Play To Come First
Tournaments often have a very top heavy pay-out structure, meaning that if you want
to make money from them in the long run, you need to aim for the top few places.
Scraping into the money will often just get you your money back. So fight the temptation
to play tight as you near the money places in a tournament. In fact, this will often
lead to you busting out just before the money. So play aggressively towards the
end of a tournament and aim for first!
Watch The Blinds
The blinds will gradually increase as the tournament progresses. This means that
the pressure is on you to keep building your chip stack or you risk the blinds getting
too big and "eating you up". As a general guideline try and keep your chip stack
at least 10 times the big blind. If you fall below this, you really only have one
move...ALL IN! If you do fall below 10 times the big blind, try and "double up"
quickly. The shorter your stack gets, the more times you'll need to risk everything
and get lucky.
Start Cautiously
At the start of the tournament the blinds are very small, so play cautiously and
don't risk too much to win too little. As the blinds increase, you should gradually
become more aggressive as there is more to play for in the pot.
Practice for the Final Table
Sit and Go tournaments are a great way to practice for the later stages in a tournament,
and especially the final table.
As players become eliminated and play becomes short handed, it is important to adapt
and become more aggressive.
Making the final table is a great achievement, but it is here when decisions become
really important, due to the big money involved. So don't be unprepared when you
get there - Get practicing now!
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