Best Online Poker Tournament Strategy
- Best Online Poker Tournament Strategy Blackjack
- Best Online Poker Tournament Strategy Sites
- Best Online Poker Tournament Strategy
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Tournament Strategy Basics
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Practical Tips For Beginners
Six-time Poker World Series winner Daniel Negreanu has spent decades honing his poker strategy, which includes everything from value bets to how to avoid tilt and proper bankroll management. Advance your poker game from Daniel Negreanu’s MasterClass and make every hand your best hand. Players who have solid poker fundamentals will often make a major mistake in poker tournaments that they don't make in cash games. That mistake is being too patient. In a cash poker game, the goal (especially at low limits) is often to wait for a good hand, a good flop and a bad opponent to pay you out.
Choosing The Best Tournaments: Having a great understanding of the strategy is just one aspect of making profits from poker – you also need to choose the best games. There are huge differences between the poker sites, particularly in the average experience level of the other players.
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Best Online Poker Tournament Strategy Blackjack
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The Road To Winning Your First Tournament
Nothing can beat the feeling of winning a multi-table poker tournament, and this area of the site is dedicated to helping you do exactly that. What makes tournament poker so attractive is the potential for turning a small buy-in into a prize worth $1000’s or even $10,000s… With online poker tournaments starting (literally) every minute of every day, there have never been more opportunities to break through.
Before I get to the skills required to beat Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs for short) it is amazing just how many types of tourney are available these days. From humble beginnings of single-entry games (freezeouts) with the occasional rebuy game, there are combinations and quirks to keep you coming back to the tables again and again.
Here are some of my favorites:
Turbo Tournaments: Turn up the speed of the blinds and the pressure to make moves increases for all the players. Also a great option for those players who do not have the luxury of sitting up for half the night playing!
Knockout / Bounty Tournaments: Here the prize pool is split, you get a bounty prize for each player you knock out, as well as prizes for the late finishers. The proportion of bounty to prize varies from site to site, the bounty portion usually ranges from 20% to 50% of each players buy-in.
Satellite Qualifiers: Tournaments which award prizes of tickets to even bigger tournaments (both live and online) are big news these days. These are a great way for smaller bankroll players to win entry into games with potentially career-changing prize pools, including live events like the World Series of European Poker Tour events.
Sunday Majors: This is a collective term for the biggest tournaments of the week, which are mostly held on Sundays at the different poker sites. The biggest of all is the ‘Sunday Million’ at Pokerstars, which guarantees a million each week. There are similar games elsewhere, and plenty of satellite qualifiers to get you a cheap ticket into the big events.
Online Poker Events: Most poker sites now run tournament festivals, online events which have bigger buy-in games – many with guaranteed prizes and dedicated satellite qualifiers. These range from the huge ‘World Championship of Online Poker’ at PokerStars to the iPOPs at Titan, Power Fest at Party and right through to niche / smaller events at the mid-sized sites. These are a great way to break through to the next level, and often come with bonus offers and special promotions that the sites use to make sure that the tables are full.
Skills To Make You A Winning Tournament Player
Tournament play requires a unique skill set. You need to be able to play with ‘deep’ stacks, which includes post-flop play, hand reading and many of the skills associated with cash game poker. In addition you need to be able to assess situations and ranges of hands later in the game, making big moves at just the right time to accumulate chips based on stack sizes, ranges and the state of the game. You also need to be able to play under pressure of huge prize increases at the final table and master the high-pressure of short-handed and heads-up play.
Your reward for getting everything right (+ having a good run of cards!) can be a huge payout. Many of the articles on this page will specifically guide you through the situations and puzzles which you will encounter along the way to winning tournaments.
Here is a selection of articles covering the key parts of tournament strategy.
Basics: I recommend you get to know the different stages of tournaments and how your strategy needs to change with the stack sizes and situations before you jump into the details of ‘making moved’. This will give you a solid foundation on which to build specific skills – starting with the minefield of bad opponents in the early stages and all the way through to the excitement of your first major final table. My beginners list contains everything you need, from pre-flop basics through the strategy essentials and a guide to choosing the best beginner tournaments, which will enable you to build your bankroll at the same time as your experience!
General Strategy: Poker tournament strategy is something you will never tire of learning, and the general strategy articles cover a rich and varied number of topics. These range from specific moves such as 3-betting, continuation betting and managing the pot size – through to overall ideas like small ball poker and adjustments for turbo tournaments.
Choosing The Best Tournaments: Having a great understanding of the strategy is just one aspect of making profits from poker – you also need to choose the best games. There are huge differences between the poker sites, particularly in the average experience level of the other players. By choosing sites with a regular flow of new and recreational players, you can potentially double your profits. Check out my article on the best sites for poker tournaments for more on this important topic.
Of course, I have provided strategy for the different types of tournament too – so whatever game you prefer, Sit N Go Planet is your first stop for online poker tournament strategy.
Poker tournaments are the new rage in online poker, and are also the focus of the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. Every online poker site offers poker tournaments in multiple forms and fashions, but the most popular tournaments are No Limit Hold'em tournaments. In a No Limit Hold'em tournament, each player receives the same amount of chips and then plays until only one player has every single chip. To force action, the tournament raises blinds and implements antes to put pressure on every player's stack.
These poker tournament strategy articles will teach you how to beat live and online poker tournaments:
General Poker Tournament Strategy:
These articles will teach you basic strategies that can be used in any poker tournament:
- Ten Best Poker Tournament Tips - This article has our top ten tips for tournament players.
- Early Stages Strategy - During the early stages, tight is right. Learn more in this article.
- Middle Stages Strategy - Learn how to crush the middle stages and build up a huge stack.
- Late Stages Strategy - The late stages are from after the bubble until the final few tables.
- Playing the Bubble - Learn how to steamroll other players on the bubble and cruise to the money.
- Final Table Strategy - Want that huge first place prize? Read this article and crush the final table.
- The Tournament Mind Set - Get in the right train of thought so you can start beating MTT's.
- When to Get Your Money in on a Coin Flip - To win a MTT, you have to win a coin flip.
- Playing Draws in Poker Tournaments - Learn how to play your monster draws in MTT's.
- Stealing the Blinds - Learn when the best time is to steal the blinds and pad your stack in an MTT.
Beating Specific Poker Tournaments:
Now we will link to articles that discuss specific poker tournament types and variations:
- Rebuy Tournament Strategy - Learn how to beat rebuy poker tournaments.
- Single Table Satellite Strategy - This article discusses 9-man poker tournament satellites.
- Super Satellite Strategy - Beat super satellites (multi table satellites with hundreds of players).
- How to Win Bounty Tournaments - Strategy for playing bounty/knockout tournaments.
- 180 Man Tournament Strategy - Learn how to beat normal 180-man sit and go's.
- 180 Man Turbo Tournament Strategy - This article focuses on turbo 180-man sit and go's.
Adjust Your Game as the Tournament Progresses
One of the most important skills in a poker tournament is to be able to adjust your strategy as the tournament progresses. As you get deeper and deeper into the tournament, blinds and antes will place increased pressure on your stack, which will force you to adjust your play accordingly. This is far different from a cash table, where you can just add on more chips to your stack at any time. Once blinds reach an extremely high level, you will have to steal blinds and antes just to survive.
Best Online Poker Tournament Strategy Sites
Account for Stack Size
One factor that many players overlook in a poker tournament is taking account of your opponents' stack sizes. As you get deep in a tournament, stack size becomes just as important as position or player skill. When stealing blinds, always target the middle stacks, because short stacks are forced to make moves, and big stacks will often play pots just to try to knock players out. Middle stacks, on the other hand, are just trying to advance in the pay brackets.
Best Online Poker Tournament Strategy
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