The 2024 WSOP is playing out in Vegas right now, but how can you give yourself the best shot at winning a bracelet? Check back here for snappy winning tips from the world's best players. Strategy. Pretty. Damn. Quick.
Katie Lindsay has more than $2,100,000 in online winnings and close to $800,000 live. After a near miss for the 2021 Ladies GPI POY, she won her first WSOP Circuit ring in 2022. Katie had a deep run at Triton Jeju this past March, finishing 43rd in the $25,000 Millions Live event. Follow Katie on X.
In tournaments, I think it’s important to be the one placing the pressure on people. It’s much easier if you aren’t the one having to make decisions and keep making others have to do that by taking the lead in pots.
I much prefer three-betting in position rather than calling. You are now taking the lead in the hand and putting your opponent to the test by them having to now simply call or decide to reraise you out of position.
Also, when you three-bet, you usually go heads-up and you have a lot more options for winning the pot. When you call, you end up playing multi-way pots, and it’s much tougher to bluff 3-4 ways and you are relying on hitting your hand. Additionally, when you take the lead in the hand, you are the one who gets to dictate the bet size, not your opponent, as would happen if you had just called.
If you can build up a stack playing with your aggression, you also give yourself room to take hits to your stack if you lose a flip, rather than hanging around on a short stack and flipping for your tournament life.
With a big stack, you can put people to the test for their tournament lives, where you would still have plenty of chips regardless of the result. And lastly, another benefit to keeping the pressure on is that you are going to get way more action when you do have a big hand.
Feature image courtesy of WPT/Hayley Hochstetler
