Advanced Poker Advice: Early Level Tournament Play

"If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you." - Paul Newman

Sept. 18, 2007

By Evelyn Ng
Bodog Nation Contributing Writer

There is always a heated discussion among poker people whenever we are talking about the best strategy for the beginning levels of a tournament. Half of them think that tight is right, while the other half says to come out firing.

There's an old story about Stuey Ungar that said he literally would never put a single chip into the pot, minus the blinds, until the tournament levels had reached the point where there were antes. He felt that there was no value in playing before then, because the pots were too small to matter and playing at that time could only get you in trouble.

Take your time and size up the table, or grab the chips from weak players while you can.

Another player I know says you must wait until you have a feel for the table and the playing styles of your different opponents before mixing it up. While this makes sense, the other side of the argument has some good points as well.

This side feels that you want to play pots against the weak players before they give their chips to someone else. The blinds keep going up, so you need to stay ahead of the field and build a stack early on so you can bully the shorter stacks later.

Both of these tournament strategies sound right, so how do you determine which one to employ when you are sitting at the table?

The strategy depends on the tournament you're playing in.

If you are playing your local casino low buy-in event, people often think they have to play fast because of the short levels. If the blinds are increasing every 20 minutes, it's OK to get in there with a strong, but not lock hand, because of the quality of cards you are facing from your careless opponents. At the same time, make sure your opponents aren't employing the same strategy, because if they are one of the guys that sees this, chances are they are not bluffing.

Higher stakes sometimes mean you can get away with more.

In the big event WPT or WSOP tournaments, you have higher quality opponents most of the time, and all players will be trying harder to succeed because of how much money is at stake. This can be used to your advantage, and a bluff or two, or calling with a speculative hand are moves that you have the chip stack to make profitably.

Many pros start firing right out of the gate and are willing to risk some chips to win a big pot. They often like to be the table captain, and to be the captain, you need all the ammo you can get.

In the end, the strategy you employ should depend on the structure, the buy-in and the players at the table; however, another important factor to consider is playing how you feel comfortable. There is a point in every tournament where you need to accumulate chips, but if you choose to do it in the middle stages instead of in the beginning, then you have to make the adjustments to make it work for you. 

TOP PHOTO: Team Bodog poker pro Evelyn Ng.