by Thomas Baskin

Created on: September 22, 2010   Last Updated: September 23, 2010

It will be assumed that you are not a beginning poker player and will understand all poker terms associated with this article.

When you decide to play tournament poker, you understand that it's going to be a long process. Therefore you should be prepared to spend the required time it takes to finish the tournament, free from distraction. That's not to say you will last that long but a clear mind will help you go a long way than if you have to worry about outside distractions.

Beginning Tournament Play

Tournament play requires a lot of patience. You could have a playable hand on the first set of hole cards, or it could be 45 minutes before you have some playable cards. Fear not, patience at the beginning of a tournament is a good thing because it allows you to do a few things such as

Let the less experienced players knock each other out. There will be a lot of action in the beginning and that action is mostly by inexperienced tournament players. This is where a savvy tournament player will pick and choose his spots to play. This will definitely not be the time to bluff to try and steal a few blinds as you will get called because the blinds are low enough where everyone will want to see the flop.

Patience also gives you a tight player table image. This is a good thing and very useful later on in the tournament. This image lets players know that if they go up against you, you are likely going to be the winner because you haven't played many hand and the hands you have played you've won. Nothing wrong with having that type of influence over the table.

Patience gives you the chance to pick up on what signs other players have that could be a benefit to you. For instance, if John calls and does continuation bets all the way to the river, you know he has a weak hand and is fishing for cards. In a heads up situation with John, a solid bet on the turn would run him off the pot. Get as much information from the other players as you can, it will help you when you start making your move.

Middle Tournament Play

Action has slowed down by this time as the blinds should be around 300/150 and a lot of the inexperienced players have been knocked out. Hopefully you have doubled up your chip stack. Now you are going to loosen up your play but not a lot. You really should have a strategy in place in middle stage play IE: my strategy is to play big blind through cut-off very aggressively. The rest of the positions I only play premium cards AA, AK, AQ, AJ, KK, KQ, QQ, JJ and top pairs

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>