Lists Game
Texas Hold'em
tracking their Texas Hold'em achievements.
Click here to track your progress.

Tournament Expert achievement in Texas Hold'em

Tournament Expert

Finish in 1st Place in all Single Player Tournaments.

Tournament Expert0
Hide ads

How to unlock the Tournament Expert achievement

  • DiscGolferProDiscGolferPro
    15 Dec 2009 23 Dec 2009
    Beating Tournament Expert tips

    Here's a few tips for the the final tournament achievement. These are not poker strategies but rather ways to mitigate the AI cheating.

    * When you're at the Free level, slam the pot with all-ins until you knock out 3 players, or lose and restart for free (it'll get you to the $4000 table faster)
    * Always leave yourself enough bankroll to enter AT LEAST 2 more lower ranked tournaments (you do not want to restart from scratch every time)
    * Always play VERY tight until you are in the final 3 payout positions (let the AIs knock themselves out)
    * When you get to $4000 start letting the timer expire a few times until you get to Round 4 or so (the higher the blinds, the more money you can bully out of the players. Let the game idle and press 'A' every 10 minutes while you watch TV, make sandwiches...)
    * Rule 1: Never Call a bet unless you're holding Group 1 or Group 2 hands. When in doubt Raise (and certainly never Call anything that puts you All-In; it's almost always a trap)
    * Rule 2: Mostly Raise to make them fold and take the blinds (remember this isn't poker it's Texas Bully'Em)
    * Your bread and butter is pushing the AI off their hands with any Group 1 through Group 5 hands (do not "play" poker with them because you don't know when the game decides to cheat)
    * If you're in early position Raise to push everyone out (if anyone stays, bet the minimum on the flop and if they continue to Call or Raise 4th or 5th street, Fold)
    * If you're in the blinds then Call (if an AI re-Raised pre-flop, Call then bet half the pot on the flop; if that specific AI player puts more money in on 4th or 5th, Fold and lick your wounds)
    * If you're in late position or the Dealer, Raise pre-flop (if multiple AIs stay in and bet the flop, Call then re-Raise both times on 4th and 5th street. If a particular AI Calls or Raises ONCE, then re-Raise it ONE TIME ONLY to bully and win, or else if a specific AI Calls twice, Fold. Your goose is cooked and you need to let it go)
    * Once you're down to 4 players and/or your stack is double the money of the remaining players, always open with a bet of double the big blind regardless of position. Fold if you're challenged or re-Raise if you have premium cards (remember you're trying to steal blinds not play poker)
    * With 3 players left you're in the money. Be VERY aggressive now. Re-Raise EVERYTHING unless you're taken to the river. You want ALL the blinds to come to you from this point on. The ideal endgame is for you to bet every time and everybody folding every hand. This should be the case 90% of the time but remember RULE 1 !!!)
    * Do not go All-In against more than one player unless, you move in pre-flop AND you have Group 1 or Group 2 hole cards AND you could knock one of them out (do this at your own risk)
    * When you're heads-up always Raise when you have the Dealer button and Fold if the AI raises pre-flop (do not Call all the way to the river or the AI will cheat)


    These are only guidelines. If anything feels "weird" about a hand just Fold. More often than not the AI will take a pile of your chips and make you kick the dog. Just Fold and bully them on the next hand. The AI won't care.

    Hope this helps.

    Guide not helping? View 6 more guides for this achievement.

    Showing both comments. Leave a comment.
    AL1Great strategy...this is basically how I this one, although I would eliminate your Rule 1. Even if you get dealt pocket Aces, DO NOT immediately shove all your chips in the middle, or call any ridiculous raises. The computer WILL call with some medium pair and hit trips (a lesson I learned that hard way...many many times). If the AI won't fold, get out of the hand. With 6-8 players left, I tried to steal 1-2 hands per round. With 4-5 players left, I tried to steal 2-3. Once you're down to 3 players, raise everything, and get out of the way of any re-raises. The only time you actually want to have to win a hand of poker is when it's heads-up and you have a 10-to-1 chip lead or better.
    Posted by AL1 on 17 Aug 10 at 07:53
    ChooseMyFateHow do you "let the time expire"? There is no running timer. Just the one that changes gradually after the hand is over.
    Posted by ChooseMyFate on 28 May 16 at 08:22
  • Have you got any tips or tricks to unlock this achievement?
    Add a guide to share them with the community.

    Add a guide
  • wheatrichwheatrich
    27 Apr 2010 27 Apr 2010
    This is very easy and you don't even have to know the ranks, suits, cards or anything.

    min raise (just click raise) every single hand if they minreraise you min raise them again, if they call check the flop and see what they do (if they minbet you minraise, if they check you minbet the turn) anything else they do you fold. Doing this for each tournament basically guarantees you a victory especially since they play way too tight shorthanded. (folding early on isn't a big deal if you'd rather not play like a robot for 3 hours or so) [if they limp also min raise etc etc]

    if you've got a strong hand and they do that stuff slowplay (just call) and shove rivers as some of them will call weak making this go a fair bit faster.

    Yeah, this is boring but I've never lost unless I just shoved something out of boredom even knowing I wasn't 100% to win that hand.
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    ReliantGung hoWheatrich, your plan was right on the money. I salute you.
    Posted by ReliantGung ho on 05 Sep 14 at 20:38
    JevanssssThis method works a treat.

    I let the clock run down for a couple of rounds first to let the blinds get bigger so you can do this slightly quicker
    Posted by Jevanssss on 06 Nov 16 at 20:28
    TonyTwoSteaksSolution worked perfect, after 10+ years I finally came back and finished this game off. Regarding the previous comment, I don't believe you can let the timer just run down to get to bigger blinds. As far as I could tell it was based on a set number of hands until the blinds go up.
    Posted by TonyTwoSteaks on 05 Feb 19 at 07:12
  • ZalexzyZalexzy
    09 Sep 2012 09 Sep 2012 09 Jan 2022
    To fix money "problem", with this you only need to win every tournament once, not multiple times to increase your bank roll to get in All World tournament. (Warning: if you care for time stamps and don't yet have 100k and 1 million achievements, those will pop up offline)

    You need:
    *USB stick (or memory card).

    *Disc version of game, found on Xbox Arcade Unplugged, Volume 1 disc (This does not work with XBLA download version???)
    UPDATE: Czaleo tells this one worked with DOWNLOADED VERSION, so follow instructions to letter and see if it works for you. Quote from his comment: "cleared my cache, deleted the game from the HD, cleared my cache again, shut my xbox off, and when I turned it back on, downloaded the game again, then I got the update notification and everything worked great."

    1. Clear system cache (to remove update, as this is patched. Go system settings, storage, hard drive device options)
    2. Transfer your profile to USB stick.
    3. Start game, decline update.
    4. Select Single player, tournament.
    5. Select highest tournament your funds allow. If you have less than 4k you have to select Invitational. Press A button.
    6. Now you see pay-out table on screen. Press A button.
    7. During bank roll summary screen, remove USB stick from xbox. After that, proceed and press A button.
    8. Confirmation screen pops up. Select "no" by pressing B button.
    9. Game goes back to main menu. When you go to tournament screen, you can see your bank roll increased.
    10. You can repeat steps 4-9 as many times as you want, you don't need to insert and remove USB stick between tournaments.
    11. When you are finished making money, insert USB stick. You have to start new game - single play or tournament - you can immediately leave table or finish game, to save game and money you made.

    Then you can go back to dashboard and update, you still have all money you made with this glitch.

    Money you get from doing this each time:
    Inventional - 1k
    Regional - 12k
    National - 48k
    All World - 375k

    I tested this also with new gamertag, if you have any problems or questions, leave comment.
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    MattiasAndersonThanks!
    Posted by MattiasAnderson on 28 Jul 18 at 19:25
    NBA KirklandOne thing to add. Make sure you don't have a second copy of your profile on your hard drive. If you have a copy on your hard drive, you won't get the "step 8. Confirmation" question about your profile.
    Posted by NBA Kirkland on 09 Jan 22 at 00:35
    TREX1979tried but no go with DL version - got lucky and found disc and worked perfectly :-) THANKS
    Posted by TREX1979 on 28 Jan at 11:09
There are 4 other guides for this achievement
Do you have a question about this achievement? Please post it in the Texas Hold'em Forum