Tournament poker thought
Written by Ben on August 11th, 2005
A lot of people think that huge tournaments like the World Series of Poker are a crapshoot and that your chances of winning are slim to none no matter how good you are.
That’s not exactly a good way to approach any tournament you plan on playing in, and I think this is the best thought process:
No matter where you’re playing poker you’re playing 9 people at a time, there are no 5,000 person tables. So if your goal should be to outlast and outplay the 9 people you’re with at any one time. Don’t worry about theother 4,990 entrants, focus on your table and how you’re going to get chips from the people you’re sitting with right now.
It’s similar to baseball: you can’t win the game in one at bat, so you have to take your time and get people on base and then drive them in with solid base hits and good base running. In poker you can’t win the tournament in one hand, you have to focus on playing intelligently and picking up pots when you can. Play small ball.
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2 Comments to “Tournament poker thought”
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Jeff
August 11th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
I think a lot of people enter tournaments with the wrong frame of mind, myself included. I had never looked at it this way though - great post.
Fittsy
August 15th, 2005 at 11:39 am
Hey BenB,
You’re right man. Another thing I see people doing is making a mistake or getting a bad beat and going on tilt.
I disagree. I don’t mind loosing a hand if it helps my table image. If I have a good table image I’m going to win a lot more hands in the long run.
- Fittsy