Beginners' Online Poker Tournaments - Quick Start Strategy Guide
Players who know the rules of poker need to be aware of some simple strategy changes during the different stages of an online poker tournament.
This section first compares tournaments with regular cash-game play, then looks at the stages of a typical tournament highlighting your strategy objectives for each.
1. Differences Between Poker Tournaments and Cash Games
Let us set aside the strategy for a second and look at 2 important facts. Firstly only a certain percentage of the field will be paid, this ranges from 10% to 20% and is heavily weighted towards the last few payout places. Secondly, the blinds increase – slowly as a proportion of your stack at first but more significantly as time goes on.Overly conservative play is not often rewarded in a poker tournament. You can not sit around and hope to hit monster hands or the blinds will catch up too fast. Playing only to reach the paying spots might see you double your buy-in on some occasions but will be unlikely to result in a big payout from the final table. Positive attacking poker is rewarded in poker tournaments, after all – you can not make your opponents fold unless you bet or raise!
2. Beginners Tournament Strategy – The Early Stages
The starting stages of any online poker tournament present a quandary for the thinking player. On one hand the proportion of bad players will never be higher, the fish are still in the game! On the other hand the fish can easily get lucky and put a beat on you costing many chips. If you are to put yourself in a viable position in the later stages then you must be willing to play some pots in the early stages. At this point you have enough chips to see some flops, make some bets and take down some pots – make sure that you use them.
3. Beginners Tournament Strategy – The Middle Stages
After the first hour or two there will be a big difference between the biggest stacks and the smallest ones. At this point in the tournament your stack size becomes important in determining what hands you can play against which opponents. Bear in mind that an extra-large stack and the extra-small stacks are more likely to call your bets – the large because it will not hurt them too much and the small because they are getting desperate. Try to play pots in position against medium sized stacks – these players are comfortable enough not to want to be involved in a large pot without a very strong hand, and are more likely to fold.
4. Beginners Tournament Strategy – The Bubble
The bubble is defined at the period of time when just a few more players need to be busted before the paying positions begin. If you have a big stack relative to the others in the hand then you should use the fact that your opponents will not want to leave the tournament empty handed to win more chips. It is often possible to bluff with any-2 cards here. If you have a medium stack then remember that the big payouts are reserved for the final table – taking a chance when the others are playing tight may put you in a position to reach that goal.
5. Beginners Tournament Strategy – The Final Table
If you are fortunate enough to reach the final table of an online poker tournament -congratulations – here is where the big payouts start. Often by the time you reach the final table the blinds take up a large proportion of your stack, if you have less than 8 to 10 big blinds then your strategy is restricted. Since any reasonable bet you make will commit you to call a re-raise it is usually best to push all-in with any hand you intend to play. It is always better to do this when first into a pot after some opponents have folded to reduce your chances of running into a monster hand.
In the meantime why not check out our Multi-Table Tournament Strategy Articles section.
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