How To Win Online Poker Tournaments

Lesson #7  Poker Lion Instincts

How To Win Online Poker Tournaments: Playing poker tournaments is like a game of survival. The players that last the longest, make more money. To win in poker tournaments, you simply go "ALL-IN" when you are about to die, or Fold if your life is full. Tournament Life is calculated by the number of hands left before you lose all your chips. This survival technique is well known by professional poker players. "Poker tournaments are like a lottery, except the good players have more tickets" - Doyle Brunson.

Tournament Theory

A lottery is based on pure chance, in poker it is several chances. In tournaments you will have many opportunities with very good cards, but if you're not hungry, you're not supposed to take those chances. But if your life is almost finishing, then you should be very hungry and take more chances even with minor cards like 55 or A7.

The theory is, if going All-In with is a 80% hand, most likely you will win 80% of the time. If you all your tournament chances are based on the best hands, you will have a higher chance of winning.

Poker Hand Strength (Preflop)

Hold’em Tournaments are played by taking 50/50 chances at the right times. If your life is full then you can even fold AK. But if your life is almost half empty then you must go all in with even A10 or better. Players must also consider one very important factor Position: How many players are left to act after you -> the less players left, the stronger your hand percentage is because the chances of a better hand being there is reduced.

Tournament Life Calculation

TOURNAMENT LIFE: **Most Important Calculation
Life is a calculation of how many more hands you get to see before you lose all your chips. Your life is calculated by: Your Total Chips ÷ Big-Blind
100%+ -> Full. Just wait for 90%+ hands.
50% -> Life is half. Time is running out. Need to take a chance.
20% -> Now is too late, you didn't take enough chances before!

Ladder Concept

Players think they are holding on to a ladder. Position is based on total chips. The lowest player has the fewest chips and is next to get knocked out of the tournament so should be taking the most chances.

Raising VS Re-Raising

There is a relative difference in hand strength depending if you are raising (start the initial raise), or re-raising (finish an already raised hand).

When your opponent initially raises preflop, it should alert of semi-strong to very strong hand. So you need a very very strong hand if you’re going to try and finish his initial raise. Therefore, it takes a much stronger hand to beat a semi-strong hand when it comes to pre-flop raising.

For Example: You have KQ(s) in a late position and are planning to steal your neighbors chips, but suddenly your other opponent right beside you on the other side makes the initial raise using almost half his chips! You must stop and suspect your opponent may already have a hand much stronger than your KQ(s). That is why professional poker players never play KQ on an already raised hand. But in a tournament, if your life is almost finished, then 55, 22 or 33 or KQ make great hands to be your final chance in the game. Sometimes no matter of another raise, you can't keep waiting for good cards to come.

Bluffing

Most people don't understand that in a good bluff, there never really is any bluff at all. A poker player "semi-bluffs" at times he is most desperate, hungry for chips. When you are starving and you need to eat poker chips, you must simply just do it. It doesn't matter if you have AA or K4, you would eat grass too if there was nothing else left! But you wouldn't eat mud, so be careful to only bluff with "High Card". That way you are not bluffing, but rather you are in a situation where if you don't eat soon, you will die with a hand that you may regret.

How Do You Bluff In Online Poker & Live Game Tournaments?
During late stages of a tournament, you will notice your life runs out faster because the blinds keep increasing. You can't keep waiting for 80% cards because they probably won't come anytime soon. You must steal chips from your direct neighbors by going All-In on their blinds with High Card hands like K3 or Q10.
This technique is called "High Card". You are playing only 1 out of your 2 cards and that one card is a high picture card or Ace.

Playing The Final Table

If you made it to the final table then you probably already won a lot of money by now. But now it's time to completely change your tournament strategy. Because as only 1 more player loses before you, your winnings almost double in thousands of dollars!

Final table strategy is to play the ladder concept. Unless you are in the last position of the ladder, then you fold each and every hand. Be careful as the number of players decrease the blinds come around much faster so your life goes down faster as well. You could use the 1-card bluffing strategy here to keep your life from finishing, but always play the ladder first!

If you are at the top of the ladder (chip leader), then you can pick on the players near the bottom by stealing their blinds. If they call, they musn't damage you, and if they fold you should take a big preflop pot. The weaker opponents at this point must continuously be weakened. In real life this is an example of how the "Rich get richer, while the poor get poorer."

Now you are ready to play & win poker tournaments - Good Luck!