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Tournament Poker Strategy

Ever since Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2003, interest in tournament poker has gone through the roof.

Once a backroom game only played by professional gamblers in the corners of Las Vegas casinos, poker has exploded into mainstream culture. Poker has made it's way into homes around the world as people watch major tournaments on their televisions and play at online poker rooms on their computers.

The largest live poker tournament in history was in 2006 when the WSOP Main Event reached 8,773 players, sending eventual winner Jamie Gold home with a first-place prize of $12 million.

Winning a tournament of that size certainly takes a ton of luck but that doesn't mean tournament poker isn't a skill game. The best players have an edge over the rest of the field and, over time, will win more than their less-skilled peers.

But it's the element of luck that makes tournament poker so attractive. Anyone with a chip and a chair has the chance to beat the best in the world, and come home a millionaire.

What is a Poker Tournament?

Unlike a cash game which can run indefinitely, a poker tournament begins at a predetermined start time with each player buying a ticket to the event, and starting at the same time with the same number of chips.

Players play until they are eliminated by losing all of their chips. A set number of finishers (typically around 10% of the total starting field) get paid on a descending scale from the winner down to the last paid finishing spot.

All players who finish below the lowest paid spot (for example in a 100 person tournament, all players finishing from 100th to 11th) leave the tournament with nothing but a story.

Differences between Tournaments and Ring Games

Aside from being able to re-buy and cash-out whenever you like, tournament play sees the blinds increase on a predetermined schedule. This is very different from the static blinds of a ring game which will allow players to dictate their own pace of play.

Another major difference between cash games and tournaments are the stack sizes. The stack sizes in a cash game are typically closer to each other than in a tournament, where some players will have many times that of the average stack, while others may just hold a single chip.

A successful tournament player needs to understand how to play with all stack sizes, while a cash game player can choose to only ever sit behind a stack of a specific amount.

Stack Sizes

How you play in a tournament will mostly depend on two variables: the stage of the tournament and the size of your stack.

The size of your stack is measured in two ways:

1.Your stack in comparison to the average stack size
2.Your stack in relation to the blinds.
The more chips you have, the more risk you're able to shoulder. In other words, you can make plays which risk 5,000 chips if you have 50,000, but the same play would be foolish if you only hold 6,000.

The most important thing to understand in a tournament is your chips are your tournament life.

Chips = Life

When you run out of chips, your tournament is over; everything you do in a tournament should be based on this one concept. Protect your chips like they're your children, all the while trying to grow your family.

Stages of a Tournament

There are three basic tournament stages:

•Early
•Middle
•Late

Early Stage

Since everyone gets to play the early stages of almost every tournament this is the part in which all players have the most experience, feel the most comfortable, and have a lot of chips in relation to the blinds. Everyone's on an equal footing and it's hard to find anyone looking to gamble.

People in this stage are rarely looking to get it all in with anything but the nuts. If you find a player willing to play a large pot, they either have the nuts, they're looking to gamble or they're trying to build a big stack early through sheer aggression. More often than not, though, they have the goods.

The standard approach to playing in this stage is to play very ABC tight-aggressive poker. It makes no sense to make big moves to steal the blinds, since the blinds are worth relatively nothing compared to the size of your stack.

The idea is to make it through the early stage with average or above chips, giving you room to maneuver as you enter the middle stage.

Middle Stage

The middle stage will range from being deep-stacked at the start (lots of chips compared to blinds) to short-stacked near the end. In this stage chips are quickly becoming more valuable, each round of blinds potentially bringing you one step closer to elimination.

It's at this point you can no longer afford to sit around waiting for only the best hands. You need to steal blinds and protect your chips to keep yourself from getting short. Once you get too short your only move left is all in.

As Dan Harrington wrote in his famous Harrington on Hold'em tournament strategy books it's always better to take a risk to keep yourself sitting with a healthy stack than to wait until you've been whittled down, forced to take a risk just to stay alive.

If you take the risk to stay healthy and lose, you still have a handful of chips to try again with. If you wait until you're in dire straits you have no second chance.

The goal with the middle stage is simply to stay alive and get yourself into the money (a tournament pro cares little about making the money, and plays to win at all times). Once you're into the money, you've entered the late stages of the tourney.

Late Stage

The late stage will have many players with very few chips, and a few players with a lot of them. This is the time of a tournament when everyone's willing to gamble. Once you're in the money, people no longer care about going bust and are aiming for the win at all times.

You need to play very aggressively, make few or no mistakes, and get lucky at the right times to have a shot at the title. Luck is always a part of poker, and in tournaments it becomes a large factor of the game in the later stages.

With the blinds being very large, and many stacks being very short, most players will be playing a simple all-in or fold game. You need to be willing to take coin flips, and have the luck to win them if you want to finish in first.

How to Become a Better Tournament Player

Firstly, read every article, book, forum thread and webpage you can find. Watch poker on TV, listen to webcasts, and watch strategy videos. But above all else, you're going to have to play as much poker as you can.

The more tournaments you play, the better you will become at playing them. Many of the best tournament players in the world play hundreds to thousands of tournaments each year. The more you play, the better you will get.

Playing your Position in Poker. Do you do it correctly??

Playing your position is a very intricate part of any well developed poker strategy. Many novice poker players may not even realize the importance of their position, and how it can drastically affect the strength and dominance of their hand, as well as their ability to scoop chips while holding virtually nothing.

Your position in poker relates to when you are required to bet. There are three general categories of player position – early position, middle position and late position. We’ll define each of these poker positions, detailing the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Early Position
At a full table of 9 players, early position bettors are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd to act. The 1st bettor, known as being “Under The Gun”, is the player immediately left of the Big Blind.

Under the Gun is considered the worst position to be seated in. This player is not afforded the opportunity to read his opponents before deciding whether to commit chips to the pot, or simply fold the hand.

According to most solid poker strategies, early position bettors require a premium starting hand to even consider investing in the pot. With marginal holdings, any bet placed by an early position bettor will likely be raised. Unless a player is ready and willing to risk a lot more to finish the hand, there’s no point in tossing chips into the pot.

2nd and 3rd position bettors are pretty much in the same boat. Though they will have the chance to observe the betting or the predecessors, there are too many bettors lying in wait.

Should you decide to place a bet from early position, try to avoid limping into the pot. This relays weakness and may result in a lot of callers, and virtually guaranteed raisers. Instead, raise the Big Blind by at least 2x. The only time to limp in is with Pocket Aces, in hopes of drawing as many chips into the pot as possible. Still, mind the extent of your contributions as, after the Flop, you may not hit another Ace.

Middle Position
Middle position bettors, at a full table of 9 players, are the 4th, 5th and 6th players to act. From this position, players have the opportunity to read the early position bettors, but still have the late position players to contend with. A very good starting hand is recommended to even consider an investment, but not necessarily premium starting hands only.

From middle position, so long as a player is confident enough to call a likely raise, go ahead and make the call or place a moderate raise. Otherwise, folding out early and conserving chips is the only viable option.

Late Position
At a full table of 9 players, there are three late position bettors – the player on the Dealer Button, the Small Blind and the Big Blind. Late position is the generally the best place to be as these players are given full reign of observance. Late position bettors can watch the betting style of all early and middle position bettors to determine how confident they are, therefore deciding whether to make a move or not.

A late position bettor does not need a fabulous poker hand to invest in the pot. They only need the right circumstances to come along. When no other bettors are showing enough confidence to relay a strong starting hand – meaning several players have folded and one or two have limped in – late position bettors can raise the pot and, more often than not, steal the blinds.

The Dealer Button is the best late position since they have the opportunity to make this decision without a prior investment. For Small Blind and Big Blind bettors, the investment has already begun; the decision is whether to risk more in order to move forward. Big Blind bettors may find the opportunity to check if no other player raises, in which case they get a free peek at the Flop (well, it’s not really free, but the contribution was forced).

Playing Your Position
If you use your position properly, you will find each has its own advantages – though some are more frequent than others. Heed the advice in this poker strategy article, and you should be able to minimize losses and increase profits on the felt by simply playing your position accordingly.

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Bluffing - Can YOU do it?

Poker, be it online or in a casino, is so incomplete without bluffing. Bluffing is basically pretending to have a great hand by betting on a weak one hoping to scare away your opponents and make them fold. Had online poker or casino poker not had this feature, then it would have become like any other casino game with only luck on your side and no strategy whatsoever involved in it. The best cards would always win and poker would not be as charming as we now know it to be. The winners stand out not just because they had a great hand but also because they can manage to bluff their way through a weak one and still take away the pot.

Playing online poker is quite different from playing poker in a casino. But the essence of the game almost remains the same. Here too, you need to bluff to make the game more interesting. You can increase your chances of winning by bluffing more. Of course, this means that you might lose more too but there is no point if you don't take some risks. You should also keep in mind that other players will also bluff and hence, you need a lot of planning, strategy and experience to win the game.

Bluffing is important no doubt, but the threat that someone's bluffing and the suspense, which drives opponents to change their decisions as time passes, can change the route the game would have taken to a great extent. In online poker, a pro ensures that his bluffing is in the right balance and he neither bluffs too much to become predictable nor bluffs too little to weaken his chances at winning the pot. But only being great bluffing is not enough. Your online poker opponents will also try to bluff you out of the pot and you need to see through it. Not being able to do so every time does not make you any weak as a player. Calculated risk taking is your ally and not soothsaying!

The threat of you bluffing can be equally contributory to you winning the pot in online poker. If your opponent thinks you are bluffing when you are not because you have a good hand, the good hand and the miscalculation of your opponent will drive up the money you win. Bluffing many players at a time is not exactly what I would like to call playing safe on online poker. Don't give up on bluffing if you are caught a couple of times. It will only increase the confidence of your opponents and lead them to fall for your trap even when you are not bluffing and actually have a good hand.
So make sure you bluff right and in the right amount. And let me remind you to make the maximum of the poker bonus out there in most card rooms. There is sign up poker bonus and also poker bonus for regulars. So keep bluffing and enjoy your poker bonus!!

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