10 Helpful Tips On How To Become A Better Poker Tournament Player

Every day, thousands of players invest big money in poker tournaments as house fee and lose their money because they make the same type of mistakes, do not have some knowledge or are not focused enough. Even a small strategy adjustment can greatly improve your game. So, we recommend that you read our tips on how to play live poker tournaments and win more often.

#1 - Poker Tournaments Can Be Extremely Long - Be Prepared for This

As an inexperienced player, you are more likely to prefer a tournament with a low buy-in that can last for hours. So, when registering for such events, you should perfectly understand what you are going on. Plan your schedule so that you do not have to urgently leave the tournament.

#2 - Make Sure You Have Enough Bankroll

If you are aiming for playing online poker tournaments for a living, you will need a large starting amount, as the fluctuations in large tournaments with a large number of players can be significant. With a huge number of recreational players who are calling your raises, the results of each playable action can be quite unpredictable.

#3 - Act Aggressively but Not Too Much

Place your bets tight and be a tight and very aggressive player no matter what hands you have. Also, not wanting to bet a lot of chips, it hardly makes sense to play premium hands. At least, this way you can make a veil of mystery for your hands.

#4 - Resist the Urge to Play Bad Hands

Whether you are playing a cash game or a poker tournament, do not neglect the opportunity to fold when the situation calls for it. Ultimately, there are tons of turbo-tournaments that have a format that allows you to re-enter the game after a minute or so.

#5 - Use Supplementary Poker Software

There are many poker software using which you can easily get all the necessary statistics about your opponents - from the percentage of raises preflop to the number of times they folded to a raise. With statistics in mind and the ability to draw appropriate conclusions, you will be able to achieve a greater success in poker tournaments.

So, can you make a living playing poker tournaments? The answer to this question depends on how deeply you want to dive into the essence of poker tournaments and what happens at the tables. To give you more knowledge, we offer 5 additional tips on how to become a better poker tournament player.

#6 – Pay Special Attention to Your Starting Poker Hands

When it comes to starting hands, there is one problem that needs special attention - especially for beginners. The fact is that many players open too wide, which can be disastrous for further game actions. The so-called wide openers become vulnerable to 3-bets and may end up under heavy pressure from more experienced opponents. With a deep stack behind you, you can use speculative hands to win a major pot, however big bets are required. Taking into account the structure of modern poker tournaments, it becomes clear that a deep stack is only possible in the early stages of the game. So, this advice can be useful at the start of the tournament, but you need something else - and we will give this knowledge in our subsequent tips.

#7 - Effective Stack Size Is What Will Help You Fight for the Pot

First, try to anticipate how your opponents will use their stacks. Secondly, sensible wide openers will tend to avoid tying their entire stack to marginal hands. This implies two possible scenarios for the development of the game actions - they are forced to fold or find themselves in a situation where the risk increases significantly. Thirdly, stop using Big Blinds for calculating the stack, as practice shows that the M-concept is more promising. In addition, there are many online M-calculators that will simplify your calculations to a few clicks.

#8 - The Deeper the Stack, the Greater the Risk of Losing Big

With a weak poker hand, your deep stack won't save you. On the contrary, you run the risk of losing a really large amount. So, wise poker players - who play online poker tournaments for a living - understand that even a strong hand like A-K can be too risky to fight opponents with deep stacks.

#9- Aggressive Play Is Not Always the Key to Success

Having learned the ins and outs of c-betting strategy, you probably immediately started using this system - in conjunction with a double barrel - preflop. This is true, but not always. However, with weak hands and against tough opponents, your actions will look pitiful and have no effect in the long run. When trying to play aggressively, consider the following factors - nut advantage, opponents’ behavior, flop texture, and many others.

#10 - Choose Bet Sizes Wisely

Surprisingly, seasoned pros are able to take advantage of opponents who bet too high and too low alike. When choosing a bet size, consider at least three important things - board texture favors, SPR and nut saturation. There are many tutorials out there that go into the problem of choosing the optimal bet size in depth (this is too big topic for our rather short post).

Closing Thoughts

Sitting at a Hold'em or Omaha table, you don't need to be a poker expert to understand basic poker strategy and start winning. Just a few simple tips on how to become a better poker tournament player from this post will give you the necessary starting knowledge that you will put into your own strategy. In addition, we recommend not to dwell on low stakes games and try your hand at high buy-in tournaments so that you can feel the difference between these poker events. Also, study more poker sources, play often, and put this knowledge into practice. As known, poker is easy to learn but difficult to master, so it will take a lot of time and effort before you reach the level of Daniel Negreanu.