Tournament Poker – Theory and Practice

Many people enter the poker tournament scene with dreams of making a living and being able to take your family out to the nice restaurants and spend you some cash. This is not always possible because nobody has a security blanket, a huge tournament hedge against possible ruin. I am playing tournament poker for a living, after all, I have been working for my current job for quite some time. My family has Grace, and Brian, and Vickie, and our dog, gets health insurance, you get vision insurance, and if everything turns bad we can get the whole mess cleaned up fast with a few calls.

So many good people with potential gointernet poker tournaments. Lots of times they will stop themselves from moving up the poker ladder by getting overconfident. Maybe win a tournament here and there and get a little lucky. Pretty soon they will get a big head and believe me, it is very easy to see the troughs when your own bankroll is the stake. At this point you are probably thinking I am full of bologna, or something so I will lets you in on a little secret: Poker business is a very sophisticated and high stakes game of people skills.

Now for those of you who have some experience in poker games without going to Las Vegas, not everyone lives near a casino, or you have to take a overnight job, or be a starving actor’s child. It is time consuming and dangerous to make a living playing poker out here in Dewacasino. A lot of us strategize and play like we are winning millions in the cash games, and lose like everyone else in the occasional tournaments.

Some of those folks I talk to, are working their rear ends off, and keeping a roof over their heads and keeping a little bit of the money that they win. They have decided it is not feasible to move up a level once they get over the break-even point. So the secret is that you don’t have to do the work to win your way up. Stay at your current level and wait for a situation better than you situation at your current level.

So my friend Ben does everything right and works his rear end off, and is still rarely able to encash a big win. He likes his current level and is content there. Meanwhile his competition has risen up to higher levels of skill. So instead of moving up, he is trying to get to the next level, and climb that ladder to the next rung.

Unfortunately, he has been moving all the time down at Full Tilt, and afraid his competitor will notice his play and after seeing the results he is not prepared to move up a level. He doesn’t want the guys to keep folding to him or be so scared they will off him. He wants to be able to win a big pot to get the money he and his bankroll are holding on to.

The money is there, the only thing now he needs to get over is the nerves. He is scared to put in a big raise or re-raise, because he is not sure what the reaction will be.

If I were to speak on behalf of all the professionals I would say of this, this is where you need to play smart. Go out and make some big bets, I mean anything between half a million and a half million dollars. If you raise, you will get multiple calls. If someone re-raises, you will get a call. Either way, unless you have pocket Aces, it does not matter what you have, you can win a nice pot.

Once you get over your nerves, you need to focus on the task at hand. You need to play quality hands, and win big pots. But, if you get nervous, you will just be throwing away chips while waiting for the quality hands to come.