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Early Online Tournament Play: No Limit Texas Holdem

So the tournament buy-in is paid, the chips are given out to every player at the table and the two cards are dealt. Now what? Everybody has a different strategy when it comes to what they intend to do with their chips. If you pay attention to the tournament lobby you will notice how many players are eliminated within only a few minutes.

So How Do You Stay Alive in Online No Limit Texas Holdem Tournaments!

Preserving your stack is almost as important as winning chips. You do not want to be one of those players who play every hand just because it is only 50 chips to call the big blind so you call with a J2 off suit. It is very easy to play a hand in online no limit Texas holdem tournaments since all you have to do is click a button to call or raise. You might see more players seeing flops or players calling every single hand. If you pay attention to what is in the middle of the pot before the antes kick in, it is usually irrelevant to your chip stack even if you win the pot. Let’s say the blinds are 25/50 and you have 2900 chips. Even if you raised with some garbage hand or saw a cheap flop and connected, what are you going to win? 75 chips?!

Poker tournaments are not won in the first hour of play. Period. Think of online no limit Texas holdem tournaments as if they were a marathon. The last one standing makes the most profit. Early tournament play is about survival and you can not survive if you are throwing away chips just to get involved in the action. You will seem to have better results if you keep your pots small and only get involved when you have a hand. Dont be the donkey who limps J2 off suit. LIMP with small pocket pairs. I like to lose a small pot by not raising preflop, and build the pot of you hit the set. If not, just check fold. Big pocket pairs like AA, KK, QQ you want to be in the pot firing out bets. Raising and reraising preflop will eliminate all the nothing hands that might crack your big hands. No one likes donkeys… play poker!
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