Thoughts on No-Limit Hold'em

Surviving While Accumulating Chips
Part 1

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Thoughts
on No-Limit
Hold'em

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Walt Nelson

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Surviving While Accumulating Chips - Part 1
(Page 1 of 5)

Background: The Prime Directive
This is the second article in this series on No-Limit Hold'em tournament strategy. In the first article, Survive: the Prime Directive, I introduced the concept that the most important idea that a tournament poker player must keep in mind is Survival. You can win any place in a tournament, except first place, with a single chip. Accumulating chips is nice, and it's necessary; but what really wins the money in tournaments is surviving - outlasting the other players. Survive is the Prime Directive. If you haven't read that article, may I suggest that you read it now.

While surviving, it is still important to accumulate chips. Therefore, in this article and the next one that follows, we will talk about survival-friendly ways to accumulate chips in a no-limit holdem tournament.

Intelligent Aggression
Based on what you have read in the previous "Survive!" article, you are probably thinking that I am going to recommend a careful, conservative approach to the task of accumulating chips.

Actually, my recommendations will be just the opposite. Have you ever head the saying, "The best defense is a good offense!"? Well, I am going to suggest in the next two articles that the best way to survive in a no-limit holdem poker tournament is to go on the offensive and employ what I call "Intelligent Aggression."

Before I explain what Intelligent Aggression is and why I believe that it is the best way to survive and accumulate chips, lets step back for a moment and think deeply about this game called Poker.

Let's ask ourselves the question:

"What kind of a game is Poker? What can we compare it to in real life?"

Going Once, Going Twice, Sold!
One day, when I asked myself that question, I came to the conclusion that Poker is like an Auction. Did the similarity between poker and an auction ever occur to you? In an auction, the auctioneer sets the minimum bid. Starting at that minimum, several people bid, and the item is sold to the highest bidder. When the bidding slows down and it appears that there will be no higher bids, the auctioneer says "Going once, Going twice, Sold to bidder number 6."

Let's compare that to poker: the betting starts with the the big blind. Other "bidders" have the option to pass, match the bid, or increase the bid (raise). When a player bets or raises and no one calls, that player wins the bid and the pot. You can imagine the dealer saying: "Going once, Going twice, Sold to seat #6."

The only time the pot is not won by bidding is at the showdown on the river - in that case, the cards determine the winner. However, until the showdown, poker is not really about cards - It is about bidding (betting). The item on sale is the pot, and it will go to the person who makes a bid that no other player is willing to match. You can think of the showdown on the river as the "tie breaker," if no player won the bidding.

When you understand - really and truly understand - that pre-showdown poker is an auction, that understanding will probably change your entire approach to the game of Poker - especially No-Limit poker.

The Cards Don't Matter until the Showdown
So then, this means that until and unless the game reaches the river and the showdown, it does not really matter what cards the players hold. If a player wins the pot before the river, the player has actually bought the pot - he or she was the highest bidder. It didn't matter if the player had AA, or 22, or QT, or 7-2 offsuit!

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