Tournament tips (Part #1)
Till I haven’t finished a tournament strategy article, I want to publish some basic tips for playing at poker tournaments and some situations that may occur during a tournament.Many site guests ask me to describe strategy that can be generally applied to tournaments. Strategy applied to poker tournaments really differs from strategy in ordinary game. A bit sooner I’ll make a special chapter dedicated to both single-table and multi-table tournaments. But right now I want to give some general tips for those who want to try his playing skills in a tournament.
General tips:
1. Never put too much of your bankroll into a tournament. Tournament is more an entertainment than an earning game. Here your success mostly depends from luck, unlike ordinary games, where it mostly depends on you.
2. Keep a sharp eye on limit changes and change your tactics accordingly. In case if blinds are approaching size, when you will be ought to stake on blinds only – risk with good or nearly good hands (doubtful, but rather good hands). Otherwise blinds will swallow your entire stack. You must try to grow your stack gradually during the tournament.
3. Learn what combinations are suitable for certain situations. Hands like Ax is rather doubtful, but can be good to risk on pre-flop, because it has advantage over many hands. Pocket pairs are good and hands of the same suit lower stake profit.
4. Pay attention to your opponents’ behavior on blinds. In case if they’ll go tight – steal their blinds! Others can try to protect their blinds – punish them with a strong hand.
In tournaments you must incline to raises, more than in ordinary game, because “stealing” of blinds in tournaments is very important. On the other hand, if somebody has already entered the bank with a raise, be ready to drop. You must avoid confrontation in tournaments (unlike you have a really marvelous hand) – just win moderate banks gradually growing your stack.
That’s it. Tomorrow I’ll publish a single-table tournament strategy article…