Sometimes in poker, you hit lucky and find yourself with a monster pre-flop. However, if you play these hands incorrectly, you can actually find yourself in trouble. The biggest culprit for this is finding your big pocket pairs in early position.

Reason for over-raising your big pairs in early position

It is advised over-raising in early position on Poker Stars with your big pairs, mainly to protect your hand. You do not want to let too many other players get involved in the hand. Aces or Kings are a big favorite against one other opponent, but the more players that see the flop – the less your odds are of winning the hand.

The reason you over raise your big pocket pairs is to stop players in later position calling because they are getting value to call. For example, you look down to see Aces under the gun. If you make your usual standard raise, say 3 times the big blind, and a player in mid position calls with an average pocket pair like nines – other players then have the opportunity to call with marginal hands. The button looks down to see A-10 so he also calls.

You now have three players involved in the hand and the big blind is getting value to call. Therefore, if he has any marginal hand, he too will call because of the value he is getting. You now have four players going to the flop, which is bad for a hand like pocket Kings. Now you are actually not actually over 50% to win the hand, and you are forced to call any bet on the flop unless an Ace comes. This can actually end up costing you a good of your stack.

Protecting you big hand

Over raising in early position will make it harder for other players to call, thus making it more unlikely to run into more than one opponent on the flop. For example, say the blinds are 100-200, and you have K-K UTG. This time you raise five times the big blind to 1000. The likelihood is that the pocket 9s still call but the A-10 would be forced to fold and so would the big blind with the marginal hand that he was getting value to call with in the previous situation.

This time you end up with a similar amount of chips in the pot pre-flop, as well as only facing one opponent, which you are a massive favorite against. This is the ideal situation you want to be in, and the safest way to maximize your big hands when you get them in early position.

Something that never ceases to amaze me is how much a professional poker player can make from losing. And not just coming in second or third, but totally tanking it down to the 20th place or lower. Yes, I know, 20th place is phenomenal when considering the starting pool of thousands of players on PokerStars, but I can’t help but to wonder whether some of these players subconsciously change their game after getting “in the money,” and if it hurts the game and spectators as a result. Because let’s face it, nobody enjoys watching somebody strive to get 35th place.

Let me throw out a few timely examples. In this year’s World Series of Poker main event, Leo Margets won $352,832, and he finished in 27th place. Pretty nice deal. He didn’t really lose anything by ending on that note, so how can we really sympathize with the loser who got sent home on an ill-advised all-in call? It’s noted that this is the biggest tournament of the year, and like in other sports, the players get paid whether they win or lose, but for those watching at home, poker has always been different. You can plaster it up there on ESPN, but it’s not a traditional “sport.”

Here’s another one – Jordan Smith finished in 10th place (ouch, just missing the cut). So what does he get as a parting gift? How about almost $900,000. Sounds like a winning prize to me.

But back to my earlier statement. Obviously ever player’s ultimate goal is to win whatever Poker Star tournament he or she has entered. But the strategy for many is just to get to the top of whatever table their playing at the time. Makes sense, an attainable benchmark that doesn’t set the bar too far out. Kinda like a kid climbing the monkey bars in a park. You have to grab that bar right in front of you before you grab the next one or you’ll fall. Well, the “in the money” bar is just as easy for players to set their sights on, and if they make it across that threshold, they can let their guard down and make decisions they otherwise wouldn’t if they knew it meant more of a financial penalty.

Next time you’re watching poker anywhere, take note of a few players (since they all might not progress) and watch their play and decision-making through the early rounds to the later tables. Pick a star and a few unknowns. I’ll bet you notice a difference in the feel of their play after they qualify for the money. If you’re taking the time to watch players to improve your game anyway, this is a productive exercise.

Have you had an opportunity yet to be a part of major online poker tournaments (or one in a casino)? The ones that start with more than 1,000 people? I have, and I can tell you from experience there’s a whole lot of action faster than you can click to keep up with it.

What do you do in this situation? It’s very easy to get caught up with the momentum of the FullTiltPoker.com tournament, even your individual table. But my advice is to resist the temptation. I don’t care if you’re sitting on pocket Aces (OK, that might be an exception, but you get the idea), play tight. Don’t bluff, don’t worry about situational betting, just sit back and watch the betting patterns of others around you. Learn the table a little. Odds are by the turn of the hour, half the players will already be out.

See, in these big tournaments, players are looking to stand out. It’s easy to get lost in the pack and find yourself “stuck in the poker mud” so to speak, so anxious players make moves outside of their comfort zone and common sense zone to try to double up early in an attempt to bully others off their table and out of the game. This allows them to progress easily to the next table. They figure with so many people in the tournament anyway, the odds that they’ll win by playing slow or their regular game are so slim it’s worth the risk to take the chance.

There’s actually some validity to this statement. However, for every one guy who’s going to be in a better position than you on FullTilt after a while, there’s three that’ll wish they’d had your patience. Plus, you won’t exactly be standing on your last leg. If you know how to stand up to a bully, especially an online bully, you can take the next step after an hour or so and begin to play your game. You’ll also have a good idea of how the bully bets outside of his “one big move.” This will give you the advantage, because you’ve been playing your own cards close to your chest, and the bully was probably worried more about making his big kill than exposing his betting patterns to the rest of the table. His loss will hopefully be your gain.