Tips on Handling Specific Tournament Situations

You would come across a lot of general advice on playing poker tournaments in terms of forming broad strategies. Most of the advice that you would find on the internet at online casino guides or poker game sites and in the books would teach you how to approach a tournament. But most of these strategies do not really make you ready for handling certain tournament situations. The stages model, early stage, the middle stage and the late stage is a good thing to remember when you are trying to determine your decisions in a general way like trying to figure out what types of opponents you are against in the early stages. You may apply this model while playing at casino online as well, thought it might require certain adjustment.

Early stage

Take an example of an early stage where one player has made a large raise at the pre flop stage and has limped towards the end to show only a weak hand at the showdown. If you are playing in the late stages you might think that this opponent was trying to pull off a bluff. But there are a lot of players who would play a bad game in the beginning and you might try to take an advantage of that opponent when a situation like that arises again.

Middle stage

Another decision you would have to make would be in the second part of the tournament or towards the end of the middle stage. At this stage everyone would be trying to make it to the money and players would be playing a tight game. So if a bad flop would hit the board and there are only two players who have a big stack that limp in to the end. If you do not have a meager stack you should make a sizeable raise and try to steal a few small bets. When there is only a small pot and a bad flop the bigger stacks would generally fold and not take any risks.

Late stage

In the late stages of the tournament a common situation would be where the large blinds would start eating their way to the chips stack. So you either have to act or let your stack go down. When in such cases you have been dealt with cards like A Q it would be a good idea to put it all in at the pre flop stage especially in the late position. What would generally happen is that everyone would either fold or at least one opponent would call. In either case your bet has a good chance to win you the pot.

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