| | | | Beginners: | | | | |
Picking the proper structure for learning the nuances of tournament play is the most important thing a beginning player can do. Look for: |  |
1) Very low buy-ins
2) 10-15 minutes between level changes
3) No rebuys are offered.
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Stay away from "turbo" and "speed" type tournaments. A beginning player needs to be playing Top 10 starting hands only. By staying with the longer level changes you will have more time to wait for these hands.
Learning patience is the first lesson in tournament play. In faster tournaments, you are required to play less than premium hands or run the risk of blowing your bankroll on blinds. This is certainly not the ideal learning environment to say the least.
And the best piece of advice is don’t play like the pros you see on TV! Final table poker is an entirely different game than what you'll be engaged in starting out in low buy-in tournaments.
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| | Intermediate: | | | | |
 Been playing a while and ready to raise your game up a notch?
Here are a few things you can do: | |
- Hit the books. There are tournament books by the handfuls out there that can save you a lot of grief by pointing out the situations you'll need to avoid in order to become a consistent winner.
- Stay with tournaments that are suited to your present level of skill. Playing over your head will kill your confidence AND your bankroll. Be honest about your skill level and play accordingly. Remember that tournament poker has an extremely high variance, pros such as Ivey, Hellmuth, and Brunson can and have gone months and even years between a win!
- Playing single-table tournaments is great practice for the eventual goal of multi-table tournaments. The strategies are very similar; with the biggest difference being single-table tournaments usually take less than an hour to play, whereas the multi-table tournaments take over 4 hours to play. It isn’t exactly like final table tournament play, but when you get down to 3-4 players, it’s very close to it. This stage takes an entirely different level of concentration and decision-making, and any player looking to move up can use all the practice they can get.
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| | Experts: | | | | |
 The thing that keeps most players from reaching this level is concentration. Turn off the television, lock the doors, and watch every hand of every poker game you can.
You need to develop an instinctual sense, an instant read of what type of opponents you are up against, what kinds of hands they are playing, and how aggressive they are in pushing the pot.
The following is a summary of how it is explained in most poker books:
You need to have some idea of what 2 cards your opponent has, what 2 cards your opponent thinks you have, what your opponent thinks your move will be with the 2 cards he thinks you have, and finally what you want to do with the 2 cards you really have in order to prompt your opponent to make the wrong decision with the 2 cards he really has.
This is a consistent strategy you see employed at final table poker on TV, and also why you see top players playing bad hands; it’s not what cards they have, it’s what they can make their opponent THINK they have.
If your opponent is guessing that this is what you would do if you held pocket K's, then the fact that you really hold 35os is totally beside the point!
We hope this at least helps you define your present level of skill, and suggests areas for further exploration.
Good Luck!
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