Poker Tournaments Basics

When moving from cash games to poker tournaments you need to make some adjustments to your normal game. Cash games are all about long term expectation. You can make a positive expected value move which will win money for you in the long term. Even if you go broke it’s the right decision to make because you can always just buy-in for more money. Poker tournaments are different in that they have a definite beginning and end, so drawing hands that are profitable in the long run can kill you in the short run and bust you out of a poker tournament early.

It’s important to understand the flow of a typical poker tournament. In the beginning of the poker tournament there could be as many as 1500 people. This means there are all types of players, and you don’t know anything about any of them. What you do know is that everyone starts with the same amount of chips. The blinds are usually small relative to everyone’s stack (25-50 blinds when everyone has 5000 chips). Many players will limp in with a prospective hand they probably wouldn’t be playing later in the poker tournament because the blinds are so small at this point there won’t be too many plays to steal them.

After the first 2-3 rounds the blinds will continue to go up and play will become increasingly aggressive. Stealing the blinds from this point forward becomes more and more profitable. You will start seeing people drop out and others accumulate large stacks of chips. This will continue for a while. You can expect a break every 1-2 hours in a typical poker tournament.

If you’re playing well you will eventually come to the cut off point where the remaining players get in the money. This is generally around the 10% mark, so in a 1500 person poker tournament you can expect about 150 players to make the money. As you approach the cut off many players will tighten up to ensure they make the cut. You can take advantage of this by putting pressure on them and stealing some pots.

A common mistake new poker tournament players make is over betting with their bet sizing. Often a small raise will have accomplished what you were trying to do without risking the entire poker tournament. Raising too much will make you pot committed and forced to call a re-raise, whereas a smaller bet would have enabled you to size up the situation and fold if someone comes back at you with a big re-raise.

Hopefully you’ve continued to play well through the entire poker tournament and you have reached the final table where the big money is. Every spot you move up from this point will have a significant impact upon how much money you will take home so the decisions at the final table become even more important.