Tournamnet Poker: Whats It All About

Basic of Tournament Poker

A poker tournament is entered by players through a ‘buy-in’ which means they all enter for the same amount of money. The casino or poker room charges an entry fee that each player must pay for entering the poker tournament. For example, if the tournament buy-in is $50 and the house charges a $10 entry fee, each player must pay $60 to enter the tournament. If 150 players enter, the prize pool will equal the number of players times the buy-in, in this case 150 X $50 = $7500 prize pool. The exact structure of the pay outs is established by that tournament but, generally speaking, there will be a prize for about the top ten players with each prize being a set percentage of the prize pool. For example, the first place player might receive 30 percent of the pool, second place 20 percent, third place 15 percent, etc.

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In tournament play, each player begins with the same number of chips and, over time, the stakes are raised periodically(small blind, big blind), perhaps every 15 to 60 minutes. The number of chips, the stakes and the time periods between advances in stakes defines whether the tournament is fast or slow. Many expert player choose slow tournaments because they begin with more chips, lower stakes and longer time periods. This provides the better player with the greatest chance of outwitting the other players before the stakes are raised to such a level that they must simply gamble too much.

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If there are a large number of players, such as the 150 example above, the tournament play often begin with tables of ten players each. As players lose all their chips, they are eliminated from the tournament unless they buy-in again, which some tournaments allow during a specific time period. Once players are eliminated, tables are reorganized so that the number of players are each table remains as close to equal as possible. Eventually, the tournament play will boil down to only one table and the winner will be the player that wins all the chips.

Using a blocking bet to save you money.

Betting -A blocking bet is used when you think you might have the best hand after the river card, but you are not entirely sure. A blocking is usually made against a single opponent, when you are out of position so that after the river card is turned over, you are first to act. Even though being out of position is normally a disadvantage, by putting in a blocking bet here, you are actually negating your opponent’s positional advantage.

One of the advantages of adding a blocking bet to your game is that you set the price of finding out if in fact, you do have the best hand. Let’s say the pot is 1200, and you put out a blocking bet of 800, making the pot 2000 in total. A few things can happen.

Your opponent can call with a better hand, but had you not put out the blocking that your opponent likely would have a possibly a higher price than you wanted to pay, setting up for a difficult decision. In this way you avoided it.

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Your opponent can call with a weaker hand or the same hand as you. Either way, once again you avoided making a tough decision based on what your opponent does first. This gets down to the basic fundamentals of poker in that power and advantage is an extension of aggression.

Your opponent can fold. This is a clear indicator that your suspicions were right all along and you did have the best hand, and your opponent was likely on a draw, or planning to take the pot away from you by bluffing on the river. You’re blocking bet took that play away from him.

Finally, your opponent can re-raise you. Of course, this is the result you want to see the least, but this is almost certainly an indication that he has you beat. There is a rare exception to this, in that your opponent may be bluffing you because he has actually read you for a blocking bet, but that is rather rare in online poker, especially in the low limits. The good thing about your opponent re-raising you here is that you don’t have to spend any more money than you want, to find out who has the better hand. You decided how much it was going to cost to figure that out.

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There is an element of confusion to the blocking bet, which will give your opponent pause, and it’s always good when your opponents find it difficult to read you, as well as it cutting into his big-bluff-on-the-river strategy.

When to Quit Poker for the Day

Even professional players have losing sessions. One important quality for a winning poker player is to know when to call it a day. This can greatly help your bankroll grow. In fixed limit Hold’em, you should be quitting for the day if you either lose forty big bets or win forty big bets. Although it may not sounds like much, forty bets is quite a sum in limit poker. The only exception to this rule is if you’re at a table that is extremely loose, and you’re just dominating.

Another time you should quit for the day is if you are tilting. Here are some common traits of tilt:

• You believe that your opponents are always betting with nothing.
• You’re fighting to recover from a loss and get back to even.

Here are a few common traits of just plain old playing too much:

• You’re becoming drowsy, or are resting your head on the table.
• You have played for over 10 hours consecutively.
• You aren’t focusing on the other players, just your own cards.
  

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If you are having any of these traits, you should quit for the day, and it will have a significant positive effect on your bankroll.