PLAYING STRATEGIES
There are two major considerations in developing a playing strategy for a tournament: the structure and the players.
By structure I mean the size of the blinds relative to the number of playing chips and the speed that the blinds escalate.
When players have few chips relative to the blinds, they are often forced to play weaker hands than they might otherwise play, and the players with larger stacks will often play more aggressively than normal when they are competing for a pot with a player who has a small stack.
You won’t likely be playing at any particular table for a long period of time, so you’ll need to rely on stereotypes of your opponents when devising a strategy to exploit other players mistakes.
The structure and the players are what’s important in any poker game and, in that respect, tournaments are no different.
STAGES OF THE EVENT
It’s convenient to think of a tournament as consisting of three distinct stages.
The strategic considerations differ according to the stage of the event.
The beginning stages usually involve players aggressively trying to achieve an early advantage.
At the middle stages, players are focusing more on a consolidation, it’s much slower paced.
The final stages pick up speed somewhat when the size of the blinds grows to be significant in relation to the chips.
The Early Stage – Rebuy Period
In most small tournaments, in the early stage of the event, the blinds start low and increase every twenty or thirty minutes.
Even in events with large initial blinds, the small tournaments allow for rebuys in the early stages of the event, and your effective stack size is more than its actual size during this stage.
It is important to be aware of the tournament stage and when the blinds will increase.
Early in the tournament, the blinds are low enough so that you can play good drawing hands, small pocket pairs, and other more speculative hands, just like in a live game.
You really don’t need to be making any adjustments for the tournament structure in this early stage.
Pick the Right Table / Picking a Seat / Theories of Poker / Betting Theory: The Odds
A Theory of Starting Hand Value
A Theory of Flop Play: Counting Outs and Evaluating Draws
The Dynamics of Game Conditions / Table Image / Player Stereotypes
Women and Poker / Spread-Limit Games / Double Bet on the End Games / Kill Games
