Playing in Poker Tournaments

Ronald Norris

If you are willing to wait until you find a good game and exhibit good discipline, playing in ring (cash) games is a steady way to make a few bucks online. When you limit your risk by playing in small games, such as $3–$6 and below, you can compete against players who lack either the bankroll or experience to move up to the higher levels. Sure, there are some sharks at the lower levels, such as players who are waiting for seats in bigger games, but if you know what you’re about, you can gain a pretty safe edge over the lower-limit games and learn to avoid the skilled holdem players.

What you don’t find in ring games is the huge payoff for a day’s work. In a ring game, three hours of solid play against lesser opponents can net you $20 an hour or so, but $60 isn’t exactly life-changing money. No, to get the big money you have to play in poker tournaments, where anywhere from 20 to 2,000 players sit down together and see who comes out on top. Chris Moneymaker, the Tennessee accountant who turned a $39 PokerStars online tournament buy-in into the $2 million 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event first prize, is the poster boy for online poker. The 2004 World Series winner, Greg Raymer, is also a PokerStars player, though he had competed in several previous WSOP main events and plays a lot of high-limit Stud at Foxwoods casino in Connecticut .

The remainder of this section discusses tournament strategies you can follow to maximize your chances of finishing in the money.

Read more: Texas Holdem (Limit) Tournaments