How To Beat Online Poker Tournament Limits

Tournament poker online especially at the lower stakes is a game that is definitely beatable in the long run. Many players who are mediocre can still have success playing poker online and make money just because the low stakes tournaments can be profitable. There are tons of bad players in these games and you can capitalize on their mistakes by remaining focused throughout tournament poker sessions. Most players will play 3-10 poker tournaments at a time simply because the odds of winning a poker tournament when it starts are slim. The more tables you play, the more chances you have of hitting a nice score on any given day. To start off at the lower limit tournaments you should still have a nice sized bankroll because even when playing small buy-in tournaments, you can run bad or just not get there in certain spots.

Lower Limit poker tournaments

The lower limit poker tournaments are basically ranging from $1 to $33. These tournaments are generally going to have a large number of bad players and in return you can still win a nice chunk of change for tournaments victories. How to beat these games is by realizing who you are playing against. Right when you sit down in a poker tournament you should begin to identify who you can have an easy time getting chips from in the future. As tournaments start off the blinds are small and the stacks are relatively deep. This is the time to feel out your opponents and get information that can be used later on.

If you see someone is playing every hand then you can use this to your advantage by waiting for a big hand and trapping your opponent. Most low stakes tournaments will have one or two players at each table that will allow you to do trap them and double up your stack. To be effective against aggressive players you need to get some hands here and there and you should never look to play back at the aggressive players with weak hands. If you start to call too many times then you will be in trouble later on in the tournament because when you don’t hit you will be bleeding valuable tournament chips.

The idea of poker tournaments is to consistently build up a stack at hopes of winning the tournament. To beat low limit tournaments you can basically play very tight and just wait for other players to make mistakes, because other players will make a number of mistakes. You just have to be ready to take their chips when they do make mistakes.

Middle to High stakes tournaments

The middle to higher stakes tournaments range anywhere from $50-$1,000. The $50-$200 range is the most comfortable range for most regular online players to play because it gives a nice return on the buy-in if you win the tournament. Winning should always be your goal from hand one of a poker tournament, but also it is important to maintain short term goals. If you can have short term goals of where you want your stack to be after given limits you will at the least be setting yourself up to make a deep run. You never want to play too aggressive or too passive at any time in a poker tournament, but rather you should see how a table is playing and adjust accordingly to the table.

Every table you sit down to play poker at will be different and every table will have different types of players seated. The players who adapt the best to their tables and change their style of play consistently will be the players who are there at the final table. To have one strategy against good regular players is not out there today. Adjusting to tables is what poker tournaments is all about, and you should look to find the best style for every situation.

For example, if you are seated at a table with tons of really passive players that basically fold 90% of their hands dealt before the flop, you should play back at them and attack them. These players will most likely only play big pocket pairs or hands like AQ or AK. This is a good table to sit at mainly because as the blinds increase you can exploit these players by putting in raises before the flop to steal blinds. Stealing blinds is just as valuable in a poker tournament as winning coin flips or having big pocket pairs hold up. Stealing pots is an overlooked part of poker tournaments for most players, but it is something you need to do in order to win. Building your stack consists of stealing pots with weak hands in position, winning coin flips, and having big pairs hold. If you do these three things then you will have success in the long run.

The only thing of the three that you can control is to steal pots in position. Most times you can put in minimum raises before the flop and win the pot, but other times it may take a bet on the flop to win. You should avoid three barrel bluffing unless you have a great read on your opponents hand range. To win small pots you have to sometimes risk a decent amount of chips, but you should still do it because poker tournaments will not allow you to coast and wait for monster hands all the time. Once in a while you have to dictate the action at a table and become a table captain. To beat the higher stakes tournaments you need luck and skill to progress through to the final table. If you have both and have good timing, then you can have success at the higher stakes.