See also
Top ten ingredients needed to win poker tournaments:
10. Perseverance. Even when short chipped, don't give up. Instead, look for the best opportunity to steal or double up. Also, you must try not to get worn down when you go through a streak of barely out-of-the-money finishes. It is usually disappointing to end up in any position except the top three, since the payoffs for the other places pale in comparison.
9. Ability to manipulate bad players. Many weak players take a shot at tournaments. You must understand what hands their bets represent and what they will do. (Analogy: Someone who is considered a great communicator may not be able to communicate with children as well as a good elementary school teacher can.)
8. Flexibility to change speeds. The faster the limits increase, the more active you have to be in accruing chips. In tournaments, there are times you will not play a hand because you have a loose table image and can't stand a raise. At other times, you know you can steal or play back because your opponents think you are playing tight.
7. Ability to focus. It is necessary to focus and concentrate for long periods of time. When playing in a side game, you can take short breaks to give your brain a rest. Even when you are out of a hand in a tournament, you should watch the play of unfamiliar players who are at your table. You should make a quick study of them so you have an idea of their capabilities. In side games, there isn't the same urgency to learn the style and possible moves of a new player.
6. Familiarity with opponents. As you play in more tournaments, you will gain experience with the players who frequent the tournament circuit. It’s a big advantage to know who to bluff and who not to, and who will not try to bluff you. When a player bets into you unexpectedly, is it a bluff, a value-bet, or a strong bet? If you had played with him a few times, you would probably know his pattern. Without that experience, you will have to guess.
5. Skill at chip-dependent strategy. When you have more chips than the other players at the table, you should use them like a bludgeon. Remember, everybody except one person is going to lose all his chips. Your opponents are not necessarily competing to win chips, but to go broke slower than almost everyone else. They often will not commit themselves and will try to avoid confrontations. When players are trying to hang on so they can get to the next payoff amount, you can apply extra pressure.
4. Skill with small bets. This applies primarily to no-limit tournaments. Use smaller bets than you would in side games. They will usually have the same effect because in a tournament everyone is relatively short-stacked and can’t rebuy. In limit poker as well as in no-limit, good players avoid over-committing chips to a pot because they don't want their fate determined by the result of one hand.
3. Starting at good tallies. An initial table with weak players is a big factor in winning a tournament. This may enable you to get off to a good start so you can attack smaller stacks and survive after some losing hands.
2. Having a good run of cards. To win a tournament, you will have to win most of the time when you have the best of it, and some of the time when you have the worst of it. You will be involved in key hands that you must win each time the limits increase.
1. Entering a lot of tournaments. You can't win if you don't play.
