Valuable Poker Tournament Strategy for Beginners

Here are The Worldly Bettor’s top 5 tips for beginners in poker tournament strategy. These poker tournament strategies can be used to enhance your game and increase your winnings.

Strategy Tip for Poker Tournament: Keep Your Bankroll In One Piece

You may not know what a bankroll even means if you’re new to poker. That’s okay, provided you understand one simple thing: you don’t want to play more money than you can afford to lose.

Your poker bankroll refers to the amount of money you have available for playing the game. You can’t play if your bankroll is insolvent.

It is important to have the ability to manage your bankroll in a way that allows you to absorb the inevitable losses as you learn how to play the game. You should have at least 10 buy-ins in your bankroll to play the highest level of tournaments.

This is not just for financial reasons.

The buy-in is a good indicator of the talent in the field. If you play against top-ranked players at the World Series of Poker Championship, where the amount you can win is $50,000 and you’re still not there yet, you could easily be outmatched.

However, even if your strategy seems simple and play a $5 MTT online you will be able to keep most of your money most of the time. While you won’t always meet good players at smaller buy-ins, smaller events will keep your interest up and allow you to play against players with similar skills.

Poker Tournament Strategy Tip: Be Aggressive

Cash game poker rewards patience, picking their spots carefully, and waiting for the money to arrive, instead of going out and trying to chase it. Tournament poker rewards aggressive players.

You will be run over if you don’t act aggressively as the blinds always go up.

Because you only get a certain amount of chips and the blinds increase throughout tournaments, chips quickly lose value. Let’s see how this works.

HOW CHIPS LOSE VALUE

Let’s assume that you have a $10,000 starting stack, and that the big blind for the tournament is $100. This means you have 100 total big stakes.

Let’s go a few levels further and make the big blind at $1,000. You now have only 10 big bets if you still have the same $10,000 starting stack. This is because the minimum bet increases every time the blinds rise, decreasing the stack’s value.

Your chips will lose value quickly as the blinds keep going up. This means you’ll always want to be aggressive in trying to accumulate chips. Your stack may be large, but its value will drop as soon as the blinds go up.

Poker tournament players can use a variety of strategies to win. However, I have never seen a top-tier tournament player who isn’t aggressive. If you want to win the tournament, be aggressive early and stay aggressive late. Don’t let the blinds take your stack.

Poker Tournament Strategy Tip: Tight Is Right

We just discussed how aggressive you need to be when playing tournament poker. But don’t confuse being aggressive with being reckless. Tight is the right word when it comes to tournament poker.

While you want to be aggressive in a pot, you also don’t want too many hands.

If you happen to be playing great cards, you may find yourself playing many hands in the short term. You need to be cautious to avoid losing chips by holding weak cards. You will be difficult to play against if you are aggressive and will prevent more experienced players from taking advantage of your inexperience.

Poker Tournament Strategy Tip: Look For Uncontested Pots

Because of the nature and play style of tournament poker, there will be orphan pots. The best way to win tournament poker is to play tight.

There will be many pots to contend with, even though so many players are playing the same strategy.

It’s a great way for you to stay ahead of the ever-increasing blinds and to grab more than your fair share of these uncontested pots. Take a look at the pot if it is three-handed and there is no action around you.

Although I do not recommend that you try to steal small pots from others if it is available and you are able to take it down with small bets, give it a shot and see if it can be won without much hassle. These pots won’t win you the tournament but they will sustain your stack while waiting for better hands to win larger pots.

Poker Tournament Strategy Tip: When to Shove Pre-Flop

As the blinds increase, so does the value of your chips. It is a good idea to keep track of the size of your stack by accurately counting how many big blinds you have.

It is important to know how many big blinds your stack has at the beginning of every hand. Your strategy for playing that hand will depend on how large your stack is.

You should not be limping in if you have less than 10 big blinds. Your stack is too small for a standard tournament strategy. Instead, you should be just shoving all-in pre-flop with any premium hands.

PLEASE NOTE:

With that being said, you shouldn’t be surprised to be called by your opponents. They will likely charge you a premium to call you, and possibly knock you out of the tournament. As long as you wait for a premium hold to push your stack into the middle of the table, you will not mind being called. You are more likely to be the best and have the potential to double up.

A shove stack is one that has a stack that is larger than the standard 15-18 big blind range. A shove stack is one that is too large to open and shove against the blinds but big enough to shove over an increase where you still have fold equity.

While players will snap call 4, 5, and 5 big blind pushes, if a player opens for an average 3x raise, and you push over the top with 18 large blinds, you’ll find that you won the pot more often than not. It is important to know when to shove pre-flop and when to make a standard raise.

Poker Tournament Strategy: What’s the conclusion?

Now that you know the best strategy for beginner poker players, it is time to start playing and having fun! Online is the best place to get some experience and help your bankroll.

Online poker tournaments are affordable enough to allow you to gain valuable table time and experience without going broke. You can’t replace experience in poker tournaments, no matter how good your strategy is. Online poker is an excellent way to get that.

So, if you’re just starting your way in this field and wish to attend a poker tournament, the information above is the key to your success.

Remember what we always say and always bet with your head and not over it!

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