Tournament Poker

Tournament poker can be some of the most profitable poker because one deep cash can be worth a lot of money. Take Jamie Gold for example, one of the worst poker players I have ever seen, he feels the need to bluff every hand and yet one deep cash and he has 12 million dollars in his pocket… not including his law suit and having to settle outside of court to pay his friend a portion. Anyways back to tournament poker strategy. In the beginning of the tournament I only play premium hands, of course the starting hands you play depend on the position on which you get them.

For example, in any position I will play AJ, AQ, AK, JJ, QQ, KK, AA. In early position I usually will not come in raising with mediocre hands like QJ or KJ because if my raise is called I am more than likely dominated. However in later position I can raise with KJ or QJ because I have less people to go through. In late position, for example before the button aka the cut off position or when I’m on the button I’ll raise with A9 and up and any pocket pair 7’s and up. This will either allow me to steal the blinds or maybe the big blind with money already committed in the pot will call me with a weak ace and be in a really bad shape against my A9 or 7’s and up. As you get deeper and deeper in tournaments blinds become a major factor in survival. On Full Tilt I was playing in the daily double tournaments at 9:00 as I was deep in the cash with about 30 people left blinds were crucial for survival. With the average stack of about 100,000 in chips and blinds at 5k/2.5k and a 1k ante just stealing the blinds would add 16.5k to your stack. In this type of situation you have to become much more aggressive.

I will raise from any position in this shape with QJ or KJ and any of the previously stated hands. At this time in the tournament most people are so focused on moving up in the cash rather than acquiring chips so they play extremely tight and get blinded off. You have to be willing to let these hands like QJ go if you raise it to 15k and someone comes over the top (reraise) on you for 40k which is almost half your chip stack. To sum things up, early on in tournaments pick your spots, play tight and solid poker and you’ll double up through donkeys playing weak aces and mediocre hands. As the tournament gets down to fewer people and blinds raise you have to lower your requirements for starting hands and steal blinds in order to acquire chips while getting deeper in the cash, this will set you up for a great run at the final table. Lastly, don’t bluff away your chips, you can still play aggressive poker without trying to steal pots that you shouldn’t be involved in. Good Luck.