Get Ready to Make That Call! Poker Tournament Strategy 101. Ask any poker player where the big money is, and they’ll tell you unequivocally: It’s in poker tournaments. The prestige of winning a reputable poker tournament is unbelievable; your name gets recorded in the poker annals of history, and your reputation gets bumped up a few notches. How to Win Poker Tournaments Every poker player in the world dreams of winning their first poker tournament, the following are tips taken from the experience of the professional players and various online gambling websites that want to help the up and coming player have a better chance at winning their first tournament. So, you want to know how to win a poker tournament. I don’t blame you. It’s an invigorating experience, and it never gets old. I should tell you from the start that while I have won more than a dozen Texas Hold’em poker tournaments in the four-digit range and cashed for more in bigger poker tournaments, I have yet to win a poker tournament where 1st Place pays five digits.

I was recently asked to write an article for the school discussing 5 tips to winning poker tournaments, centred on the following 5 concepts. They all are very relevant to long term tournament poker success and somewhat inter-related as well. So without further ado, let’s get on with it.

How To Win Online Poker Tournaments

Pay Attention to Stack Sizes

This is something that is mostly overlooked by novice players, but it’s crucial to your strategy when deciding to enter a pot. How deep are the stacks behind you? If there are 3 players with 10-20bb, and you are considering opening, are you going to call or fold should one of them shove? Does the big blind player have 7bb left? If you open raise and they go all in, you will be priced in to call. If your hand isn’t worthy of playing for their last 7bb then think twice before opening. Sometimes a spot that would normally be a steal isn’t one with those shorter stacks behind you. Likewise, are the stacks behind you deep? Increasing your open raise sizing vs. deeper stacks may be in order. All of these nuances are missed if you’re not paying attention to stack sizes.

Buying into a poker tournament like the MicroMillions Main Event or the Sunday Million can be a daunting experience. One look at the lobby and you’ll see thousands of other players also seated and battling it out to win the tournament. It can feel like an impossible task to outlast all of these opponents, make the final table and go on to win. However, there’s no need to approach a huge poker tournament with this outlook. It is possible to go all the way and win – here are some tips to give you the best chance of succeeding…

Poker How To Win Tournaments World Series 2020

Don’t get ahead of yourself

Try to avoid concentrating on the total number of players in the tournament and focus just on what is happening at your own table. This is the only place where you have any influence – the other tables will take care of themselves. In a tournament with hundreds or thousands of players you will be playing poker for a long time before the major prizes are handed out. (In a live tournament like an EPT Main Event this will be several days, whereas in an online tournament like the Sunday Million it could be upwards of twelve hours.)

How To Win Poker Tournaments One Hand At A Time

It’s crucial to remember that you can’t win the tournament in these early stages. Resist the temptation to look at how many chips the chip leader has early on; it’s irrelevant. The only thing to concentrate on is how your stack compares versus the blinds. If you are in a comfortable zone – for example, your stack is over 25 big blinds – then there’s no need to panic even if you’re the short stack on your table. Just continue playing your own game and if you continually make correct decisions the chips will come your way eventually. It’s only in the latter stages of the tournament, when you reach the bubble or the remaining couple of tables, when being aware of how your opponents are doing can be an important part of your own strategy.

The crucial middle stages

In many ways, navigating through the middle stages of the tournament – where the blinds are getting higher but the bubble is still a distant blur in the distance – are the most difficult of all. It’s at this point where your strategy should shift and you should try to loosen up your game a little bit. In the early stages there’s really no benefit in trying to steal the blinds as they are so small. Instead, it’s best to focus on actually making a hand and trying to get maximum value from it. But once you hit the middle stages those blinds are suddenly quite valuable, especially if antes are also involved. If it’s folded to you in late position try and steal the blinds as much as you can. There’s no need to have a strong hand when you do this because you’re raising as a steal, hoping there won’t be a flop. Even if the small or big blind calls then a simple continuation bet will often win it for you anyway.

How To Win Mtt Poker Tournaments

There will be a much wider spread of stack sizes in the middle stages that you should pay attention to. It’s probable that on your table you will have short stacks of less than 10BBs, medium stacks of 25-35BBs and chip monsters of 50BBs+. This creates a very different conundrum from the early stages when everyone essentially has the exact same stack. It’s very important that you analyse the stack sizes of the players around you before you make a move; for example, don’t raise a weak hand like 5-4 suited when the three players left to act all have between 10-20BBs. It’s very possible one will shove on you, leaving you unable to call. But if you have that hand the players left to act have between 25-35BBs it’s a perfect hand to open as they are more likely to call or fold rather than shove.

If you can build up a stack in the middle stages then you’ll have a great chance to make the money and go on a deep run. Find out more about navigating the bubble, hitting the final table and going on to win a huge poker tournament in Part 2.

How To Win Video Poker Tournaments

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