An Interesting Dilemma
Many first time amateur poker players that have qualified for their first ever big buy in tournament, always formulate a strategy to ensure they make the cash. This ‘first time ever’ strategy often entails folding a lot of hands, trying to play small pots and avoiding all in confrontations. The ideal situation, is to obviously fold to the money since that way they get to recuperate something and have a story to tell of cashing in the biggest tournament of their lives.
But to think in this way is very interesting, since it was probably not the same strategy that they actually used to qualify for the big tournament. The most effective strategy for tournament poker is to be aggressive and to look for weak players to prey on. That’s where check raises, re-raises, three bets, four bets and re-steals are so effective against players who are too afraid to bust or are too nervous to even play a single hand. The players who are too nervous and are trying to fold their way to the money are easy meat and can often be bluffed off a legitimate hand.
When playing a large buy in tournament, as compared to a small home game, the same rules and strategies apply. Stay aggressive, be prepared to go bust in order to win, play selective hands and look to accumulate chips off the weaker players. There is no other way to win a tournament, unless your tournament strategy includes getting extremely lucky and hitting a full house every time your play a hand. In that case, you will not need any aggressive strategy and can be just handed the trophy. For the more realistic players who are prepared to play their way to the top, stick to the strategies that other winning poker players use.
