advanced poker play

Introduction

Whereas you can turn on your computer and play online poker any time you wish, or even turn up at a casino and play at a poker table as and when you want – entering a poker tournament is slightly different. Although there are few poker tournaments these days that are by ‘invitation only’, you may well find that you can only enter a particular poker tournament by having played successfully in a qualifying event.

Starting to play tournaments

The idea of having had to have played well in a qualifying tournament is one way of making sure that the poker players in the tournament are all of a minimum standard, so as to ensure a fair and enjoyable tournament for all. After all, due to the cost of the ‘buy-in’, there would be little point in even a wealthy rookie player entering a tournament with a high value buy-in – they might as well just give their money straight over to the other payers, as more experienced players will quickly see them off. From the view point of the more experienced poker players, sure they’ll take the money off a rookie player – but it’s not just about the money. Taking easy money from a rookie is not what tournaments are about, they’re about beating others and winning and that means playing people of your own or higher standard. Tournament poker is one time to not run before you can walk, build your self up slowly playing in low value buy-ins between $20 and $50, building up into the hundreds of dollars before hitting the more serious poker tournaments with $1000+ buy-ins.

The buy-in

The buy-in for a poker tournament can either be a straightforward fee for entry or, in the case of higher buy-in fees, it can include the amount of chips you start playing with. A typical online poker tournament, for novices, might stipulate something like a say a $20 + $2 buy-in. Here the $20 goes into the prize money fund and the $2 goes to the poker website promoting the tournament. On a low buy-in fee like this you’d then also need to buy your chips to play, which again may well have an upper limit on what you can start with. Although $20 going into a prize fund doesn’t sound much, if an online tournament attracts 50,000 players – that’s a $1 million prize fund!

Satellite tournaments

As mentioned above you can sometimes be required to have qualified to enter a high buy-in poker tournament. These qualifying poker games are referred to as satellite poker tournaments. The proliferation of internet poker tournaments means that most if not all of the poker websites will offer satellite tournaments for entry into their higher buy-in and ‘real world’ ones. A perfect example here would be the WSOP Main Event, where it is possible to play in online satellites and even win a free entry to the tournament proper. Satellite tournaments tend to be played only by those trying to break into the poker tournament scene as, having gained entry to one; you’ll have the kudos to buy-in to others directly. After all no one would expect Phil Hellmuth or Doyle Brunson to pre-qualify for the WSOP – would they? But economics can also play a part in the decision to play satellites or not. For example, if you’re a good enough player to get some big wins at a poker, then why waste time playing small money satellites – when you could be winning money to pay the buy-in?

Tournament re-buys

The more expensive the buy-in, the more aggrieved you’ll feel if you bust out of the tournament early on. If you are a tournament rookie and are concerned about this then look for tournaments that have a re-buy option. These usually have a staggered start over a few days and could be best explained along the lines of a tournament where the opening days are simply qualifying rounds for the true knock-out competition. That way, with in effect more than one Day 1, if you got knocked out on day 1 – you can buy back in to day 2 and try again to qualify through to the full/proper knock-out stages. Your ability to re-buy into the tournament could well be limited to making your decision within a few hours of being knocked out, so do read the tournament rules carefully before starting to play. In an online poker tournament re-buy in times can be very short indeed, but as they’re often very low in value – they can be an ideal way to hone your tournament skills. By immediately re-buying into an internet poker tournament you can apply the lessons you learned from your first attempt