Tips for your first live tournament

This article will give you valuable and easy-to-understand information so that you have a good foundation when playing your first poker tournament...

Playing in your first tournament is an incredible experience. In large tournaments, you’ll be in a room with hundreds of players, all waiting for you to go home early. The sound of chips stacking up echoes around the room.

There will be people who take the game so seriously that they refuse to crack a smile. You will see professionals and amateurs sitting side by side, complaining about bad beats and suckouts. It is rare that you do not see at least one person leave the room in an incredible state of rage.

In this sea of emotion, defeats, luck and victories you must remember to think for yourself. Stay calm, relaxed.

A flush still beats a straight, the best hand still wins on the river, and if you lose all your chips you're out. The basics of the game don't change, so neither should you. Play as calmly as you play with your friends and win.

Most players in the tournament will be playing a very tight game, meaning they only have good hands. If someone is playing like they have a better hand than you, they probably do.

Protect your chips

Your chips are your life in the tournament, protect them as best you can. You won't be able to limp in with bad hands or make big bluffs in most tournament situations. You have to conserve them, and only play pots that you have a good chance of winning.

If you think someone is beating you, they probably are. Think of this phrase as many times as it takes to remind yourself of it during a hand.

At the same time, you should pay attention to who is stealing blinds at your table. If the button is stealing too much, then protecting your chips in the blinds also becomes important.

If you think a player is just stealing, it is correct to try to re-steal. Not only to protect your blinds, but also to win your opponent's chips and make him think twice about trying to steal from you again.

If the button raises on top of a few limpers, you shouldn't attempt a re-steal unless you have a very decent hand. The chances of getting called or all-in in this scenario are high.

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Pay attention to your stack size

If you let the blinds eat away at your stack to the point where you're left with almost nothing, you're in a very bad situation. It's better to take the risk and try to maintain a healthy stack than to end up with almost nothing.

The reasoning here is simple: if your average chip count is 1,000 and you have 600, taking a coin flip here will put you slightly above average with a win. If you let your chips get to a low value like 200, a coin flip (a hand where you have a 50% chance of winning) will have the same chance of giving you a win, but if you win you will only have 400 chips.

Your stack will still be so low that you will have to take another chance and attempt a second coin flip. The odds of winning two consecutive flips are only 25%. By getting into such a bad spot, you are forcing yourself to risk your tournament life for a smaller chip reward.

After these tips on protecting your chips and playing tight, you should understand that it is necessary to go into aggressive mode when your chips start to get low compared to the blinds. This does not apply to calling your opponents' raises, unless you have the nuts (the best possible hand).

You should raise with any decent hand, hoping to steal the blinds but still have a good chance of winning the hand if called. Calling preflop is rarely a good play in the later stages of a tournament. Raise or fold, or if you are short as above, go all-in or fold.

If you are going to make a standard raise (about 3x the big blind) that will make the pot bigger than your stack after getting called, you are better off just going all-in. If the pot is 1200 and your stack is 400, it is impossible to bluff anyone here.

You would have a better chance of getting your opponent to fold his hand by betting all 1,000 chips preflop.

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Know your objective in the tournament

It is very important to know your goal in the tournament. While most professionals will play to win, many amateurs will be playing just to make it to the money. There is a big difference in the way we play when we have these two goals in mind.

Is it more important to you to reach the money, leaving you in a state with almost zero chance of reaching the final table, or to risk being out of the money, but with a great chance of a final table win?

Know the rules

You should be aware of all the rules of the house or venue you are playing at. For example, someone may play a $100 chip when the bet was $25, and by not announcing the action, the $100 chip becomes just a call, not a raise.

Be sure to announce all your actions at the table to avoid rules issues.

Structure

You need to know the structure of the tournament. If the structure is heavy, with shorter blinds, you need to start making more thoughtful plays early, or you will get eaten up by the blinds.

The tournament officials will give you the blinds information if you request it, or it will be available somewhere in the hall.

Many players are like you

Many players are in the same boat as you, whether it’s your first time or just a casual player. If you know how to play the game, you shouldn’t worry about others, just worry about your game.

Play your best, have fun, and try not to make any mistakes. Having fun during the tournament will make the prize money just a bonus. Enjoy poker.

Article translated and adapted from the original: Your First Live Tournament by: Sean Lind