How to win Texas Hold'em Tournaments

Strategy, Aggressiveness, Discipline, and luck, are the foremost factors that are involved in winning a major Texas Hold'em tournament. Remember one thing about tournaments - they are the ‘short run’ in poker. You don't have to be a World Class Player to be a successful tournament player or even to win a major tournament. Of course, poker skills are essential in successful tournament play, but they are also limited since winning a pot on every round is almost mandatory (except in the early rounds). The number one prerequisite for tournament play and continued tournament success is discipline.

Approaching a tournament like it is going to be fun is definitely the wrong attitude if your going to play in any poker tournaments for a living. Tournament placing or winning is a very hard thing to do successfully over a period of years or even a lifetime. Cash players cannot afford to have a losing year, but many professional tournament players experience this.

Discipline, To be a successful Texas Hold'em tournament player, you must have the discipline to maintain a certain approach to Texas Hold'em tournaments - with the exception of the blinds and the button, restrict yourself to playing only premium hands in the beginning. Hold this course and don't waiver. You will shine the longer you play. This is very difficult, since most people don't play for a living. Unlike cash or money games, tournaments have much more luck involved.

You will win your chips through occasional rushes with premium hands. Hold onto these chips and maintain your focus - discipline and aggression. The tournaments moves one level at a time so you must take it one-step-at-a-time. You must be patient and mentally prepared.

Playing only premium hands may sound easy, but the fact is that most players, including cash players, can't limit themselves to doing this. This kind of play is difficult and tedious to many, and it also takes much of the "so called" thrill away from playing. Ask yourself "What is my true goal" - (winning money) or just having fun? The less you deviate from this path, the better your results will be. Playing this way and adjusting for short-handed play, will give you a far better chance of winning a any major tournaments. High stakes Texas Hold'em has much in common with tournament play. As in most high stakes cash games, the major phase when you get to the latter stages of a tournament is one-on-one play If you have to choose, play tighter rather than looser, but you must play aggressively.

You may say playing only premium hands will handicap you because players will be able to read you, but this is far from the truth. Remember your skill is your weapon. If you execute proper betting techniques and strategies you will successfully conceal your holding to one of a coin flip. Follow through on your betting. Are you holding an AK or do you have a large pair? This is the question your competitors must ask when you raise and play premium hands with position. Obviously there will be many opportunities where you will play J10, K10 and such. Don't play these when the game is full (exception being your blinds or a last ditch effort to stay in the tournament.) And you may opt to play hands like these when holding a chip advantage against some of the blinds. But do this continuously in tournaments or full cash games and it will catch up to you very soon.

Be aware of and read your opponents. Watch players you don't know, keeping in mind that they don't know you either. Keep Book and use discipline, you will have a chance to become a successful player - without it you won't make it.

Playing Badly, or Limping into a pot is not acceptable in tournaments or high stakes poker games. If you enter the pot, raise or throw your hand away. The same thing applies when you are behind a person who has just entered the pot and raised. Raise or throw your hand away. 3 bet the pot when coming in; NO CALLING behind the opener. Because the opposition chooses to limp into the pot, does not mean you also have the right to call the limp with a small pair or suited connectors unless you’re on the button or in the small blind. Speculating that you may get value or proper odds is faulty thinking. This philosophy comes from bad playing perpetrated by inferior players in small stakes games.

The main difference in the success of these two approaches is the quality of the players. You have the action value or California approach and the isolation or Nevada approach. The Nevada approach works far better in tournaments. You ask, "How do I isolate, when many players keep coming into the pot?" Sooner or later the field thins down, reality sets in, and most people realize REAL MONEY is at stake. The trick is to maintain your discipline until reality kicks in for you. Watch people playing small pairs in the early positions, and you will realize it is only a matter of time until players like this are eliminated. The California approach to Hold’em will sooner or later become the Nevada approach to the game, more one-on-one with position. This will eventually do away with those who play less than premium hands.

The person who plays best does not usually win the tournament. A tournament is unlike a cash or money game. Luck is such a huge factor in this game that anyone can win on any given day. Most people don’t realize how much luck is involved. While cash players can expect a reward for every hour they put into the game, this is not true for tournament players. Professional tournament players win rates can fluctuate from year to year. While cash players have to manage their money and play mostly at their own levels for endless periods, tournament play is not even remotely the same. Sucking out or making a big hand early in a tournament can never have the same impact as sucking out or making a big hand at the final table - provided you have adequate chips, of course (something you generally have in cash games.) In cash games you are always playing close to the same level, so making a big hand doesn't have much of an impact. It really doesn't matter if you make a big hand early or late, since you can quit whenever you like.

When playing in tournaments you must win many coin flip decisions. It is an essential part of the game when you play the premium hands. Example - holding an AK against a JJ - you have to win more of these decisions than you lose, or you have to win them at the key times. Premium hand over premium hand is essentially what limit tournament poker is about with luck being the most important element in the short lifespan of a tournament. Limit Hold’em dictates you must make a few of your flush draws in order to win. So act like a betting machine with an on-off switch.

Tournament play would just be a crapshoot if everyone just played the premium hands. Have you ever thought about what percentage of tournament players depend upon the income derived from tournament poker to survive? The need for new, undisciplined players is essential to the food chain if tournament players hope to survive. Mass publicity campaigns, card magazines, and television put the bait out and glamorize the poker love affair to get fresh people into the game. This promotional income (if you will) is vastly needed by almost all of these tournament players. The media does its job by dangling the bait in front of you, so you will be mesmerized and blind to the reality of tournaments.

Chip Advantages, Obviously there are some advantages to having a huge stack. You have the latitude, when holding less than a premium hand, of attacking the smaller stack blinds - and both of you are aware that if they don't win that hand they are out of the tournament. This makes small stacks think twice even three times, the result being their letting go of the blinds, since randomly they shouldn't have too much to call with. The reverse side is you double them up with a bad hand, when they turn out to have a good hand. Possessing a big stack also gives you the luxury of waiting longer between hands, allowing you more opportunity to pick up a premium hand. This is an advantage you should not throw away if you get into the chip advatage position. With limits going up every time period, if you must lose, do so with hands worthy of it.

Short-handed playing experience is an essential part of winning a Texas Hold'em tournament, but obviously it can be done without it. Knowing when and how to accelerate and change into other gears when the game gets short is a problem many novice Texas Hold’em players have. The ability to evaluate the strength of a hand and to steal and read the players who don't know how to execute proper betting are qualities vital for winning. Be aware that hand values increase as the number of players at the table decreases. (If you lose sight of that you may be blinded and anteed off, while waiting for a hand. Smaller pairs become playable - but raise with them rather than just calling.

In the Beginning, When entering one of these Texas Hold'em tournaments, be prepared mentally and physically. Patience is the key. And, whatever you do, don't get caught up in the bad playing of others. Recognize that the way to get the money is through the PREMIUM HANDS. Hold firm to this belief. Just because others choose to play a losing style, doesn't mean you have to join in. If you do, you only help the inferior players gain more value on their small pairs and small suited Aces Ax (suited Ace with a small kicker). To hell with value, win the pot. This is more important than anything. Remember that with premium hands you will win your chips through rushes. Hold onto these chips and maintain discipline. Remember the tournament moves one level at a time and like anything else, take it one step at a time.

Finishing, When you are close to or in the money you need to know who has what size stack and how long you can last before the next level. Know what happens when each player is eliminated. Proceed one step at a time, thinking quickly, but rationally. Put yourself into the stack position of the other person in the pot. Consider what your move would be if you were in that particular position, then act accordingly. What will you do when you have to make your last stand? If you have to lose, do so by betting rather than calling, if the option is available. This allows you the opportunity of deciding your destiny.

Most importantly, Be mentally prepared when starting a tournament. You may only last a couple of levels, or you may be there all day or all week. At the beginning play only premium hands. If you have to choose, play tight rather than loose, but play aggressively when you are involved in a pot. Be aware of your opposition at all times. Watch players you don't know, take mental notes, Keep Book you must remember to keep a note book handy, all the time remembering they don't know you either. Use the discipline you will need to become a successful tournament player, for without it you won't make it. Be prepared to make your last stand when you have to. Remember, anyone can win on any given day, since Lady Luck is such a big factor in any Texas Hold'em tournament.

"So Shuffle Up and Deal"