You can win on luck alone. I won Tuesday's CC freeroll by busting AA, KK, and QQ on the final table. I also had quads twice. Hard to lose when that happens.
Usually though, it takes a combination of luck, patience, and proper aggression. You want to wait for good cards and play in good position. You should bluff some, but you need to be smart about bluffing. When you hit, bet. Make villains pay to see the next card.
If you wait for good cards and play them aggressively, you should do pretty well. Following a tight opening chart should get you ITM a fair amount. To go truly deep, you need two additional weapons. The first is knowing when to open your range. The second and most important is a good short stack strategy.
Everybody will be short stacked at some point. Nearly every tournament I've won, I was short stacked at some point. I am talking about playing with under 20BB, often as low as 5BB. Learn ICM pressure and study push/fold strategy, but understand that the main objective when short stacked is to double up. Knowing when to shove, and more importantly when not to call, will help you a long way into going deep.
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