Poker Tactics - Tournament Poker

Tournaments are different from cash games, like they are different from non gambling practise games.  A lot of people start to imagining that the chips mean something different from what they are. Betting all your chips to get someone else's chips is not the best idea and turns your betting strategy into a mess.

Tournaments are a special type of poker that needs a new take on rules.  There will be lots of time to go all-in.  But there are times when you may want to stay out of the line of fire.  If more than one person is going all-in, perhaps someone with a short stack and they are getting desperate it is not a good idea to go in as well unless you are sure you have a good hand.   Here is why.  One person is going to lose, the other is going to have a lot more chips, but the more people that go all-in there is less of a chance that any one player will win the pot.  Sounds complicated but really no matter what you hold, there are lots of combinations that will beat it.  Most times people go all-in before the flop so you can't be sure of the cards and you are essentially gambling at that point.  If it's the first few rounds with a set of brand new people, don't think that being macho will help you against good cards. Those players going all in are hoping to double up very quickly and that does pay off, but over time that kind of thinking leads to bad decisions and eventually those will cost you the tournament.  The best players build chips slowly without the gambling.

The time I find to go all-in that matters the most is not on the flop but on the river.  By then, you have seen all the cards and the other person - usually only one has a real hard decision to make about your cards.  You can make them back down or you can maximize your pot win by waiting till the end. Or you go out knowing you had a good hand.  Going all-in on a bluff doesn't work all that well so don't try that too often.

One thing to remember is timing.  The bad decision players will drop out at the beginning so you need to remember not to be too fast to bet.  Take your time. While you are prolonging your game, the other players are exiting and you can give yourself a better chance at making the final table by being patient alone.  Chip counts will go up and down, and you will make some good and bad decisions, but you can control the time you play. I have had a good lead on some wild gamble bets, even been chip leader, and then went out making bad call after bad call. On the other hand, when I went all-in with a desperate small stack, I  won three hands in a row and came back up to par with the other players.  I was so determined that I had lost, I had signed up for another online tournament and was playing both at the same time; watching me lose the second tournament while the first one went on for another table or two.  So timing and patience is a bigger virtue in tournaments than at a cash game.  When you hit the end of your stack in a cash game you are finished, but wasting chips faster in a tournament puts you out faster.