I am no pro, but I took up poker recently again, while I'm currently broke, I am making final table on 1,000 + player games.
My strategy is - throw all else out the window, use some basic statistics to HELP factor a decision, but if I have AK ? and I see 2 4 5 6 and two players are betting up a storm? Yeah - I actually fold A K - my rule that gets me to the final table is - never lose it -as in - never go all in unless you in the highest probability have it.. Maybe a flush draw? If I have J or above? I'll push it -sure - sometimes you WILL lose... Doug Polk says this - you WILL lose in tournaments, accept it.
The best place to get to is not to care but to play with care if you ask me.
I don't seek to double up early on, I slowly build up - increasing my stack along with the new blinds in proportion.
Patience, and you WILL get a very nice hand every 30 min, 1 hour, and that's the time to really take some stride and bet - IF you ask me.
All I know is, I have been consistently placing in the top 5 of free rolls that are anywhere from 200 to 1200 people.
My favorite site?
ignition. Once you make bronze, you get access to their weekly $2500 FR on Thursday at 9:05. It's about $450 first place, not bad.
I REALLY need to find work ASAP heh.
But then again, I'm a software engineer so I have poker up on monitor #4 - so it's not big deal to take 5 seconds and make a decision.
I ALSO like to show my
hands when I have it - for whatever reason, so often I find players just cave when I do have it. And again, I don't seek bigass wins, just consistent wins... The goal in a tournament to me isn't having the most chips - it's making it to final table and ideally to #1.