Play Poker Tournaments at Poker Stars - Visit Now Get up to $600 Bonus when you make a first deposit at Poker Stars. The largest poker site on the internet. Read Poker Stars Reveiw - Click Here

Tournament poker has exploded in popularity over the past 10 years because of the impressive prize money, charismatic professional poker players, celebrities and the introduction of online poker rooms. 

It is not uncommon to be playing in tournaments with 1 – 10 million dollars in prize money and tickets to popular poker tournaments which is enough to entice even the most novice poker players into registering for a poker tournament. 

This article will give you poker tournament tips to help you improve your poker tournament skills and increase your chance of winning a share of the attractive prize pools.

10 Important Poker Tournament Tips

1. Know the difference between cash games and poker tournaments. There is a huge difference between being a great cash game player and successful tournament player.

Tournament poker requires you to win all of the chips in play and most tournaments will only allow you to buy in once, which means as soon as you have no chips left you are out of the tournament. 

Cash games allow you to re-buy if you lose all of your chips in a big pot.  Being a skillful tournament player involves knowing when to play tight and when to make moves to steal the blinds or big pots, you can’t sit and wait until you get a big hand such as AA, KK, QQ, JJ to win a tournament because the blinds will increase eventually depleting your chip stack.

 
2. Luck plays a part in winning a poker tournament especially if you are in a low buy-in multi-table tournament. At the start of the tournament there will be players who will go all in with hands such as Q-9, J-8, A2; hands that you would normally expect a player to fold   The reason for this is;

a) the player is hoping to catch the best hand and double or triple up straight away,

b) they want to bad beat the other players who will call with a good hand such as a pocket pair or A-K suited. 

c) The player is either new to poker or tournament poker and has no idea what pot odds are, what position they are in and what two cards should be folded or played.  If you find this is happening at the start of the tournament don’t despair; just watch the play for a few rounds to work out who the loose players are and make your move when you feel you have the best hand.  You don’t need to commit all your chips to the pot, if you think you don’t have the best hand or pot odds then don’t be afraid to fold.

3. Play tight in the beginning of the poker tournament.  Don’t be afraid to fold hands when the blinds are low so you can work out who the danger players are at the table.  Most loose players who call with any two cards will be knocked out early in the tournament unless they are extremely lucky.  This means you will be able to work out the remaining players’ style of play (tight, loose aggressive or passive) and adapt your play to win pots.

4. Know the pot odds.  When making a bet always compare the odds offered by the pot to the odds of making your hand.  You also have to watch the pot odds you are giving your opponent when you bet; you don’t want to give your opponent odds to call the hand and win the pot unless you know you have the winning hand and you are trapping or slow playing your opponent.

5. Position is extremely important in tournament poker.  Know your position and adapt your style of play.  Play tight from early position because there are a lot of players left to act after you and you won’t know how they will play their hand.  In late position when you have seen how your opponents have played their hands you can steal blinds with semi-strong hands and bluffing.

6.  Vary your style of play.  No matter what your poker style is if you don’t vary it during the game eventually other poker players (especially professionals) will work out your style of play.  You will find that if you start playing in a style opposite to your natural one you will win bigger pots.  Start to vary your game when you get a sense that other players have worked out your betting patterns and how you play your hands.

7.  Know how your chip stack compares to the blinds and antes.  Calculating the number of blinds and antes you have left will help with making hand decisions especially when the blind structure is high and you need to start bluffing to win pots.  Also know how many blinds and antes your opponents have left; if you have more chips than your opponent/s you can apply pressure on their chip stack by raising them all in with a semi-strong hand (e.g. small pocket pairs, suited connectors) and bluffing.

8.  Focus on the players at your table. If you are in a multi-table tournament don’t worry about the number of players left at the other tables.  Your main goal is to become chip leader at your table, this will give you the opportunity to create pressure on the short-stacked players and accumulate more chips for when you do face opponents from the other tables.  Know the players at your table – are they aggressive, conservative or both?

9.  Observe your opponents style of play, how many hands they play, what hands they show down and what their betting patterns are.  Use this information when making decisions.  Also, pay special attention to players who suddenly change gears or their style of play as this can cost you big pots if you’re not paying attention.  Remember also, that if you are watching your opponents then chances are your opponents are also watching you.

10 Take your time when making decisions especially in the later stages of a tournament. Assess your pot odds, the opponent/s you are up against (how have they been playing, have they changed gears?), your outs (percentage chance of winning the hand). You need to survive the tournament and one mistake can cost you your chip stack and a place or win.  There’s nothing more frustrating than grinding it out in a tournament for 2+ hours only to make one silly mistake that knocks you out of the tournament and prize money.

Conclusion

The key to being a great tournament poker player is balance.  You need to look at the situation, make an assessment and then make your move at the right time.  This applies to all poker tournaments whether they be satellites, sit n go’s, online qualifiers or live poker tournaments.  If you find that you’re not placing in many tournaments you need to assess your poker game and make adjustments to improve your game.

Comments (0)

Show/hide comment form