Tournament poker is one of the world's hottest fads. While poker has been consistently played for over 100 years, the tournament circuit is still a relatively new thing. In 1972, the grand prize at the World Series of Poker (a $10k buy in) was only $80,000. In 2003, Chris Moneymaker took home a cool $2.5 million. The reason for this drastic increase in prize money is the number of players that have entered tournaments. In 1972, only 8 players entered the world series of poker, while 839 entered in 2003.

I am not a fan of tournament poker. Television has made tournament poker look glamorous- a competition where skill prevails. However, the truth of the matter is that luck plays a much larger factor in tournaments than ring games. Think about it this way: if you started with $2000, what is the chance that you would end up with $2 million dollars before the night was over at a regular no-limit game? Zero. However, to win a tournament where each player has 2k starting chips and 1000 people enter, you would need to win two million in chips to win the tournament. Not an easy feat to do unless lady luck truly smiled upon you that day!

In short, the reasons I prefer to make money at ring games rather than tournaments is:

1. I can consistently win at a ring game, whereas a tournament is feast or famine.

2. Luck plays a much smaller role in having a winning session at a ring game than at a tournament.

3. It is much easier to tell if you are a good ring game player than a good tournament player. Since the best tournament player can easily go ten sessions winning nothing, it is very difficult to tell if you are 'doing the right thing.'

Nevertheless, I play tournaments because they are fun and because I hope to make some money at them. Winning at tournaments still requires sound poker strategy, but emphasizes several factors more so than ring games:

1. Your chips have a different relative value. In a standard poker game, you should view each dollar as having equal value. This is not the case in a tournament. When you start off with an initial thousand in chips, which thousand are worth a lot more than the next thousand you make. Since you cannot buy back in, you always need to have chips in order to survive. At the beginning of the tournament, you should be more reticent to go all in because even if you win you are not in much better of a position. However, later in the tournament you must gamble or else you risk just losing by being blinded away.

2. Domination plays a much bigger factor. Later in the tournament, the blinds will be so high that most players in contested hands will be all-in preflop. Thus, you want hands that dominate other hands. High pocket pairs are good because they dominate lower pocket pairs, and ace with a good kicker is a good hand because it dominates many other hands. Many players make the mistake of betting very hard with a low pocket pair such as 55. In truth, these low pockets are only good for stealing blinds. If someone calls you, you are at best a 50-50, while you are a 4.5:1 underdog if they have a higher pocket pair.

Poker Strategy - Single-Table NL Tournaments

This section is on how to win the single table NL tournaments, which are very popular at Global Sports Network. The buy ins range from $5 to $100, so play whatever you can bank.

The goal is place 1st 20% of the time and 2nd, or 3rd 40% of the time. This yields a profit of about the entry buy-in over the long run. So if you play a 10-dollar buy in, you can expect to make $10 dollars every time you play if you achieve the goal.

The way I'll write this strategy guide is by the blind size. Note: The overall strategy is to get ahead quick and stay ahead, or to not die and then quickly come back later. In other words, you'll become the boss of the table throughout the game if you get good cards and get lucky early, or you'll be hanging in there until the late rounds when you make a big move.

Blinds

10-15, 10-20- regular games, aim to trap a big hand if possible and double up. Don't be afraid to call or go to the flop with a marginal hand that has high-implied odds. So, in an unraised pot, I'll go in with 78 suited, b/c I know if I hit the hand well, I can get paid off quite nicely.

15-30, 25-50- Tight aggressive play when possible, aim to win a big pot but avoid putting yourself all in or seriously depleting your stack. In layman's terms, play only good hands (the top tier) but don't be afraid to play them strongly.

50-100, 100-200- You're in three possible situations after the first 30 hands and into these blinds.

1. You're short stacked- can only afford about 4 big blinds at the level, and those big blinds are just going to get more expensive. Go all in with A and a high card, or any pair preflop (provided another person hasn't bet for a lot already). You want enough chips to survive and get into at least third place.

2. Large stacked; you won a big hand in those first 30. Don't let people double through though- try to continue to increase slowly, avoid a big confrontation unless you clearly have the best of it. Steal the blinds a lot when you have a decent hand- just put in the minimal raise. Your goal is to win, not to place.

3. Very short- like almost out. You got to fight and fight quick. Take a couple long shots, go all in with KQ if you have it, etc. There's nothing worse than being blinded to death. If you're big blind and can only afford one to two more big blinds, go all in no matter what (so if you paid the big blind of 50 and have about 75 in reserve, go all in no matter what).

Poker Strategy - Multi-Table NL Tournaments

About No-Limit Tournaments

The popularity of No-Limit hold'em tournaments is booming. Fueled by the WSOP (World Series of Poker) and the World Poker Tour, many people are intrigued by these competitions and enter for a chance to win a 'big score.' In fact, most No-Limit hold'em is played in tournament form nowadays (which upsets someone like me whose favorite poker game is a No-Limit hold'em ring game).

While No-Limit hold'em ring games offer the lowest variation for a consistent winner (I probably win 80-90% of the times I enter a No-Limit ring games), No-Limit hold'em tournaments have crazy variance. This is because all the money gets shoved in preflop on near coin flip odds at the end of the tournament. For example, AK versus a pocket pair is a very, very common battle late in a No-Limit tournament.

I'm not saying you shouldn't play No-Limit tournaments, but please don't think that these tournaments are all skill and no luck. The famous quote from Rounders, "The same five guys make it to the final table every year at the WSOP" is the opposite of the truth. You MUST be lucky to win a No-Limit tournament because you must win more than your fair share of coin flip battles.

Strategy

That's enough preaching about No-Limit tournaments. In terms of strategy, No-Limit tournaments are very different from No-Limit ring games. You simply can't bluff as much because people's stacks tend to be smaller in relation to the size of the pot. Also, since the amount of chips you win from a bluff is worth less than the amount you stand to lose, bluffing loses a lot of 'value.'

Now, many of you may be confused. Suppose you bluff 1000 chips at a 1000 pot and figure you have a 50-60% chance of taking it down. Many of you would think it's worth it to take that risk. However, those 1000 chips you win are worth less than those 1000 chips you stand to lose. If you have a 2000 stack, getting knocked down to 1000 has much more negative value than the positive value of getting up to 3000. The 1000 chips do not represent money. The only monetary value in the tournament is either losing all of your chips or winning them all (and losing them all is more important because you do get a prize if you lose them all in the late stages of the tournament). Losing those 1000 chips knocks you half the way out, but winning those 1000 doesn't do squat for winning.

This is not to imply that you can simply fold your way into the money. The blinds will eat you alive. You must win pots so you don't get knocked out most of the time. Towards the end of the tournament, you can think of winning pots to win the whole tournament. However, most of the time you must win pots simply so you don't lose!

Thus, in the early stages of the tournament, you should avoid gambling much. Generally, the amount you win isn't worth the gamble. If you can see the flop for cheap with a suited connector or someone goes all in preflop and you have AA, by all means go for it. However, I wouldn't suggest bluffing all in as a wise move. In the early stages, you want to win a huge pot here and there because you hold the nuts. Target a bad player and make him pay you off.

Towards the middle of the tournament, you need to switch gears. Since the blinds get bigger, stealing the blinds will help you stay alive. Here, the 'gap' concept becomes more important. It takes a much weaker hand than usual to raise to steal the blind, but a stronger hand than usual to call a raise. The middle rounds introduce the 'survival mode' concept.

Again, most of the time you will be looking just to survive and increase your stack bit by bit in the middle rounds. You want to avoid confrontation without the nuts and just take down some small pots without controversy.

However, if you are a large chip stack (or even just a medium one), you may want to take advantage of this survival mode. Take control of the game by raising and frequently putting other people at a decision for all of their chips. After all, if they go all in, they're risking it all but you aren't because you can lose the pot and still keep on fighting. However, don't do this too much. Steal some pots, but don't be so obvious that people will call you all in with top or even second pair. Also, don't do this against very bad players. They will call everything.

Towards the end of the tournament is when the coin flip decisions become very important. Frequently, the blinds are so high it makes sense for a player with a low or moderate stack to go all in preflop. Generally, when you go all in you want to have A (good kicker) or a pocket pair. If you have A(good kicker) you are an advantage to all non pocket pairs and may even have someone dominated. If you have a pocket pair, you are a small advantage against all non-pocket pairs and at a huge advantage/disadvantage against other pocket pairs (depending on their size).

Generally, if you have one of these marginal hands, it's best to just shove all of your chips in preflop. When you are a low stack, you cannot afford to be blinded away anymore. Once the flop comes, chances are it's not going to be perfect. By shoving in all of your chips preflop, you have the added chance of stealing the blinds and can avoid being bluffed out.

Multi-table Limit Tournaments

I'm not a huge fan of multi-table limit tournaments; I personally think there is too much luck involved. To succeed at these tournaments requires a slight change in strategy from your usual limit game.

The most fundamental change to your game play involves the 'gap' concept. Mid-way and later through limit tournaments, you must change your style of play from simply trying to get the best of it (winning money in the long run) to just winning pots. Instead of pot odds being your guiding force, you just want to straight up win the pots you play. Since the blinds are so large, you do not want much competition, as a simple blind steal will help your position tremendously.

You should begin playing hands that will just likely win. Flush draws and straight draws lose a tremendous amount in value and high and mid pocket pair’s soar. AK and AQ also go up in value because they have most other hands dominated (e.g. AK versus A10 or AQ versus KQ). Late in limit tournaments, you want to avoid heavy conflicts with dominated hands (i.e. you don't want to have AJ against his AK even though he will pay off nicely if AJ is on board).

In order to conform to this strategy, you must do two things. First, if the mood is tight, you should be more willing to go in on marginal hands just in order to steal the blinds. Always, always raise preflop with these hands. If you are two off the button with A9, you should consider raising to steal the blinds. However, the second change you should make is to avoid conflict. If someone has already raised, you certainly should chunk that A9 if you are one off the button. The underlying concept here again is dominating hands- you want your opponents to fold because they are afraid they are dominated and you want to fold if you may be dominated. If you raise with A9, someone with A10 certainly will consider folding because they are afraid you have AJ,AQ, or AK and thus have them dominated.

Now, what if you are dealt a premium hand like KK and someone has raised? There’s no way you can chunk this hand preflop; what are the chances he has AA? In this situation, you should reraise to knock people out. Raising and lots of reraising is the key; you want to send the opposition the message that you are challenging him for all of his chips if he plays against you in this hand. When you are dealt a big gun like KK, you want to make your stand.

Obviously throughout all of this, you should take into consideration the strength of your opponents. Good players understand the 'gap' concept and will fold if they have borderline hands like A10. However, bad players will simply call. Bad players play their hand; good players play their hand relative to other people's hands. If you see the flop with a bad player, he will most likely fold if you bet and he has not hit and will call you to the river if he has. A good player knows that if he has A10 and there is an ace on the flop, he may be finished because of kicker. A bad player is just happy he has top pair.

Money Management:

Poker Strategy - Moving Up/Down Limits

Choosing which limit to play is a critical element when playing poker. Generally, you should choose which limit to play based on your financial situation, your poker ability, and your aversion to risk.

No matter how wealthy you are, it is often best to start out at the lower limits simply because the competition there is easier. Few 'professionals' play at the $1-2 games, so it is a relatively safe place to begin one's poker career. Even if you are a billionaire, no one will know it when you play on the Internet and think any less of you for playing at a low limit.

When choosing a limit, the major choices come when one decides to move up a limit or down a limit. Generally, you should only move up a limit if you think you are comfortable playing at that limit for seven sessions or more. Do not choose a limit so high that it makes you scared to play. Playing scared is a guaranteed recipe for losing. It is also not wise to 'go for it' at a higher limit. If you are making a run for it at a higher limit, you probably do not have the bankroll to survive there for long. Even if you win on two straight sessions, you will likely bust out and have to move down if you are not bankrolled enough at any given limit.

If you take a hit at a higher limit, you should generally move down. However, you shouldn't move down so far that you are totally unmotivated to play. If you move up to $25-50 from $10-20, you shouldn't fall back to $1-2 once you decide that $25-50 is too high. While people tend to play too scared at a higher limit, they also tend to play too loose at a lower limit. Play a limit that motivates you to play, but also at which that you are not scared to play.

Poker Strategy - Quitting for the Day

Even if you are the best poker player in the world, you will have some losing days. Knowing when to just call it quits for the session will do you a world of good for your bankroll. If you play limit poker, it is wise to quit if you have a swing of 40 big bets or more either way. Forty big bets at limit is a lot (especially longhand), so having swings more than this may drive you insane. The only reason to break the 40-big-bet rule is if the game you are in is really good.

Fundamentally though, you should quit because you are tilting, you have played a lot already and risk being tired, or you just have other things to do.

Here are some signs that you may be tilting:

1. You always think your opponents are bluffing

2. You really want to break even for the day

3. You want to get back into the action as soon as possible

Here are some signs that you may have just played too much poker:

1. You are falling asleep at the table

2. You have played more than ten hours for the day (never play more than ten hours at any one time. It is better to play many short or medium sessions than a few long ones).

3. You find it harder to pay attention to your opponent.