Best Online Poker Tournament Strategy
Poker tournaments are the new rage in online poker, and are also the focus of the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. Every online poker site offers poker tournaments in multiple forms and fashions, but the most popular tournaments are No Limit Hold'em tournaments. In a No Limit Hold'em tournament, each player receives the same amount of chips and then plays until only one player has every single chip. To force action, the tournament raises blinds and implements antes to put pressure on every player's stack.
These poker tournament strategy articles will teach you how to beat live and online poker tournaments:
General Poker Tournament Strategy:
These articles will teach you basic strategies that can be used in any poker tournament:
Best Online Poker Tournament Strategy Against
- Ten Best Poker Tournament Tips - This article has our top ten tips for tournament players.
- Early Stages Strategy - During the early stages, tight is right. Learn more in this article.
- Middle Stages Strategy - Learn how to crush the middle stages and build up a huge stack.
- Late Stages Strategy - The late stages are from after the bubble until the final few tables.
- Playing the Bubble - Learn how to steamroll other players on the bubble and cruise to the money.
- Final Table Strategy - Want that huge first place prize? Read this article and crush the final table.
- The Tournament Mind Set - Get in the right train of thought so you can start beating MTT's.
- When to Get Your Money in on a Coin Flip - To win a MTT, you have to win a coin flip.
- Playing Draws in Poker Tournaments - Learn how to play your monster draws in MTT's.
- Stealing the Blinds - Learn when the best time is to steal the blinds and pad your stack in an MTT.
Beating Specific Poker Tournaments:
Find the Best Time Join a Poker Tournament: The strategy of logging in to play at the quiet times of the day and night is what savvy players do when entering an online tournament. This is because, at such times, the number of opponents in the tournament is relatively low. Poker Tournament Strategy. View our entire collection of poker tournament strategy articles below. If you want to assure yourself of more money finishes in MTTs or fine tune certain aspects of your game than you should bookmark this page now.
Best Online Poker Tournament Strategy Tactics
Now we will link to articles that discuss specific poker tournament types and variations:
- Rebuy Tournament Strategy - Learn how to beat rebuy poker tournaments.
- Single Table Satellite Strategy - This article discusses 9-man poker tournament satellites.
- Super Satellite Strategy - Beat super satellites (multi table satellites with hundreds of players).
- How to Win Bounty Tournaments - Strategy for playing bounty/knockout tournaments.
- 180 Man Tournament Strategy - Learn how to beat normal 180-man sit and go's.
- 180 Man Turbo Tournament Strategy - This article focuses on turbo 180-man sit and go's.
Adjust Your Game as the Tournament Progresses
One of the most important skills in a poker tournament is to be able to adjust your strategy as the tournament progresses. As you get deeper and deeper into the tournament, blinds and antes will place increased pressure on your stack, which will force you to adjust your play accordingly. This is far different from a cash table, where you can just add on more chips to your stack at any time. Once blinds reach an extremely high level, you will have to steal blinds and antes just to survive.
Account for Stack Size
One factor that many players overlook in a poker tournament is taking account of your opponents' stack sizes. As you get deep in a tournament, stack size becomes just as important as position or player skill. When stealing blinds, always target the middle stacks, because short stacks are forced to make moves, and big stacks will often play pots just to try to knock players out. Middle stacks, on the other hand, are just trying to advance in the pay brackets.
More Poker Strategy Guides:
Deep stack tournaments allow for the most actual play of all forms of poker, with the exception of no blind increase events. The entire premise of a deep stack tournament is for players to really let their skills do the talking and to eliminate as much luck as possible. Wiping out all luck is an impossible task when it comes to poker tournaments, but deep stack players are able to capitalize on the skill factor much more than regular tournament players.
With this advantage comes a noticeable tradeoff. Deep stack tournaments take a lot longer to complete than any other game. As a result of this increase in playing time, player stamina will be of the utmost importance. Stamina is always something that matters in poker, but it never matters more than when in an enduro tournament. This is one of the facets of play that a lot of players tend to completely discount. No one, even poker players, really considers poker to be a game where physical performance or condition actually matters.
The truth is, however, that it can be the difference between a solid play and a big slip up. There is a reason that savvy poker players try to target the guys who have been playing all night in a brick and mortar casino. The more tired you are, the more likely it is that you will donate some or all of your chips.
Deep stack play is all about picking your spots and taking your time. You are given a lot of chips so that you can pass up on your weak hands and get in the middle when you have something to actually work with. Luckily for you, this is a foreign concept to a lot of players. There will always be those players who think that a deep stack tournament is just like every other event, but the truth is that deep stacks are very different.
Try to spot the players who are playing way too fast and are clearly not in it for the long haul. Unless you are truly prepared for what’s in store, deep stack evens can be incredibly grueling and even quite boring.
Again, this is where endurance comes into play. If you can mentally outlast the players who don’t have the patience to play with restraint, you will find that a lot of pots fall right into your lap. Deep stack play is not about creating opportunities, but instead allowing the opportunities to fall into your lap. This is the exact opposite advice of what you would expect, but it is the absolute truth. The later stages of a deep stack tournament will call for more decisive action, but you won’t need to worry about that for awhile after the first hand is dealt.
Profiting from Passiveness
You just read about how a passive approach is the road to riches in deep stack tournament poker. So, how are you going to profit from the passiveness of other players? When the other players stay in slow mode, it will be your chance to crank up the aggression. The pitfall that many players fall into is misidentifying exactly when that stage of the game has arrived. You won’t be working with a short stack and big blinds for a long time, so don’t even worry about changing gears for at least a few hours (depending on the size of the field).
Eventually, though, you will start to run out of chips and it will be time to make moves. You can profit from this by putting the pressure on before your opponents have even considered possible adjustments to their strategy.
Small Edges and Consistent Play
Even the final tables of deep stacks will allow for a moderate amount of post flop play. Unless you have a fair amount of experience with this type of event, it will be awkward to try and play post flop poker with just a few players left. The natural inclination for a tournament player is to pick up the pace and push/fold when the final table is assembled. This will be necessary eventually , but it will be a detrimental strategy if you implement it too early.
The end goal in a deep stack is the same as in any type of tournament. You need to be able to make constant changes that will put you in a position to win. These changes will be much more mild in their implementation in a deep stack tournament, but they will exist nonetheless. You need to be able to do what everyone else is doing, but slightly better. This is why skills are so valuable and the entire basis of all success in deep stack play.
The last bunch of players will probably be very good at what they do, so your edge is not going to be significant. It is unusual for tournaments, but a deep stack is going to allow skill to prevail all the way to the end. If you don’t think you have the patience to sit and remain focused for hours on end, you will probably be better suited in a tournament with regular stack sizes. Deep stack tournaments are profitable, but only for a certain breed of players.