Poker tournaments are exciting, multi-round events that can vary in length, type, structure, and size. Players contribute a set amount of cash to the house and the tournament’s prize pool, and in return, receive a number of poker chips for use during the tournament.
Tournaments operate on the basis of eliminating players who run out of chips. At regular intervals, the blinds, antes, or limits raised to make the game more difficult and eliminate more players. Depending on the type of tournament, it’s important to adjust your strategy according to the different rules and costs.
Key Tournament Terms:
Entry Fee: The fee a player pays to the house. This is a relatively small amount of money in comparison to the buy-in.
Buy-In: The amount of money it costs after paying the entry fee to participate in an online poker tournament and receive chips. Chip amounts vary for each tournament and the buy-ins are added to the tournament prize pool.
Re-buy: The option to buy additional chips. Rules vary regarding the amount of chips a player may have in their possession in order to buy more.
Add-on: Option for purchasing more chips at certain times during the tournament regardless of the amount of chips in a player’s possession.
Prize Pool: The total amount of prizes and money up for grabs at a tournament, consisting of all the player buy-ins, add-ons, and re-buys, in addition to the amount contributed by the tournament host.
Round: The amount of time specified in a tournament for each betting limit. Length varies from tournament to tournament, often according to tournament size.
General Tips
Regular online poker India playing tips apply here, in addition to some of the adjustments necessary for tournaments. It’s important to increase your stack slowly throughout the tournament. Going for the big wins early on may be repairable if you don’t succeed. But later on, too much aggressive playing will get you eliminated before you realize you’ve made a mistake. Observe your opponents’ patterns in different situations as the tournament progresses to get an idea of playing style. Make a good opponent model so you’ll know exactly when to push and when to bluff.
If it’s a Single Table Tournament:
Be careful of playing online poker real money aggressively on suited connectors. Their value is lower than expected since people are going to be short stacked, so if you still decide to call, only do so at the beginning of the tournament.
Pay attention and keep track of the players you’re competing against since you may run into them again if you continue playing single table tournaments with the same buy-in.
It’s a Multi Table Tournament:
If you’re short stacked and it’s already much later on in the tournament, consider going all in pre-flop to try and steal the blinds even if your hand isn’t looking so great, rather than waiting and going all in on the flop.
There tournaments are long and last awhile, so be prepared for a full-day event and pace yourself. Place your bets wisely.
Happy playing!