Strategies to win at poker tournaments

Strategies to win poker tournaments

Introduction

Poker tournaments are slowly gaining popularity over the past few years. Most of this can be said to be due to the increase in coverage over television. Poker tournaments are attractive as any player can get really lucky by just investing a small amount and getting a huge amount that may change their life. This when combined with a possibility of making these events virtually free makes these poker tournaments even harder to resist. Though the one chance of being the winner is totally based on luck there is yet another part to it that can make a person lucky. This is the skills that help you gain long term success. In order to be the winner of a tournament you have to be lucky and if you need to keep putting in the money then you ought to be a skilled player.

The concept of the gap

This term of gap concept was introduced by a great poker writer named David Sklansky. When you are playing tournament poker you always need a better hand that you have to play against a person who has made an open to the betting so that you should be able to go on further. This difference between the opening bet and the hand that has to open is what is referred to as the gap. This also means that when you raise if you are the first to be in and there are a lot of hands then you should never ever call a raise in this normal condition. If you seem to be in a good position and also do have a decent stack then it may be right if you do raise your hand then. However if there is this aggressive player who is sitting in those blinds and is playing a lot in the back then it is up to you to be selective enough.

Stack size

Stack size also matters when you are in a poker tournament. If you do have a very small stack then the gap does decrease. This means that you cannot afford to go on risking your chips and making a raise with the weak hands. However there does exist a paradox that can open up a lot of opportunities for the reverse psychology. When you normally have a small stack then many players would not re raise you. This is only if you do not have a very strong hand. This may be because of one reason that you may not be bluffing as you do have a small hand. Many people will not want to gamble against you as they will not get anything from you if they win. Hence there are more chances for you to make your bluffs more successful. On the other hand you have to be careful as the strong players will or might want to push you out to make the players go down. In such positions you should know what your opponents are capable of.