Tournament Wins by Tight Poker Members Many members of Tight Poker are single table tournament and multi-table tournament specialists. On this page, we have a board listing accomplishments by our members for tournaments where they have either won a significant amount of money or come ahead in a big. Learn how to dominate local poker tournaments using these simple but very effective tips and strategies. If you’ve been playing poker online for some time or have been watching poker on TV and are considering taking a shot at local poker tournaments, this guide should help you start on the right foot.

1. Tournament Wins by Tight Poker Members Many members of Tight Poker are single table tournament and multi-table tournament specialists. On this page, we have a board listing accomplishments by our members for tournaments where they have either won a significant amount of money or come ahead in a big field.
2. Tournament Poker Strategy: Main Components. Firstly, we'll discuss the 5 key poker tournament strategy tips that novices and intermediate tournament players need to concentrate on to become tough tournament opponents. You know, the sort of player nobody wants to look up and see at their table.

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One of my students recently played a hand at a $550 buy-in live tournament that illustrates an exploitative play you can make against many players in small-stakes poker games.

With a 55,000 effective stack and blinds at 500-1,000 with a 1,000 big blind ante, our Hero raised with J J from first position to 2,500. Everyone folded to the cutoff, a loose, passive player, who three-bet to 8,500.

At this point, Hero can be fairly certain his opponent has a premium hand, probably 10-10+ and A-Q+, because most passive players tend to three-bet with only their best hands and call with their non-premium hands. Given the opponent’s range is quite strong, Hero should not four-bet with J-J, because he will only get action when he is crushed by a better pair or flipping against A-K. Calling from out of position will lead to some difficult post-flop situations, but it is the best course of action given the opponent’s strong range.

Hero called and the flop came 10 8 2. Hero checked and his opponent bet 7,000 into the 19,500 pot.

Strategy For Big Poker Tournaments Real Money

Although Hero now loses to all of the opponent’s likely pocket pairs, he still beats A-K and A-Q. Given most players will continuation bet this flop with their entire range, Hero should call and see what develops on the turn.

The turn was the 4. Hero checked and the opponent checked behind, likely indicating an unpaired hand, probably A-K or A-Q. The river was the 3.

If the opponent’s range is mostly A-K and A-Q, he will usually check behind on the river, awarding Hero the small pot. Instead of happily collecting the small pot though, Hero should make a bet that can realistically get called by ace high. In this situation, a small bet makes a lot of sense, assuming the opponent will rarely (or never) raise as a bluff, which will usually be the case in most small-stakes games.

Betting small also has the added benefit of saving money when the opponent happens to have a cautiously-played overpair because Hero would have otherwise check-called a larger river bet.

Hero bet 4,500 into the 33,500 pot. The opponent thought for a while and eventually called with A K, giving Hero a nice pot.

While Hero’s 4,500 river bet worked out well, he perhaps left a few chips on the table. Since the pot was 33,500 chips, Hero probably could have bet 6,500, extracting an additional 2,000 chips.

While winning an extra two big blinds may not sound like a big deal, if you miss out on two big blinds every time you are in situations like this, it will add up to a small fortune over your lifetime as a poker player. That said, many players leave the entire river bet in their opponent’s stack, so it was a nice job by my student to extract it. ♠

Jonathan Little is a professional poker player with over $7 million in live tournament earnings, best-selling author of 15 educational poker books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out his training site PokerCoaching.com. Click here to try PokerCoaching.com for free.

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Small stakes online poker tournaments are fantastic fun. They can be frustrating at times — I'll give you that — but for the most part, it is difficult not to enjoy yourself while competing in one.

They are also potentially lucrative beasts, not least because they tend to attract players in droves.

On some sites — in particular GGPoker and partypoker — tournaments with buy-ins as small as $1-$10 may see several thousand hopefuls take to the virtual felt in the hope of turning their tiny investments into much more meaningful sums.

Strategy For Large Poker Tournaments

As you can imagine, the majority of these huge fields are populated with recreational players and therefore the standard of play is, as a rule, very poor.

That's not to say navigating your way through the crowds and winning one of these things is an easy task, because it isn't.

In other words, don't think you're going to deposit $200 online, play a bunch of these online poker tournaments, and suddenly be rolling in cash like Scrooge McDuck in Ducktails.

It's not going to happen.

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What is going to happen, or what should happen, is that you continue reading this article — and others you find in the Strategy section — and once you've armed yourself with the weapons of knowledge, you go out there and apply that learning to do more than just enjoy these tournaments, but to profit from them as well.

Here are five tips designed to help you both prepare for and find success in small stakes online tourneys.

1. Be Prepared for a Long Session

Most of these low buy-in, big field tournaments take several hours to complete, so you need to be prepared to play for a long time.

Be patient as always, but also be ready for a lengthy grind should you go deep in the event.

I've been fortunate enough to chop the $3.30 rebuy on PokerStars twice. On both occasions, the tournament started at around 7:00 p.m and we finished at 6:30 a.m.

This is all well and good if you are a poker pro who can sleep the next day, but you have to take into consideration work commitments if you have a job.

Know what you're potentially getting yourself into when registering for these events.

This tip to beat online poke tournaments does not apply only to low-stake events. As you can see on our Sunday Million strategy guide, also pros like Arlie Shaban and Felix Schneiders advise all players to master the art of being patient.

That said, not every tournament is a 12-hour commitment. All poker sites have a calendar that features also much quicker online tournaments where you can have fun and win meaningful sums.

These are the top sites to play online poker tournaments in 2020:

2. Be Prepared For Some Crazy Swings

The variance in small stakes poker tournaments is huge because of the sheer number of opponents you have to get through and the fact many of these opponents can be nearly impossible to put on a hand.

Also of significance when playing against a large field full of recreational players is the possibility of players calling your raises — even your all-in ones — with some ridiculous holdings, adding further to the unpredictability of outcomes.

While this situation is very favorable in the long run, over the short term you can often find yourself running worse than you ever thought possible.

Make sure therefore you have an ample bankroll to fall back on when times are hard — something in the range of 200-300 times of your average buy-in (I'd recommend).

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3. Keep it Simple and Value Bet Your Hands to the Max

DO NOT try to run an elaborate bluff at any stage of the tournament because it will only lead to tears of sorrow.

A lot of your opponents only care what cards they have in their hand and won't realize from your actions that you're representing a specific hand — they just want to get to showdown and hopefully win.

More often than not in these events you will want to keep matters simple, playing 'ABC poker' and letting the cards fall how they will.

Along the same lines, make sure you get the maximum value from your made hands.

Higher-stakes tournament grinders may routinely fire 1/3 pot-sized bets at their opponents, but that's because it is more difficult to get paid off at those stakes.

At the lower end of the spectrum, you can get away with betting more. Because so many of your opponents will love to call your bets, you may as well take advantage with your strong holdings.

4. Listen to the Betting / Prepare to Lay Down Some Big Hands

How often have you heard poker players bemoan their luck and come out with some rubbish such as 'I can't beat these donkeys, they always hit the nuts on the river.'

What they don't tell you is that 'these donkeys' often play their hands in a manner that allows you to get away from pots should you need to.

For example, if a weak player has limp-called preflop, called the flop, called on the turn, and then leads into you on the river when the flush comes in, guess what?

That player almost certainly has the flush.

The same is often true for raises on the river. Even if the only hand that beats you is , if an obviously weak player raises you on the river, you have to consider that he or she probably has !

5. Don't Worry About Playing a 'Balanced Style'

If someone tells you that you have to play a 'balanced style' of poker in large-field small stakes poker tournaments, laugh and walk away.

While you have to do this higher up the poker food chain, you are highly unlikely to come up against the same players ever again in a field of 3,000-10,000 foes, so you can be as unbalanced as you wish.

Strategy For Big Poker Tournaments 2019

That means not worrying so much about not revealing certain patterns with your play, such as always betting big with strong hands.

Online Poker Tournament Strategy

While against stronger opponents you should balance your play by varying your bets and actions so as not to be read so easily, against large fields of less skilled opponents this isn't as great of a concern.

Obviously, the five tips above are not all you need to be successful in small stakes online tourneys, but they should at least help you in your quest to turn a little into a lot!

WHAT NEXT? Check out the best real money poker games to play in 2020!

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