Making a decision on the number of times you are going to raise the blind and when should also consider what kind of a player you are up against. If it so happens that he/she happens to be tight then it would be a good move to raise the blind once before the flop within the first five hands, almost double the blind in fact. The benefits of doing so are many fold. Primarily, it will give you a big edge over all the players right at the start of the game.

If you have an opponent who has made his or her business to boot you out of the game by keeping on folding every now and again, thus pressurizing you to fold too, raising the blinds twice at the least will ensure that you have taken a lot of his chips while also making sure that your path to steal from him later gets clearer and clearer all the while. As if this is not enough, it will send him an ominous signal that if he or she intends to steal from you at all, he or she will have to make a real big move (thus pressurizing him into making a costly blunder).

This means that your prize money goes up, he or she has to spend twice or thrice even as much if they ever intend to see you flop or try and steal from you. And if you get so lucky as to have a good hand when he or she commits this act, you are going to laugh all the way to the banks by either winning the pot or even the bloody tournament itself! Beat that! Secondly, this kind of play also entails advantages like helping you collect scraps of useful information.

Suppose that when you raise the blind, your opponent counters your move by raising it twice more dealing super aggressively then you know he or she has a real good hand and you have a chance of being beaten. In such a case, slow down and instead change tack to slow play to goad them to hand over the pot to you. Any which way, this bit of stratagem ensures that your opponent pay doubly over the odds for the hands they have drawn.

Strategizing for big stacks – I

Dealing with big stack is a sticky situation and you need to be at the best of your game to come up trumps now. Take a deep breath, relax and summon up all your reserves of patience. This would be doubly applicable in case of the blinds not favoring your opponent. This an ideal set up for you to win and the opponent to lose but also one of those typical situations where in it is so tempting to try and double up your stakes, bank too much on luck and overlook some signs of caution which may result in you giving away the pot to your opponent by making a sad ass move. The pressure is now on them and leverage it to your benefit rather than get under it yourself.