Poker tournaments are perhaps the most popular form of poker played in the world at this time. The combination of players being eliminated and the event building to a climax coupled with players having the chance to win amounts of money that are many times greater than the buy in make these events very attractive to play in. However you do need to have some sort of strategy to go very deep in large online poker tournaments. It is always a good idea to play solidly and tightly during the early levels when your blind to stack ratio is high.
There is a solid and sound reason for that and it is to do with allowing the wild players to eliminate themselves during these early stages and leaving you with a sizeable stack. However you do need to remember that in order to cash in these events or to reach the final table then you need to acquire chips to reach this goal. This means taking calculated risks which carefully balance survival with chip accumulation. All poker tournaments have prize pools and when players get nearer and nearer to these cash out places then many of them tighten up their play.
This is when the smarter players try to steal extra chips and it is these chips that can serve to take you into the cash out places or much further if you happen to get lucky. This brings us onto another vital reason as to why playing tight and solidly during the early levels of play is a very good strategy. Not only do you get to survive the crazy early levels without much loss to your stack but you also gain time by having more chips in your stack than you would have had if you had gambled and lost them playing too many hands.
It is only when many of the maniacs and reckless players have been eliminated can you then turn your strategy to stealing those vital chips that can put into contention to cash. Do not fear elimination from the tournament; leave that fear to other players to experience. On the whole then it is the players who become fearful of exit who often stand the least chance of success in online tournament poker. Playing tight solid poker during the early levels allows you to see the middle stages of the tournament a high percentage of the time.
