Playing online poker tournaments though seems easy, but as you enter, you soon realize it’s more complicated and deep than it appears. Everyone wants to play high rewarding tournaments and make it big, but it’s not so simple. You need to back your game with a lot of strategies and skills. Plus, you need to keep a right eye on your opponents to catch their bluff.
Here are some strategies that will serve you well in online tournaments to double your chances of winning and defeating the poker pros:
Create A Mystery
The basic strategy of all is not to follow any particular strategy every time. You need to create a mystery about yourself.
Why?
It is extremely important to keep in mind that you don’t give any tells to your opponents. If you follow the same strategies (loose/aggressive/passive/tight) over and over again, every player on the table can guess your next move and outrank you.
So, always be ready to rectify and tweak your strategies as per the needs of the game. The more unpredictable you are, the more chances of you winning.
Play By Taking Your Chips Stack In Account
The chip stacks stacked in front of you determine your game plan. You need always to take the chips you have into account while planning your next move. You can always go after the weak hand with the target of hitting the flop if you have a good number of chips.
But if you have a limited number of chips to your credit, you need to use them wisely.
Usually, the amateur players chose to bluff in this situation by betting big against the weak, thinking the opponent may fold. But this is quite tricky. Because you cannot be sure a hundred per cent what your opponent holds if somehow you find yourself stuck in this dilemma, wait a moment… Take a deep breath… And analyze your opponent’s table position, table image, and his past records. Also, keep a close eye on his movements to identify whether he is bluffing and then play your next move.
Play Freeroll Tournaments And Brush Up Your Poker Skills
Practice makes a man perfect. Same goes on for poker. The more you play, the more your poker skills get brushed up. You slowly start to master the techniques and learn to analyze your opponents better. Plus, the best part is you get to do that without investing a single dime.
Bluff Smartly
Bluffing is an art that is a crucial part of poker. Almost everyone bluffs at the poker table. If you desire to excel at poker, you need to master your art of bluffing.
If you bluff against a player who keeps calling your every bet, then you just get intertwined in his strategy which at the end leaves you with no other choice but to fold. Also, if you bluff against a tight player who actually cannot afford to fold, then you are just digging your grave at the poker table by bluffing. For your bluff to be successful, you need to perfectly time it and against the right contender.
Discipline, Patience And Planning
The three most important things you need to succeed in poker are discipline, patience, and planning. To eliminate the weak players, you need to be patient and observe them. If you are patient enough and play tight initially, it usually leads to weaker fish building your pot.
Likewise, if you go against strong or decent players who are very aggressive, then you need to wise up, observe and decide whether to play ahead or fold. Because more often, these players play aggressively to make their opponents fold. So observe nicely and then strategize your next move.
Keep these tips in mind next time you sit at the poker table. Be it online poker or offline poker, it takes time, focus, and smart strategies to win.