Online Tournament Strategy

Iv been playing several 500+ player online tournaments on fulltilt and players only. I was itm only a couple times and realized tournaments arnt really my thing. Any successful online tournament player have any advice for a beginner tourn player? THanks

Well I have a decent amount of success following my friend (who has a lot more online tourney smarts) and his advice to me is to start off by only playing AA, KK, AK (as a beginning player) so that you can double up and add some chips. The key early on is to survive, as the longer your survive, the closer you get to the cash. And the longer you survive, the more players get knocked out by going nuts in the big tourneys.

And take maximum advantage of your table advantage, esp. when you are in late pos to be strong and steal blinds.

I think reading a few books or articles is a good place to start to be honest. Im not trying to hate on previous reply but waiting on AA KK QQ in a tournament won't hold you in good stead as the blinds shoot up.

When the blinds are small look to limp in with position, or raise 3-4 BB's with decent holding when opening (i.e when nobody has limped/raised) but again position is key. By decent holding I mean medium pairs and med. suited connectors. I am assuming that you aren't playing to large stakes, so you really can't get attatched to a hand, as people will play loads of random crap and hit things you don't even see.

But as I say I would recomend reading some articles and/or books as well as playing to learn. Good luck!

It really depends on the tournament setup. I too feel that waiting on big pairs will end up blinding you out. You have to get a little bit lucky. Stealing blinds helps you survive longer. Avoid getting all in if you're not sure you have the best of it. Don't pay too much for draws. I usually play supertight for 10-20 minutes to let the hyperagressive people either blow off their chips or settle down.

I learned alot when starting by reading the Harrington on Hold em books. To improve you just need to study the game and then try different strategies out and see what works best in different situations. LOL