Texas Holdem Poker

If you are a poker tournament player you already no this, but there no perfect way to play a poker tournament. Whether you play online poker, in a casino or just in home games, you can’t win them all. To help improve your tournament game there is a few basic things you can do.

First and foremost you need to know that you can’t win them all, consistency is the key to becoming a successful Holdem tournament player. For example if you play $10 tournaments online where the winner takes home $60, winning one of six should be your minimum expectation. Style doesn’t necessarily matter, but it is easier to find consistency if you are a tighter player. You need to know yourself as a player in order to find a way to be a winner over the long run, so the first step is always to look in ward and know your own strengths and weaknesses. I am going to go over a few steps that will help you become a better tournament player, and not necessarily game strategies.

Picking Your Tournaments

I can never say this enough “Know Your Limits”, if you can’t afford the tournament, don’t play in it. As I stated earlier you can’t win them all, so if you can only afford to play one you might be throwing your money away. Picking your tournaments is made easier if you are an online player, depending on what software you use, your probably going to have a lot of options. There are few questions you need answered before you sign yourself up, What is the buy in?, What is the blind structure?, What is the payout structure and How long will the tournament last approx. ?. This is where is becomes important to know yourself, picking the right poker tournaments is the first step to becoming successful, here are some guidelines. For tight players, you will look for long blinds giving you time to set up your game and you might want a payout structure that pays out more places then a bulk to the winner. For the more aggressive player a faster blind structure will be fine with you, the higher the blinds the bigger your advantage will be over the tighter players. As for the time the tournament last, it’s a pure time to money ratio thing. Why would anyone play a $1 tournament that is going to last 4 plus hours for the chance to win 10 dollars, the only reason is to waste time.

Getting Started

Now that you picked your game and have been assigned a seat, its time to play. For me personally I like to get to know my opponents over the first few hands or blind levels, learning there tendencies and hopefully picking up some tells. Other people will tell you to get in the action immediately, by doing this you will let the table know that you are there to win. Of course none of this matters if you pick up pocket aces on this first hand, the more tournaments you play the more comfortable you will become during the start. Early in tournaments its important to realize that it is long game and to put your chip stack at risk with a big bluff or marginal hand might not be the wisest decision. As an example you pick up pocket aces on the third hand of a tournament, the cards come out Jd – !0d – 9d – 8c – and 2d, there are flushes and straights out there and you have neither. If your opponent puts you to the test, this might be a good time to lay down those aces. Basically early in tournaments, be patient, pay attention and let the game develop.

Be Yourself at the Table

Once again back to knowing yourself, if you’re a talkative person then go ahead and talk, if your are quite then be quite. The minute you change who you are obvious tells will show up in your game, and yes no matter what you think, you have tells. To avoid giving off obvious tells, be who you are, if you don’t talk when you are playing hands, then for your sake don’t start talking when you are bluffing. It sounds simple, but you will be surprised by the amount of players who make these very simple mental errors. Some rules to follow, Never let someone get you off your game, Always be consistent with your demeanor, relax and have fun at the table. You cannot avoid tells, but by being your self and being consistent at the table at least you will make your opponents work to find out what they are.

Texas Holdem Poker Tournament is an art form, not a math question, there is no perfect solution. If you follow some of these basic steps you will become more successful and have more fun at the tables, because we all know winning is more fun then losing. I will never be able to stress this enough, You Can’t Win Them All, so its very important to know your spending limits. The best Holdem players in world are what they are because they have played a lot and learned a lot of these lessons along the way. Putting strategy aside, if you follow this basic knowledge and you will see a positive impact in your results, if you don’t you might want to consider changing the way you play. Holdem tournaments are fun and exciting and I hope you enjoy every minute at the tables.

Tournament Texas Holdem is a battle of attrition. Deep field tournaments are a grind that will test your mental game as well as your physical stamina. Most people don’t realize what a grind it is to play a full day of Texas Holdem Poker. It will drain you, and you will never know what it is like unless you sit at a table and play for 10 plus hours.

Recently the final table of the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event lasted 22 hours, almost an entire day of No Limit Holdem. Every hand could be your last, and one little mistake can cost you a lot of money. To survive in big tournaments you need to stay on point for long periods of time, you need to remain focused on the task at hand. You never know when you are going to get the hand that will either bust you, or propel you further into the event. I am going to try and set up a few things for you that will help you survive and make some money in deep fields.

Research - Before you put a large sum of money down to play in a big tournament you need to know what you are getting in to. Check out the blind structures, sometimes overlooked structures have a major impact on tournaments. Depends on what kind of Poker player you are, but for the most part the slower the blinds increase the better chance the best players will emerge in the end. Quicker blind structures will force you to gamble earlier in tournaments and might not allow you to play your game. With slower structures (ex. 1 hour blinds), you can take your time, get your reads and play the game that best fits you.

Another thing to research is the payout structures, how many players and how much money will be awarded. Once again it depends on what kind of player you are, some people like when the winner takes a large portion of the money, while others like a safer structure where more people will make a smaller amounts of money. You need to know yourself and pick the payout structures that will best fit your game. If you are a win or bust player, feel free go for the payout structure that will pay the winners 40% or more.

Patience - There is no need to gamble early on in Texas Holdem tournaments, especially when there are a lot of players. Take your time when you get started, feel out your table and set up a game plan that you think will help you win. I am not saying sit there and don’t play, I am saying you need to manage your risk and pick and choose your spots. As an example if you start a tournament with starting stakes of 20 000 and the blinds starting at 25 – 50, there is no reason for you to go broke early in the event. The only reason you should go broke in the first few blind levels is if you take a horrible beat (ex Royal vs Quads).

Once you feel comfortable with the game and you have a good plan it is time to exploit what you have learned. There will become a time when you need to gamble and the better reads and information you have the better chances that you make the right decision.

Stay Ahead of the Binds - The worst thing you can do in a Texas Holdem Tournament is get blinded out. No one wants to go down without a fight, and if the blinds are high in comparison to your stack, its time to gamble. A good rule of thumb is if you have 10 big blinds or less left in your stack, its time to find a hand a go with it. Even if you don’t get any action when shoving your stack in, stealing blinds can buy you some time to find the hand you truly want to get your money in with. If you are low on chips you need to force people to lay down decent hands and take your chances of coming up against a monster. Take advantage of position, if you have a chance to pick up loose pots do it.

Get Lucky - Can’t really control this, but to win big Holdem tournaments you will have to get lucky. Luck is a big part of poker tournaments, and you don’t get any it will be tough to come away with the title. In addition to that you need to stay composed when you get unlucky, and it will happen. Control your emotions, stay focused on your goals and do your best to avoid tilt.

It’s a Team Game? – There will be a point in all tournaments where eliminating players is the most important thing. You need to move yourself up the pay scale and this might mean that you need to give up some value in individual hands in order to bust another player. This might mean you need to check down, slow play and play some hands you usually wouldn’t. I have seen it many times, when a player doesn’t check down, and the all in player survives and busts that same player later in the tournament. Its not a team game, but sometimes helping others, in order to improve your chances to win is the best thing to do.

The draw of the big cash, the glory and respect is why people play big field tournaments. These events can be time consuming, and very frustrating, anyone who has ever finished “on the bubble” knows what I mean. If you do your research, be patient, stay ahead of the blinds and get lucky you might be the next big winner. Tournaments with big fields will test every aspect of your game, mental and physical. Don’t get discouraged you cannot expect to win every tournament you play in, play your best and give yourself a chance.