the Donkey of Poker

Keep your eye on the prize, being successful in poker tournaments is not easy.  At the low level buyins you should be consistently cashing,   here are some tips and details on how to improve your tournament success.

First things first, before you go sit at your table grab some water/drink and some food to munch on.
Breaks take to long to come and nutrition is important.  Last thing you want to see is when you have run off to grab a fresh cup of coffee and look back at the hand history to see you folded Aces.

Since tables break often try not to spend to much time analyzing your opponents to much to early.   Play your cards not the people for early play and note on the very aggressive players.   When you start to move up in the blinds is when you focus on other people and your cards evenly.

Don’t play to many hands early. Even in big cash tournaments there are people that do not know how to play proper, they simply just have the cash and just want to kick it loose.  So play tight and work on your note taking.

When you do get playable hole cards, play them hard.  Raise if your in early position, re raise in late position.
Your objective is to win the hand as soon as possible, with out a showdown or seeing the river.
Personally, I tend to take down pots on the turn card hit or miss.

In tournament play, I am very tight. Playing hole cards that no worse then J10.
Your there for one thing, to win. So the more rags you pay into, in the end it will bite you in the ass.
Never go chasing or fish. Play the odds and luck will find you.

Stay Calm
Don’t get so excited cause your doing really well and holding a mountain of chips.
Far to often an early big stack is the marked target so stay calm and look to take advantage of your stack.

Practice Heads-Up
If your going to win a tournament you have to be a strong heads up player.
With out a doubt it very important.  Most tables during mid rounds, people fold very early (as they should) leaving 1-2 players left to see the flop. The better and smarter you play at this point is what will get you into the money.

Re-Raiser
Careful of re-raisers, think about it real good if its really worth it.
Someone could have bet, next person calls, next person re raises.  Now its my turn.  How do I look at this?
I see 2 people with good hands, and 1 with marginal.  I tend to fold right there.
I would need to be holding high pkt pr or high connectors to pay into this pot.

Confucius says “he who slings mud on neighbor is losing ground”

meaning, each time you lose a pot someone else wins and goes that much further ahead or that much closer to catching up. Pick your times to play wisely and don’t give away chips.

Watch Your Stack
Careful not to get low stack when blinds are about to go up.  Keep an eye on the timer as  you may need to steal some blinds now to stay in the game to see a few more hands.  You want to be above 8 times the big blind anything less and your really low stack.

Watch Their Stack
Careful how you bet into a pot or call a pot, sometimes that really strong hand that you called a bet (x3 bb) isn’t really worth calling if there is a short stack to follow.  They may just opt to go all in, so you should prepare to call that all in bet or stay off that hand.  Or, re-raise to the low stack. By doing this, you have told that person your hand is worth putting you out.  This may make them think twice about going all in.

Calling an All-In
If I have a strong hand and a chance to put someone out I tend to see that pot.
If knowing my hand is really strong, I will push over the top to get other people to fold.
Know why they bet the all-in.  Are they short stacked?  Blinds about to go up?
They are trying to steal the blinds?  Or do they have a dominate hand?

Aggressive Players
Let them fight it out.  No point you getting into big confrontations with people that want to go all in or raise big time.  If there are a couple doing that at the table let them bust one or the other out and sit back and watch.  Never know, might be getting close to the money, and if they do sucker a few in, Aggressor might have just won you money.