One of the basic strategies necessary for most card games is ensuring a solid Poker Face. Keeping a straight face and not giving away any hints about your hand through body language or facial expressions are few tricks that ‘Big Stack Bullies’ employ in their gameplay. .
The “Poker Face” is a skill required by any card game player. Their ability to control their hand without revealing their cards to their opponents is usually a major factor in determining the successful player on the table.
Another strategy in the game of poker is becoming the chip leader (the player who has the most chips at the table), and then playing aggressively to appear that you are a “bully” on the table. Although poker may be a card game, the aggressive player is the one who is usually favored to take the pot most of the time.
An aggressive strategy is often the way to go. And one tactic is to play so that you end up having the most number of chips on the table. Once you have established yourself as the chip leader, you will need to play aggressively to bait your opponents into folding their cards by raising exorbitant amounts.
Playing at 10 – 1 heads up
The ten-to-one strategy is commonly used by poker players who are categorized as loose aggressive. This strategy can only be employed when the value of your chips is ten times the value of your opponent. At this point, you not only have a significant advantage over your opponent, you can also afford to play around with him/her.
A major part of this strategy requires the player to micro-manage his/her chips to get the better of the opponent. The chip leader here must then employ offensive strategies to get his/her opponent to move all in. The mathematical rule of probability gives the “big stacks” player his/her advantage.
Being the chip leader, you have all the resources to intimidate your opponent into shoving the rest of his/her chips. At this point, you do not have to worry about losing as it will only be a fraction of your stack if you do lose. However, there is a good chance that in the next few calls, your opponent will come up short and you will win as a result. This strategy is estimated to often have a 33% success rate during a hand, with the opponent playing his/her hand as expected.
This strategy implies a great deal of risk. The opponent might have a run of winning hands and may overtake you as the chip leader. Even if that happens, the odds are still in your favor. Although you will be losing chips in the event of losing a hand, you will still have a fair amount in your chip stack and you can continue to play the game. Your opponent, on the other hand, will have to decide whether or not he/she will want to bet the entire stack, just to double up. If the opponent loses that hand, then he/she will be eliminated.
When you are in ten-to-one situation, you do not have to blindly employ this strategy. You must make an exorbitant raise only when the value of your cards are very high. If you have a good set of cards, then you are at the luxury of receiving two advantages. The first one is that you have a higher probability of landing a good hand due to the value of your cards. The second advantage is that you have a huge stack. You do not have to worry about losing a hand even if your opponent goes all in. You still have a lot of ammunition to attack your opponent. You should make your opponent shove when have a good hand so that your odds increase dramatically.
Loose calls and maintaining advantage
In a No Limit Hold’em poker tournament, having a big stack can be very advantageous. It is important to know how to deal with this situation once you have acquired the most amount of chips.
Having a large stack gives you the liberty to make large calls. Even if you do lose, the impact is negligible against your stack size. You should play your cards whenever you are at an advantage such as a good opening hand or landing a set on the flop. Although you have a lot of chips to play with, it is best that you do not throw them away irresponsible. Playing aggressive is the most important aspect of being a chip leader. You must know when to raise, how much to raise and which player to make the raise to. In most cases, professional poker players tend to single out their opponents and targeting them for large wins.
You must make sure that you call bluffs as minimal as possible. There are many times when players are baited into calling bluffs that they lose a lot of money and golden bracelets.
To stay ahead of your opponents, you must make sure that you are resolute in your gameplay. There is no sense in pretending to be a bully by making large raises. Expert players will pick you off, especially if you are giving away many tells. Ensuring that your opponents do not read you is essential in successfully employing this strategy.