poker tournament strategy tips

I need advice on my tournament poker game!?

I am a pretty decent tournament poker player who cashes about once a week, but I am having trouble getting over the hump. I need an experienced, winning player to give me some tips or strategy on how I might increase my cashes and wins and how I might avoid costly mistakes.
I play a tight agressive style. I understand basic strategy, I'm looking for advanced tacticts and strategies.

The biggest difference between tournament and ring games poker is short stack play. You really need to understand what to do when you've only got a small stack left and are looking to either survive or double up (depending on the phase of the tournament). On the other side of the coin, you need to know how to deal with your competition when you're deep stacked and they have a small, medium, or large stack. I'm sure you know that you should generally try to avoid confrontations with other large stacks, but did you know you should not be trying to steal blinds from the micro stacks? Putting small stacks all-in when you're holding junk hands is a HUGE mistake bad players often make.

Also, keep in mind that most of the best tournament players in the world are LAGs (loose-aggressive), not TAGs (tight-aggressive). Tournament poker is much more about situations than cards, and there are often times you need to make plays with cards you would not touch in a ring game. For example, if there is a player stealing a lot of blinds, there are often going to be times when you should push all in with mediocre hands (like suited connectors or small pairs) that you would usually just call or fold pre-flop in a ring game.

Lastly, the most important time in a tournament in on the bubble and in the money. A solid ring game player will often get close to the money and/or make a lot of small cashes, but to really be a great tournament player you must be able to be extremely aggressive and know how to build your stack in the late stages of tournaments. Stealing and re-stealing blinds has to become your bread and butter, and being able to tell a steal from a real hand is imperative.

I'm sure you noticed I didn't give a whole lot of specific advice. That's because there's simply too much to tell, and I can't give it to you hear. You need to read and learn as much as you can about MODERN tournament strategies (not the old fogies). There are some good books on the subject that you can easily find. I'd also recommend looking into sit and go strategy, as much of the information you'll find there translates well to late-round tournament play.

Good luck and have fun.

Poker Tournament Tips - My Top 5 Poker Tournament Tips

My Top 5 Poker Tournament Tips

The following is a list of My Top 5 Poker Tournament Tips. Previously, I had difficulties playing poker tournaments. I would either be out of the tournament extremely early, make it for a while but get crushed, or get pretty far but never actually make it to the money tables. Once I learnt a bunch of poker tournament tips things got easier. So I decided to share the tops ones with avid poker players like you.

The thing is, if you're currently not experiencing the success in poker that you would like, it isn't your fault. The reason you are losing likely has nothing to do with you, its just the information you have been provided wasn't good enough. This isn't surprising seeing the sheer amount of bogus information available on the Internet these days. The great thing is, winning poker tournaments doesn't require hundreds of hours of practice time, complex strategies or memorizing charts and tables. You just have to follow some good guidelines like those outlined below.

Top 5 Poker Tournament Tips

#1 Aim For First Place

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How much of a difference does rakeback make to your winnings?

Get the HIGEST RakeBack Now Click Here

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The single most important tip I can give you for success at a poker tournament is to aim for first place. Enter and play in the tournament with the plan, no, with the expectation that you are going to leave there winning first place. Don't let anything stand in your way and definitely do not settle for second best. Some of the most destructive things you can do to yourself is think 'If I can just get to a money table' or 'I'll be happy if I get in the top 5'.

#2 Be Careful What Cards You Play

You need to be extra careful what cards you do actually play in the tournament. For the most part, if you lose all your chips in a poker tournament you cannot buy back into the tournament. You are out, that's it. It's this fear that really strikes a lot of people because they are scared to lose. You just need to be a little more careful with what cards you do play. This gets less important at the final tables but for the start you want to be a little tight. And avoid coin-flip hands like the plague.

#3 Pay Attention To Everything

It's imperative you pay tonnes of attention to the game at hand from the start of the tournament right through to the end. Lazy players and those that get bored concentrating so much are not the types of players that take the first place cash prize. You're watching to notice players styles, characters, the moves they make, how they respond to actions like being raised when they are in the blind as opposed to not etc. etc. This information will be crucial later on when you are up against them at a different table.

#4 Steal Blinds Whenever You Can

Stealing blinds is the forefront way to get in a great position to win the tournament. If you concentrate on just doing this single act alone you will have 100 times the chance of winning compared to someone who isn't. Picking up blinds whenever you can, and ruthlessly stealing them from weak players is important to building your stack. And you're going to need a big stack if you expect to win at the final table.

#5 Don't Give Up, Ever

Its no doubt you'll have ups and downs in poker tournaments. You win some and you lose some. You will take bad beats, you will get unlucky and you will definitely be faced with a small stack sooner or later. The most important thing you can do is to never give up. If you stop playing tournaments all together you won't build up the experience to be able to win them. Remember, it is possible to come back from having a small stack to win a tournament!

About the Author

Alex is an avid Texas Hold Em Poker player, dedicating his time, effort and money to learning the skill of successfully winning rounds of No Limit Hold Em. Head on over to his website http://MyTexasHoldemPokerTips.com or check out this other article on Texas Holdem Poker Secrets