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Installment #10:
Study tournament strategy by reading good advice from experts
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You can use your Texas Hold’em Super Pro
Charts to great advantage in all
hold’em tournaments because a good hold’em hand is a good hand,
no matter what the game. Good hands don’t change just because
you’re playing a tournament – it’s the strategies that change in
tournaments. The strategy you use in cash games to get to the
cashier’s cage with racks of chips doesn’t work nearly as well
in tournament games. Tournament strategy is definitely a bird of
a different color. Learning correct tournament techniques before
you enter the fray is way better than finding out the hard way
by needlessly losing too many battles before you hit the books.
Give your
tournament career a jumpstart by first studying Poker
Tournament Tips from the Pros by Shane Smith, my co-author
for Beat Texas Hold’em. Smith’s advice will be especially
helpful to you at the start of your tournament adventures. Then
move on to Tournament Poker, my book about how to win
tournaments in several types of poker. If your bag is strictly
limit hold’em, follow up by studying Championship Hold’em,
which I wrote with T.J. Cloutier, the world’s winningest
tournament player. We give solid advice on how to win at limit
hold’em cash games and tournaments.
How to Win
No-Limit Hold’em Tournaments,
my latest book, is hot off the press. Setting modesty aside, I
believe it is the best book I can recommend to aspiring no-limit
hold’em tournament players. Don Vines, my co-author, has won a
ton of low-limit and medium-limit tournaments. His writing style
is very clear and to the point, never boring. I’ve won several
big-buy-in events and give you important tips on how to get to
the final table at the World Series of Poker.
With some
knowledge in your head and a little mileage under your belt,
you’ll be ready to roll in today’s rocketing tournament scene. |
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Play small tournaments to start with
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It takes lots
of experience and practice to acquire the skills you need to
compete on a level playing field with some of the best
tournament players in the world. Very few players can be
competitive in the big buy-in tournaments without first playing
in the smaller ones. People who skip the smaller tournaments and
go directly for the World Series of Poker or the World Poker
Tour events are seldom successful to start with – and usually
put a big dent in their bankrolls.
Fortunately,
there are many small buy-in tournaments available both online
and in casinos to choose from where you can practice and improve
your tournament skills. Just be certain to reserve enough time
to play the event to its conclusion. Figure out how long it will
take to play the tournament if you get to the final table and,
hopefully, win it. Make sure that you can “be there, do that”
mentally as well as physically. If you will need to be somewhere
else during the maximum length of time you think the tournament
will require, skip that day’s event, because your heart very
likely will not be in it.
Playing in low buy-in tournaments can be a very
inexpensive way to get the experience need to move up the
tournament ladder. If you are successful and make money at the
smaller buy-in events, you are usually ready to play in bigger
events and face tougher competition. Most of us rise to the
level of our competition. Nobody in sports improved his
performance by always competing against players of lesser
ability. On the other hand you can lose a lot of money by
playing in tournaments where the competition is too tough for
you.
Playing in small buy-in, online tournaments may
be the solution. Online tournaments in every poker game
imaginable are usually available around the clock. If you keep
good records of your wins and losses, you will know when it’s
time to move up. When your winning record over six months, for
example, far exceeds your losses, try playing a higher buy-in
tournament where the competition is stiffer. Give the bigger
buy-in tournaments two or three shots. If you feel comfortable
competing at that level and believe you can become a winner,
stay there for a while. Then move up to an ever higher rung on
the tournament ladder.
But if you get slaughtered every time you put
your buy-in on the butcher block, step back down the ladder
until you have more experience and expertise under your belt.
Don’t gamble with the rent money playing a
tournament that is too expensive for your budget. |
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Decide in advance whether to rebuy and add on
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If you plan to win a rebuy tournament, enter
it with enough money to make rebuys and the optional add-on.
Some players plan to fire just one bullet—they intend to
stick with their original buy-in only and quit if they lose
it. This puts them at a disadvantage to their opponents who
are willing to rebuy. In most rebuy events, you will need to
take advantage of the rebuy or add-on options to get to the
final table. Your chip position, your budget, and the
strength of the players who are in top chips status are
determining factors in deciding whether you should add on at
the end of the rebuy period.
Should you plan to always rebuy when you go
broke? Not necessarily. If I get broke late in the rebuy
period just after the limits have risen, I will often quit
rather than go for another rebuy. I opt out because the
amount of chips that I will receive for my rebuy money is
much smaller in relation to the higher limits. For example,
if I will receive $200 in chips for the rebuy when the
blinds are $25-$50, those chips won’t go nearly as far as
they would have gone when the blinds were only $10-$20 in an
earlier round. Always use good judgment in your rebuy
decisions. Ask yourself, “Will a rebuy at this stage of the
tournament under these conditions be a good investment?”
If the
casino awards bonus chips in addition to the usual number of
chips you would receive when you add on, you are almost
always correct in taking the add-on. Or if buying the add-on
will increase your chip position by 33 percent or more, take
the add-on. |
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BONUS
Next week |
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Play more conservatively in freeze-out tournaments |
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Play solid poker in low-limit tournaments |
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Be Aware of Your Stack Status |
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Watch the clock |
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