Poker Tournament Tips: Surviving the Early Going

Multi Table Tournaments, Tournaments
August 30 2008

It’s rare that many big poker tournaments are won in the early going. But a ton of them can be lost early by bad plays and sometimes bad luck. Because of this, your No. 1 goal early on in a big poker tournament should be to survive while adding chips to your stack whenever you can. Too many players try to be exceedingly fancy or over-aggressive, or they’re just plain stupid early on and they’re out before they even reach the second level.

The one thing you must avoid to survive is bad plays. Whenever you make a big mistake and it doesn’t cost you a ton of chips, count yourself lucky and don’t make a boneheaded play again. Don’t be afraid to play pretty tight early on. Not only will this keep your stack from getting shredded by any wild players who get lucky, but it will also let you loosen up later on and perhaps catch some players off-guard with your new table image.

In case you have trouble spotting the loose and wild players, they’re the ones that bet way too much, way too often, and play cards they shouldn’t. While playing tight, avoid going up against these guys unless you’ve got a strong hand. Nothing hurts more than losing to one of those maniacs when they catch a lucky flop. Try and stay away from them because sooner or later their bad play will catch up to them, and they’ll be bounced from the tourney while you’re still sitting pretty with a nice stack of chips.

 Three final quick tips on surviving the early going:

1. Don’t go all-in pre-flop – Remember those maniacs? They love going all-in with cards they should have folded only to get lucky and bankrupt someone. Don’t let that someone be you.

2. Don’t try to steal the blinds – At early levels the blinds are usually so low they’re not actually worth stealing. Let them slide for now but be ready to go after them once they start rising.

3. Don’t bluff too much – Remember, we said play tight. Avoid making too many bluffs now so you can switch it up later and make some winning bluffs.

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