If you’re on a journey to be one of the best tournament poker players ever, you’re going to need outstanding performance at all stages of poker tournaments. Whether you’re playing live or at an Ignition Casino poker tournament, our ultimate poker tournament survival guide could be a huge help.
Blind Levels
Understanding poker tournaments begins with the blinds and blind levels. They start out laughably small. You may sit with a stack of 4,000 chips, and the blinds could start at 10/20. Relative to your stack, the ante will be nothing. You’ll probably feel like playing every hand. This is fine for a while, so long as you don’t fall in love with marginal hands. You may flop a monster, however, and stack someone who is feeling impulsive and goes all in with a pocket overpair.
The blind levels will be set to move up in scheduled intervals to encourage action and bring the tournament to a final conclusion within a reasonable timeframe. They may go up every five or ten minutes, for example. Be aware of how the tournament is going to play out. The early stages go slow in terms of blind sizes, but if you fall asleep at the table with a cold run of useless cards, you may find that the blinds have outgrown your stack in a very bad way.
Payout Structure
You’ll need to review how the payouts work if you want to know the right strategy for a particular tournament. Some pay out small amounts to lots of players, while others focus on just reserving most of the prize pool for the final table participants. Some tournaments may even be winner-take-all, or may only pay the final three. You have to know what you’re getting into, so you know when you’ll be required to make moves to clear the bubble before it bursts.
Also, tournament buy ins have to be the right size for your bankroll. If you have $100 in your total poker bankroll, you should not buy in to a $50+$5 tournament ($50 entry plus a $5 fee for the tournament operator). Make sure your bankroll can handle swings of losing and winning, and you’ll be ok. A good conservative rule of thumb is to play tournaments where you have 50x the buy in or more. Some might say 20x, which is maybe alright, but gives you little breathing room if you have a string of bad results.
Tournament Types
Some tournaments at Ignition Casino have special features. Here are a few examples to be aware of when buying in:
- Freezeouts – In this type of tournament, once you are eliminated, you are done. There’s no rebuying.
- Rebuy – In a rebuy tourney, you can buy in after you bust out. This is often limited to a certain number of times.
- Bounty – bounty tournaments pay you a certain amount of money for each player you knock out in a hand. Some bounties are preset, while others are mystery bounties in varying amounts.
- Jackpot – a tournament can have a random jackpot added to the prize pool, as in our Jackpot Sit & Go tournaments.
- Monster Stack – this tournament type starts players with very large chip stacks for wild action.
Players should find a format that works for them and that plays to their talents (and that offers a prize structure that entices them). Maybe you’re a patient grinder and want long format tournaments? Or perhaps you want the quick action of a sit & go? Focus on your strengths to maximize your results.
Early Stages
At the beginning of a tournament, patience is key. The blinds are not big, so you don’t want to get antsy and start spewing chips on marginal hands. You can see a ton of flops if you want, but make sure you play straightforward poker after that. Bluffs won’t do much when blinds are small. It’s also a solid strategy to simply play good starting standards and avoid temptation altogether.
Make positioning work for you. Play in late position and lean on your competitors to pressure them. Don’t get caught putting in lots of chips from an early spot.
In general, choose your moments. Don’t let boredom talk you into overdoing it with a marginal hand. If good opportunities don’t come along, that’s fine. You’re not under much pressure yet.
Middle Stages
Okay, the bubble is coming up in a while. You don’t have to be desperate, but you have to position yourself for victory. You need to get paid on your good hands. Value betting will play a major role in bringing chips to your stack. Use aggression, which means putting in raises and 3-bets. Don’t be shy and make your opponents make mistakes.
How? Read opponents and take advantage of them. Tight players should be pressured, especially when their blinds are up. Lean on them heavily. If someone is participating in too many pots, on the other hand, call them down more often. Don’t let them get away with siphoning your chips away. You’ve got to build a war chest to play with if you’re going to clear the bubble and be in any kind of shape to make a run at the big money.
Late States
As the late stages approach, it’s time to cash in, if you haven’t already. The blinds will really be escalating, and all the shallow stacks are going to get cleaned up. There will be a lot of shoving, so don’t wade gingerly into any pot. Be ready to be put to big decisions at any moment. The short stacks will be totally chaotic and desperate, with a wide range of holdings. And this is normal. In fact, if you have 5-10 BBs, you need to be ready to go all in with any half-decent hand. JT suited in middle position is a shoving hand at that point, as are a pair of 9s in the small blind against limpers. Open up the range and make luck work for you if it has left you high and dry, thanks to poor cards in the earlier stages.
Final Table
If you make the final table, it’s time to earn the big win. First, you have to know the exact details of the payout ladder. Know how much more you win for each spot you could take. As you work to build the biggest chip lead you can, focus on the stack sizes of your opponents. Play unpredictably. Make moves to pressure small stacks (while expecting the occasional shove in response). Similarly, don’t allow leaders to bully you. Defend decent cards and they won’t steer you wrong.
Except when they do. That’s poker, unfortunately.
Stay tough and play with discipline, but don’t forget that a little confident energy can make the difference between a big win and just missing a cash prize.
