Play poker online with top champions, and compete in tournaments like the WPT and the WSOP.
But take the time to read our tips before jumping into tournaments to win millions.
FullTiltPoker -- FTOPS XV From February 10 - 21
More Than $17 Million Guaranteed! Starting February 10th, FTOPS XV offers 27 events with a total guaranteed prize pool worth more than $17 million. This series features
a wide selection of tournaments including the massive $2.5 million guaranteed Main Event!
1. Never invest a significant amount of your bankroll in any given
tournament. Tournaments involve a lot of luck and are generally feast or
famine.
2. Pay attention to the changing game stacks and adjust accordingly.
If the blinds are about to be increased to the point where you will be all
in soon, take a risk and go head strong with a borderline hand before you
will forced in with the blinds. In general, you want to increase your stack
slowly throughout the tournament.
3. Learn which hands do well in heads up situations. A hand like Ax
offsuit is a poor hand to play, but is a decent hand to go all in with
pre-flop, as it has an advantage over most other hands. Pocket pairs do
well, but suited cards go down in value.
4. Pay close attention to how your opponents act when they are in
the blinds. Some will be very tight, so steal their blinds. Others will
zealously defend their blinds so smack them when you have a strong hand.
5. The ‘Gap’ concept is critical in tournaments. Simply put, you
should be more eager to enter a pot with a raise than you would in a
ring game because stealing the blinds is very valuable in a tournament.
On the other hand, if someone has entered the pot already with a raise,
you should be prepared to fold. You want to avoid confrontations in
tournaments (unless you have the nut hand) and instead just easily win
small pots to build up your stack.
Single Table Tournaments
1. Play for third or first. If you are low on chips at the end, try
to ‘stay in’ by going headstrong with a very strong hand like a high pocket
pair or AK/AQ. If you are the chip leader, play aggressive and steal
people’s blinds so you can maintain your lead and win the whole thing.
2. If it is early in the tournament, call small bets and raises with
pocket pairs so you can bust someone at the flop if you hit.
3. Remember that suited connectors go down in value because people
tend to be short stacked even at the beginning of the tournament. Even if
you suited connector hits, there is a low chance you will be able to extract
a lot of money out of your opponent in relation to the pot. These hands are
only worth a call at the beginning of the tournament.
4. Keep good notes of the players you play against, as you will
frequently meet the same people if you consistently play single table
tournaments at the same buyin.
Multi Table Tournaments
1. Relax and be prepared to play the whole tournament. Multi-table
tournaments can take awhile, sometimes even six hours. If you do not wish
to play this long, chances are you will unconsciously play bad so you might
go out sooner.
2. Remember the relative value of your chips. Your first thousand chips
are worth more than chips 10k-11k. Because of this, you need to be more
cautious when you are one of the smaller stacks but more aggressive if you
are a larger stack.
3. Don’t bluff much at the beginning. When you open with 1k chips,
winning another 200-300 is not that important, survival is more important.
Try to value bet and win a few huge pots when you have a really good hand.
4. Later in the tournament, don’t be afraid to stick all of your chips
in pre-flop, especially if you are shortstacked. If you will be all in on
the flop no matter what, might as well increase your chance of just stealing
the blinds by sticking it all in pre-flop.
Also, here are a few articles that will help you move up to a better game:
Ester Rossi -- Steaming is bad but pretending to steam isn’t
Excerpt: I’ve been playing for 23 years, and one thing I can say about my play with great pride is that I never steam. In fact,
that’s true of a lot of pros. In general, the more experienced a player is, the less likely he or she is to have a steam factor.
Rafe Furst -- Preflop Play in Pot-Limit Hold’em Tournaments
Excerpt: To succeed in Pot-Limit Hold ‘em tournaments, No-Limit Hold ‘em players need to make certain adjustments to their game. Perhaps
the biggest modification you need to make is to recognize the importance of being the second raiser before the flop rather than the first, a change
necessitated in large part by Pot-Limit’s unique betting structure.
Mike Matusow -- Check-Raising the Devil
Excerpt: In a cash game, you still might make a call, but saving a bet in a limit tournament is a lot more important. Although I was almost sure I was beaten,
I went in the tank for awhile with my aces, wondering if I could be wrong.
