Low limit online poker tournaments are a lot of fun. Sometimes they can be frustrating, but most of the time it’s hard not to have fun while playing one.
They are also potentially very lucrative, not least because they tend to attract players in droves. On some sites – particularly on PokerStars – tournaments with buy-ins as low as $1-$10 can have thousands of hopefuls hoping to turn their minimum investments into much more significant amounts.
As you can imagine, most of these players are recreational players, and for this reason, the standard game is generally very weak. This is not to say that getting through this crowd and winning one of these tournaments is an easy task, because it is not. In other words, don’t expect to deposit $200 online, play a handful of these tournaments, and suddenly be rolling in cash. That’s not going to happen.
What will happen, or what should happen, is that you continue reading this article and once you are armed with knowledge, you go out there and show that you are learning how to do more than just have fun in these tournaments, but also how to profit from them.
Here are five handpicked tips to help you prepare for and achieve success in low stakes online tournaments.
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Be prepared for a long session
Most of these tournaments with lots of players and low entry fees take many hours to finish, so you need to be prepared to play for a long time. Be patient as always, but also be prepared for a long grind if you are going to advance in these events.
I was happy to win the $3.30 tournament with rebuys in PokerStars twice. On both occasions, the tournament started around 7pm and finished at 6:30am. This is fine if you are a professional poker player who can sleep in the next day, but you should consider work commitments if you have a job. Know what you are getting into when you register for these tournaments.
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Be prepared for high variance in small stakes online poker
The variance in low-stakes tournaments is huge because of the high number of opponents you have to face and the fact that many of them are nearly impossible to put down. Furthermore, when you play against a large field full of recreational players, there is the possibility that players will call your raises – even your all-ins – with some ridiculous hands, adding even more to the unpredictability of the results.
While this is a very favorable situation in the long run, in the short term you can often find yourself doing worse than you thought possible. Make sure, however, that you have a bankroll to withstand the fluctuations when results aren’t coming – somewhere around 200 to 300 times your average entry (I would recommend).
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Keep it simple and bet your hands for value
Don't try to make advanced plays at any stage of the tournament because it will only lead to regret. Many of your opponents only care about the cards they have in their hands and won't realize what hands you represent by your actions - they just want to get to the showdown and try to win.
More often than not, in these events you’ll want to keep it simple, playing the “ABCs of Poker” and letting the cards come out as they are.
Following the same reasoning, Make sure you extract the most value possible with your strong hands. Regular players at higher stakes tournaments can bet 1/3 of the pot against their opponents, but this is because it is harder to get called at these stakes. Ultimately, you can bet more. Since many of these opponents are happy to call your bets, you can also take advantage of them with your strong hands.
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Pay attention to the bets and be prepared to fold some strong hands
How often have you heard online poker players complain about their action and say some nonsense like “I can’t beat these donkeys, they always hit the nuts on the river.” What they don’t tell you is that “these donkeys” often play their hands in a way that allows you to escape pots that you should have.
For example, if a weak player limp-calls preflop, calls the flop, calls the turn, and donk bets you on the river when the flush comes, guess what? That player most certainly has the flush. The same is usually true for river raises, even if the only hand that beats yours is :7c :4s , if a known weak player raises into your river bet, you have to consider that he or she probably has :7c :4s !
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Don’t worry too much about playing “balanced”
If anyone tells you that you have to play a “balanced style” of poker in a large field of low-stakes online poker tournaments, laugh. While you have to do this at the higher stakes, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever face the same players again in a field of 3,000 – 10,000 opponents, so you can be as unbalanced as you want.
This means that you don't have to worry too much about revealing certain patterns in your play, such as always betting big with your strong hands. While against strong opponents you should balance your play by varying your bets and actions so that they can't easily spot your plays. Against larger fields of less skilled opponents this isn't as much of a concern.
Of course, the above five tips aren’t everything you need to succeed in low-stakes online poker tournaments, but they should at least help you in your quest to turn a little into a lot!
Article translated and adapted from the original: Online Poker Tournaments Strategy: Five Tips for Winning Big While Playing Small Stakes
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