Druff asked me to post some tips on pot limit hold'em. Caveat: I am not a pro. I consider myself a solid amateur who has shown a modest profit from 20 years at the tables. Anyone who wants to critique my advice is welcome to do so. Hopefully, I can learn something too.
First: Buy and read TJ Cloutier's and Tom McAvoy's "Championship Hold'em". It covers limit and pot limit tourneys and cash games. The strategies are ancient (especially the limit sections), but it is the only decent book out there and will help you understand "what you should be thinking about" at the table. Trust me, you played like they advise, you will already be playing better than 50% of the field.
Rule 1: Always make pot sized bets or raises (or if you are the opener make it 3.5x the big blind). Why?
First, it will make your decisions a lot easier (fold, call or raise the max).
Second, your opponents will never be able to put you on a hand due to your betting patterns.
Third, and most importantly, in a pot limit tournament you want to play big pots (preferably in position). You are not going to get many big hands. You have to make the most of them. Unlike no limit, where you can set someone all in and win their entire stack, no one is likely to build your pot. You have to do it yourself. This is the "art" of pot limit. This is why raising trying to steal blinds with the conventional no limit raise of 2.3 BBs is a mistake. Let's say you have A-10 in mid-late position and open with less than a maximum raise. Now I pot it behind you. You are in a really tough spot. If you call (or reraise and I call), you are now in a big pot, out of position against a solid player and you have no idea where I am at (remember, I always bet the max). Good luck, you are going to need it. If you had raised the max, there are many, many more hands I would have folded.
Let's say you bet 2.3 BBs with that A-10, I call and the blinds now call. You flop an ace with 2 suited cards. You are probably in the lead and should bet the pot. Now you get called by one player. That player could have anything. Here is the key difference between NL and pot limit: You can never shut out a 2-1 draw on the flop in pot limit. If you don't understand why, stop reading and go buy Sklansky's "Theory of Poker". You need help. I am not saying you should call on the flop with every draw you get. In fact, that is a recepie for disaster in a tournament. However, in a cash game you can play a lot of them. Hands like 9-8 suited go up in value. Especially in position. It is just too easy for people (especially the blinds) to slip in to the pot and see a flop cheaply if you don't max bet it.
In a tournament you generally do not want to be drawing, you want to be in the lead, betting, and building your pot. Since a lot of players are going to call with their draws, you need to charge them for it. How? By max betting before the flop. Since the pot size has increased because of your pre-flop raise, your opponent must risk more of his chips. In a cash game your pot sized bet on the flop will get called, but in a tournament your opponents will start considering the size of their stacks as the blinds increase. If they are insta-calling every draw be happy, they are dead money.
I bring up A-10, because I had a memorable hand with it last year. It was near the end day 1 and I got moved to a new table. Two seats to the right of Phil Ivey. I opened the max and Ivey flatted me on the button. The flop was an ace with 2 spades. I bet the pot and he called. A spade came on the turn. I checked, knowing he would bet with anything, which he did. I folded. He was probably bluffing, but I didn't care. I did not want to risk my healthy stack against a good player out of position with just a pair. In a cash game I might have played it differently. I was also hoping that he would think I was intimated by him. If I got big hand, I was going to check twice and come over the top, but never had the opportunity.
The last reason you want to always bet the max is simply intimidation. My attitude is: "You want to play a pot with me? Out of position? After I have come over the top of your shitty little 2.3 raise? OK then, get your chips in there." You don't ever want your opponents to think they can play cheap pots against you.
Hope this was thought provoking. Let the flaming and trolling begin.