You can be winning your way to taller chip stacks playing on cash tables but there is a different set of skills that you need to learn to survive a tournament.

Playing Your Chips

Every tournament will start with an arbitrary sum of chips depending on how the tournament is designed. Most tournaments do not have the add on or rebuy feature and you will be eliminated once you are out of chips to play.

The kick out style game forces some players to be too tight during the game. This opens up an opportunity for aggressive players to rake in some chips. Sometimes aggressive play is rewarded in poker. No guts, no glory.

Look at the Payout at the End of the Line

Poker tournaments usually have a rising structure for its payouts. If you best all the poker players, most likely you will be bringing home around 15-20% of the cash prize.

Tournaments usually give payouts to 10% of the playing field. Say 20 out of the 200 players. The longer you survive the poker tournament, the high chances of raking in a bigger sum.

Pop the Tournament Bubble

Read how other players play. There will be a stage where players will play really tight to avoid going home without any cash. Open your eyes for opportunities to steal some blinds and play aggressive to push your way to the top. Don’t be afraid of walking back to houston, you can’t win ‘m all!