by David Grey
Most players are aware of the significant advantages that come with having a big stack in a tournament. When a player has chips, he can attack and pick up pots by forcing those around him into a corner where they have to make tough decisions. Those who have short stacks are always vulnerable to attack by those who have managed to accumulate lots of chips.Why can the big stacks be more aggressive? The answer may surprise you. In tournaments, the more chips you have the less each individual chip is worth, making it easier for the big stacks to throw more into each pot. It’s a strange concept, but one you should understand. To illustrate the point, say that you have 100,000 in tournament chips, and you lose 20,000 in a pot. You’re not going to be happy about the loss, but that setback is not nearly as devastating as losing 15,000 from a 30,000 stack.

When you have a lot of chips that aren’t worth much, you can be…. Read rest of article at Full Tilt Poker

By Gavin Smith
You’ll be seeing a lot of me on next year’s World Poker Tour broadcasts. So far in the 2005-2006 schedule, I’ve made three final tables. I won the Mirage event, finished third at the Bellagio and fourth in Tunica. When you see a broadcast that features my play, you may be left scratching your head, asking, “Why the heck is that guy playing those cards?”There’s no question that I do play an unconventional game. But, there is a method to my madness.

I play a style that’s usually referred to as “small-pot poker.” Using this approach, I’m looking to pick up a lot of small pots by applying a constant level of pressure to my opponents. Pre-flop, I raise frequently, especially in position. My raises are small, usually around two-and-a-half times the big blind, as opposed to the customary three or four times the big blind. I’ll raise with a huge variety of hands - everything from big pocket pairs to “junk” hands, like 6d-4d, or 5c-8c.

Usually, I’ll miss the flop when I raise with junk. In fact, two-thirds of the time, I won’t make as much as a pair. But here’s the thing…. Read rest of article at Full Tilt Poker

In this article, I will present general strategies you can use in big tournaments, meaning hundreds and sometimes thousands of players, such as freeroll tournaments for example.. These strategies apply to “normal pace” tournaments. By that, I mean a typical structure found in tournaments where the blinds start low, and the blind increments from level to level are not excessively steep. Also, the total time between level increases is average (10-12 minutes or so is common). These strategies do not apply to “turbo” tournaments where the blinds increase very quickly and by a lot.

Starting Strategy

Because this is a slower pace tournament, I will advise you to take your time when you first start out. Semi-conservative play is good at first. You’ll notice that what tends to happen in the first 10 hands of any big freeroll tournament is that a lot of people go all in. Some go all in because they have an ace in their hands and hope to get lucky. Others my have a pair and try to win big. Some people just go all in no matter what they have and hope to win the “first hand lottery”. You don’t want to be involved at this stage because too many people call. Remember that in general, you only want to be…. read rest of article at MyPokerCorner.com

By Michael Mizrachi
Recently I changed my style. In the early stages of a tournament, I’ll still be super-aggressive – I’m in sixth gear, raising a lot of pots – but as soon as I’ve built a huge stack, I play a little more conservatively and lay down some hands. I put my car in neutral and slow down a bit before the final table.

I realized that I don’t have to go chasing those big pots in the later stages of a tournament. In the past, I’d be hungry to play the big pots, and found that I’d frequently end up narrowly missing those final tables when I really should have been there. So I sat down, took a long, hard look at my game, and changed my style. That’s what every poker player needs to do once in while, and now hopefully you’re going to see me making a lot more final tables in the future. I might even win Bluff’s player of the year!

So, in the later stages of a tournament, try to…. read rest of article at Bluff Magazine

By Brandon Adams
When I first started playing tournament poker, I tended to bust near the bubble.

I would play very tight in the early stages, and then as the blinds and antes rose, I’d wait for good hands and push in. This frequently resulted in me busting with good but not great hands, such as A-Jo or T-T.

Busting with a hand like a pair of tens near the bubble is, in some ways, a respectable thing to do. When your friends ask you how you busted, you can say, “I was short-stacked and I reraised all in for twelve big blinds with a pair of tens,” and they will say, “Oh, well. You had to push there.” They’d be right, and in my early days I’d take some consolation in their assurances that my bustout was unavoidable. But after a while, I started to ask myself, “Why’d I only have twelve big blinds at that point?”

Watching tournament poker live and on TV, I’d seen players make moves that seemed incomprehensible to me. I’d watch pros reraise all in pre-flop with hands like 7.8. or 6.8., and I’d think to myself, “How could they possibly risk busting out on that hand?”

That question, together with the question of why I never had chips near the end of a tournament, led me to discover a critical flaw in my thinking. I realized that most of my decisions about hand values had been influenced by charts in beginner poker books showing the probability of a particular hand, say T-T, holding up against two random cards. I had neglected to fully consider…. read rest of article at Bluff Magazine