubborn to let the hand go.

On the other hand, against a much smaller stack, I might be willing to gamble a little more since there's no threat in busting out and you might be able to steal with a continuation bet if it's checked to you. Again, if you're wrong, you're still in the tournament.

Your chip stack is a critical component on how you play your hands and how others play against you.