Poker Tips

Introduction

Having gained some experience playing side poker games there’ll come a time you’ll want to try your hand at a poker tournament. The object of playing in a tournament is to make it through to the final table and you then have to decide which is the more important – winning money or glory. I guess to some extent that could be decided by how much money could be won and, what you need to think on here is, that it won’t just be first place that wins money. Or, is it really the tournament’s poker title that you want to win which, in all likelihood will pay dividends for you in other ways later on.

The classic dilemma.

The classic dilemma - should you play or fold?

It really is the classic dilemma whether to go for the money or the glory. In some respects if it is the glory you crave, then your thought processes and styles of poker play throughout the tournament will have just that one goal in mind. Making you acutely aware of the killer instincts you need to win. However, thinking in terms of winning money in a poker tournament will almost certainly cloud your vision to some degree. The problem with only thinking in terms of winning the money is that every place at the final poker table will win something. Taking an extreme example here, the WSOP Main Event is now paying over $1 million for ninth place, now whilst no one would want to go out first at such as prestigious tournament – you wouldn’t exactly be going home empty handed. Make it to sixth place and you’d currently net $1.5 million, don’t forget also that in a tournament the prize money might have nothing to do with the size of your chip stack. Now those sorts of figures, if you’re strongly money orientated and motivated, could just affect your judgment in you feel yourself under pressure, forcing an error and costing you the bigger money prizes and possibly even the title.

Should you change your playing strategies?

Should you be tempted in to changing your playing strategy?

By now you hopefully understand the importance of playing your own poker game and not being drawn into plays that go against your better judgment on the spur of the moment. You want to fold, then fold, or if you want to raise then do so, but don’t get carried away because of what someone else does. Playing in a tournament, especially if you make it to the final table, is slightly different and there are some adjustments you might consider to your normal game. However, there is one golden rule regarding adjusting your play in a tournament. If you have the big stack – don’t adjust, if you have a medium stack only make minor and conservative adjustments; but with the short stack, to make progress up the standings, you will need to consider the following carefully.

Being the short stack in a tournament final

Fancy taking on this as a tournament final table?

If you’re sitting in ninth place at the poker table with the short stack, you can be sure that the eight placed payer will be sitting there simply waiting for you to go broke. In such a situation playing tight yourself will not get you anywhere, other than looking for a taxi home. In this position you need that lucky break to come along and give you a big win, so look out for bigger stack players who think they only need to worry about each other and ‘sneak in under the radar’. This strategy will often work because by being the short stack if you involve yourself in raising the ante or playing the bigger stacks – they’ll assume you’re really holding some good cards and will then only play there own very best hands.

Not the short stack

Of course you could always just hope your opponents fall asleep!

For money orientated players with a moderate stack, playing in the last nine you really should be able to make at least sixth place. To achieve this you can play your normal game but you will also need to ante your way up the leader board. You’ve got the chips so use them to knock out shorter stacks. There really is no point in holding on to your chips in the hope of winning outright, unless you have the most outrageous stroke of luck; so raise the bets and kill the opposition. Of course you need to be aware that by playing your normal game you may well finish seventh or eighth instead, but then there is an equal chance that you just could alternatively finish in fifth, fourth or even third place! The exception to this advice is in no-limit games; when a risky ante against a bigger stack, where you’re only slightly the favorite, could easily bust you down to ninth place! Needless to say if you are the big stack – then simply play your normal game and to some extent be content to let everyone else chase you.