#pre-flop

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ALL IN Magazine's insight:

There's no set rules for pre-flop raising. There can't be. As soon as a player begins following a set of rules, others will adjust their play to take advantage of them. It's more important for beginners to learn how to vary their play rather than search for one blanket strategy for winning.

Today's another lose is like this: I got pre-flop (A, Q) suited, which is just a Category 2. A player has a huge raise in the early position. The bet is 90% of my stack. It is in the middle stage of the tournament and I am 50% below the average. I called and found out the player got (A, K).

Lession:

Even though my situation is not good (50% below average and the blind becomes big), I shouldn't called this hand because:

The raiser is in early position and raise more than half of his stack, which indicates his hand is pretty strong.

Because my hand is Category 2, pretty strong but not enough, especially it is not a made hand. If the flop doesn't hit and even it hit A, my kicker is not the best;

In today's tournament, I am in a good situation (7000 chips when the average is just 4000). Next hand, I got a pocket pair (J, J) but someone before me have a pot size raise. I went all-in, but found out that he got a even big pair (K, K). Then my situation suddenly went bad (from 7000 chips to 2000 chips).

Lession:

When you got a premium pocket pair (>10), see what's your stack

If your stack is small, then just go all-in to see if you can survive;

If your stack is big, think more:

estimate the stack size of the player (raisers before you and players after you) as well as the style of the player. If their stack sizes are much smaller than you and they are timid, all-in is preferred.