How to Win Online Poker Tournaments?
In the last few years, a lot of players have begun to realize that one of the best ways to win Texas Holdem online tournaments is to take advantage of so called trap hands. In other words, hands such as 6-7 or 7-8 or even 9-10 that are likely to make a monster. Most players play these hands quite aggressively and you can take advantage of this to take down first place.
Playing these hands is not as easy as it seems, you should really only play these hands in the late stages of a main event and in the very late stages of a tournament especially if other players at the table are playing very loosely. First place is hugely important to a poker player but getting that first place takes a lot of hours of practice, sometimes going all day until you finally developed that winning poker hand. Playing very loose and throwing away lots of hands is a very risky method of playing to win a poker tournament because a lot of other players are doing the same thing.
To be able to win with playing the above hands, a player should be able to gauge whether other players are going to play back at him strongly or whether they are going to play fairly even if their hand is not very good. If you sense this, it is time to fold, you are out of the tournament. Players that protect their chips and wait for their moment are the ones that will end up at the final table. protected chips mean more money for you. Freerolls are cues that you are far advanced and experienced and allows you to wait for your opportunity rather than getting involved in too many pots.
You will also want to learn how to read your opponents by reading their game. Whether they play only premium hands or play a wide selection of poker hands, you can tell by the way they handle themselves how strong their hand is in the early stages of the tournament. Some of the easiest tells are fidgeting with chips, smiling slightly, constantly checking and studying the movement of chips and the players around them, squinting to see "tells" instead of HoodPN%. You can be sure that when your opponents fidget that they are strong hands.
In the middle of the tournament, when you can be sure that your opponents have accumulated enough chips, it is then time to play aggressively and take advantage of the rest of the table. Take advantage of the rest of the table's habit of staying in a pot and of calling to see cards. When they do this, you know it is time to take advantage. Be aggressive and remember that you are still playing a tournament. Sometimes you will have to push all in with a lousy hand and hope for the best. Poker is a game of adjustments and as your opponents have accumulated enough chips on your weaker hands, they will start to respect your raises.
The end of a tournament is like the middle of a baseball game. There is a period of time in which it is still possible to catch your breath and this is an unpulsive period of time. Do notappiness yourself when you catch your breath and this is a time you should accumulate chips. If you are playing in the first 4 stages of a poker tournament, do notstart until the blinds are small as this is the time when you are most likely to get a break and when you have more chips to work with.
A long enough period of time in a poker tournament can pass before the break and this is an opportune time to appear very aggressive and take down the blinds and antes. Make your moves and try to catch players who are slow playing a hand and make them pay for their hand. Now is the time to put yourself in your opponents' shoes and be a shark at the poker table.
Some players will be slow playing a hand and they will either try to protect their hand and chip slowly, making you work for your wins, or they will play extremely aggressively trying to double up the pace and get rid of those lesser hands. This is a period when you need to be extremely aggressive, lay down your hands when you are dominating and at the same time get in the action with hands that maybe you've been favoring. In the beginning, it is best to be somewhat tight because you are the first one in the hand and you have to establish some positional dominance.
When the blinds start to increase, you should no longer be giving people the opportunities to catch and grab. You need to make a pre-flop raise and by doing this, either by assigning a big raise towards the minimum amount or creating a push on the small blind, you can make a statement. You are telling the table that you will not allow them to steal the blinds from under your nose and you are also telling the table that you will not be played back.
