Surviving Smaller Tables During No Limit Texas Hold'em

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.