I found myself sitting in a multi-table tourney proceeding to plan out my strategy on how I was gonna win this baby. It was a tourney consisting of over 10 tables and 100 players. Hard odds say you have a 1% chance of winning but due to some patience and due diligence I figured that my chance of winning this tourney was higher than that and the chance of finishing in the money was quite a bit higher than the 1% because of some of the following virtues that many simply cannot abide by. Let’s take a look….
The first thing that you should always think about that you probably never do is to make sure your free of distractions. Simple but often times overlooked. There’s nothing worse than the wife rolling in to ask you to take out the garbage, the kid telling you the signal has been lost to the DirecTV and can you come look at it, the wife leaving for bunko and advising you that your tonight’s babysitter, the phone ringing and so on. Make sure your tourney will be distraction free, otherwise it can swipe your attention away for just long enough to tank out and bust out.
Don’t try to swipe blinds early in the game. We know you’ve seen it. The player that goes “all-in” pre flop just to snag into a few bucks. Don’t do this, even if you have a premium hand. Heck, especially if you have a premium hand because your gonna scare everybody off! Slow play good hands and let people bet into you. THEN come over the top late and hammer them.
If you have a crappy hand, fold it. In poker, there’s always another hand. Bad hands lead to throwing good money after bad. A good rule of thumb would be that if your holding a hand that doesn’t stand a chance in betting action vs. a raise or re-raise, you have no action being in the game in the first place. Protect your chips. Once their gone your out!
Play solid hands properly. If you have a premium hand such as a high pair or AK suited and you play them strong, keep coming at people at the table. It’ll weed out the jokers and bluffers. Show strength on good hands, but don’t raise too early! Suck’em in and build that pot!
Avoid getting into a battle with the biggest stacks in the tournament. These guys have gained their stack for a reason, their good, maybe playing tight or even a rock. A confrontation with a lesser stack is going to be an easier target as this guy is down to his last few options and he’s going to be very conservative as his stack is affecting his play because he doesn’t wanna bust out.
These are just a few tips that we ourselves use when sitting in on a multi-table tournament. The above listed tips go for both brick and mortar poker room play and online poker room play. We hope you enjoyed them and can put them into good use for your own game.
See you at the tables!
