Single Table No-Limit Texas Holdem Tournament Tips
by Jason Green of Predictem.com
Knowing how to master single table No Limit Texas tournaments is hard to do, as it will take both skill and patience.
Here are a few tips that can be useful:
For all Texas Holdem tournaments, as well as ring games, patience is key. If you have patience you should generally play regular sit and go No Limit Texas Holdem Tournaments rather than speed single table tournaments (STT). Players that are used to tournaments have an advantage when playing regular games, as there is more play after the flop. In regular types of single table tournaments the blinds will increase very slow and because of this you have a significant amount of time before the final stages of the tournament when players will either go all in or fold before the flop. The variations in your play will be lower when playing single table tournaments instead of speed STTs. Reduced variations in your play will help you evaluate your skills in terms of finding out what buy in value will be better for being a match to your playing style.
In the early and middle stages of a poker tournament poor starting hands should not be played to see the flop. This means that you should only play strong starting hands, as it is good to check out the flops to try to hit a strong hand, because the blinds will be higher in relation to your chip stack in SSTs rather than in ring games. You have to be aware that unlike ring games, drawing hands will not play particularly well in the early and middle stages when playing in STTs.
When the Blinds Get Expensive Dont be Afraid
In the latter stages of a tournament you will need to play aggressive to be successful. A lot of average poker players will fold to often, as they will wait for great starting hands to go all in, when in reality they should try harder to steal the blinds, as they are high at this point. In the latter stages of a tournament winning the blinds without being in a showdown can greatly help you out by increasing your chip stack.
Keep a Big Chip Stack
While it is important to try to steal the blinds in the latter stages of a tournament it is unlikely to steal the blinds if your chip stack is around the same amount of 2 big blinds, as it is very likely that either one or both of the blinds will put you all in. Poker players line to knock other players out of the tournament and it is even more important that, often times, the blinds will have positive pot odds to call your play. This is why to steal the blinds you will have to have a chip stack that is least 3 or 4 times the big blind. Because of this if your chip stack is lower than 3 or 4 times the big blind, you may try one more time to steal the blinds, even if it the case that your hand is not very strong.
Pot Odds
In the latter stages of a tournament pot odds are very important. You cannot expect to have a big advantage over an opponent if you both go all in. Even if is the case where you have a slight positive expected value you should call.