How do you play successfully in a poker tournament? Tournament poker varies from ring poker in a lot of ways. First let’s examine the various types of poker tournaments a player may enter.
The most common by far is the multi-table elimination tournament. This is the kind of tournament you see if you watch the World Series of Poker on television. You start out with lots of players who all have the same number of chips to play with. Players are eliminated and partial tables are combined, and more players are eliminated until it gets down to only nine players at the final table. The participation in the tournaments and leagues at Pkv Games with skills and expertise will be there. The playing of the games at the tables will meet with the right results. The games will be displayed at the mobile phone sof the person.
The winner ends up with all the chips from the tournament at the end of the game. Prize payouts are usually structured so that the last 5-10% of players receive money. Pay outs are divided by placement in the tournament. The winner gets the lion’s share, second place gets more money than third place, third place gets more than fourth place and so on.
There are also re-buy tournaments, which I think are bogus because players can repurchase chips after getting knocked out the first time. The only upside is that if you have someone who is truly a poor player and not just unlucky, then he will add money to the prize pool and not pose a threat. Re-buy tournaments take a long time. Re-buy tournaments promote aggressive as opposed to prudent playing.
Shoot-out tournaments start similar to the multi-table elimination tournaments. All players start with an equal number of chips, but in order to advance you must eliminate all the other players at your table. If you have ever seen ‘Maverick’, this tournament style is featured in the movie.
This article will focus on the multi-table elimination tournament. When you play ring poker, players are allowed to quit with their chips whenever they like. In an elimination tournament, you are playing to win. If you do not place, you make no money; so being overly aggressive and getting eliminated will not serve you. Patience is key in tournament play. In tournament poker, the blinds go up according to a blind schedule. This means that the amount of the small blind and big blind increase throughout the game at pre-set time increments. The first hands of the game have the lowest blinds of the whole tournament.
Many players see this as a good time to build their chip stack for later play. Styles vary, but as a general rule you should play the most hands in the early blind levels, when it costs the least to see the cards. Once the blinds get higher, you must play enough to stay ahead of the blinds and accumulate a chip stack, but you must be patient and sit out a greater percentage of hands than you would in a ring poker game. You should play at least one hand for every nine hands dealt, to stay ahead of the blinds, but your cards will influence when you play. You may not play at all for a full turn around the table, and then play three times in the next nine hands. Go with your gut instinct.
Another important element of the poker tournament is knowing the other players. You may be moved from table to table a lot in a poker tournament. Consider folding out a few hands just to observe the playing style of your opponents before you make a move on a new table. If you fold several hands before playing, the other poker players will assume you play conservatively.
This is not a bad impression to give from a poker playing standpoint. If you are able to sit out several hands and then win the first hand you play, you will be less likely to be bullied by more aggressive players. Do a quick study of your opponents’ approaches and make a mental note of any unusual styles of play.
Is there a player who stays in every hand and then bets big to get the pot after the turn? Make it your business to catch him in the act. Are there a lot of callers at your table? Try some aggressive betting and see if you can accumulate a quick chip lead. Any characteristic you can exploit to gain advantage over your opponents will get you closer to that final table.
Probably the most important tip for tournament play is to save your big guns for the big battles. I’m waxing metaphorical, but what I’m saying is, don’t go all in during the first fifteen minutes of play. Don’t even go all in during the first hour of play, unless you are 100% sure that you have the best hand. Sometimes another player will lead you down the bridal path, not knowing you have four of a kind clenched in your happy little palm. But beyond that sort of extraordinary good luck, don’t do it.
If you don’t go all-in, you can’t go all-out. Even if you’re short stacked early, simply hanging in there will win you an advantage over the impetuous big stack that gets too aggressive. When you get down to the final tables, you’re going to have to get more aggressive to stand up to top players with lots of chips. Blinds get so high in the late game that it becomes necessary to go all in on some hands; but early on there’s no reason for it outside of a royal flush or another unbeatable combination. Let the other players get trigger happy. With prudent play and decent luck, their chips will be in your stack soon enough.
Luck is still the magic component. You can’t force it. You may have a bad day, terrible cards, false hunches. Don’t be discouraged. If you play skillfully there’s no room for shame in poker. Even the greatest poker players make bad calls. If you keep practicing, your final table will come.
