Making the money in online poker tournaments.
Getting eliminated in a poker tournament is NEVER a good feeling, and the underlying idea is certainly to make it as deep as you can in every tournament you enter, but is that all there is to it? Of course you understand by now that poker is anything but a simple game, and tournament strategy requires deep thinking for long term winning and final tables.
One of the most important factors when strategizing in poker tournaments is making the money. For those players who are in a more comfortable position with their bankroll, then this is probably not the way to play becuase it will eventually cost them a large payout. A lot of rounders and pros will play more aggressively in this situation because they want to make the money with a healthy stack.
For most online players though, this simply isn’t the case and making the money should be of paramount importance. The reason for this is because when you are actually building a bankroll, the best money to play with is that of your opponents, not your own. I call this OPM, or Other Players’ Money, and if you are just starting out in online poker, then OPM is your only way to long term success, save for extraordinary luck.
The only way to start using OPM is to do your utmost to make the money in every tournament you play. Sure it may be a slow bankroll building process, but you need to play this way for thses main reasons. Most importanatly is the fact that your competition is so weak, they will literally send you deep into the tournament, simply by playing extra tight.
Secondly, there is a very high attrition rate in online low limit tournaments that actually adds inherent value to every tournament fee you put up.
Lastly, you can count on making the money about 15 to 20 percent of the time, and no matter how you play, the math is on your side that you will make the final table often enough to earn those higher payouts, no matter how tight you play.
Now adopting this philosophy normally requires tight-aggressive Harrington style play, but it’s not so easy to stick to that style while witnessing the foolish players around you and their lucky, but growing stacks. Getting caught up in that though, means you are playing on your lack of emotional control, and not using a solid winning strategy.
It all comes down to numbers and probabilities. If you play tight aggressive, you will make the money often enough to build your OPM bankroll, and then play risk free forever more. Its pretty clear then that profitable play is using OPM?
Marty Smith has video reviews of all the online poker software so you can see them being used before you decide which one is right for you. He also has a free poker tournament strategy video series that is free poker training just for signing up.
Tags: online poker tournament strategy, poker bankroll management
