Tournaments: Could You Be Playing
Too Tight?
written by BeatTheFish.com
 ...Fishy
says, "Okay, so I play loose all the time."
In most of my first online poker
tournaments, my best finishes were just in the money. The way most
online poker rooms structure their tournaments, this pays you just
over what you paid to get into the tournament. Even though playing
poker is always fun, there is something quite frustrating about
playing for 2 or 3 hours to get your money back.
This is why tournaments can be tough on tight-aggressive players,
who, in my opinion, are best suited for cash games. I would wait
until I would get strong cards and raise them. Unfortunately, you
don't always get action on your good hands, especially if you aren't
playing very much. Unless you consistently get hit over the head
with the deck throughout the tournament, tight players don't usually
end up with the top prize.
If you tend to play a tight game, you might want to loosen up a bit
and become more aggressive as the tournament continues. I recommend
staying out of the action early on since the blinds are so low and
you can afford to play tight. But if you're not getting any hands
and the blinds are creeping up, you probably should consider playing
more hands than you normally would. If you can get in cheap, try
playing any pocket pair and go for the double-up if you hit a set.
Also, if your table is short-handed (less than 7 players), you
definitely should play more hands and raise more pre-flop. Playing
more aggressively can cost you bigger pots and might bust you out
earlier, but I would rather have a better shot at winning the
tourney than making my money back.
Why play if you're not going to play to win?
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