Playing online poker tournaments is an art and takes years to master the perfect strategy, but there are some strategies which are basic for every player and everybody should know before starting and one of them is the power of the blinds.
The blinds are where it all starts. All the action in the table starts with a struggle for the blinds. First, we are going to make a theoretical calculation to explain the value of the blinds when you are playing an online tournament. Let’s assume the blinds are 0, this is no blinds, then it will be stupid to play unless you got the best hand possible (AA), why to bother with lesser hands if you can just go when you got the best one and ensure yourself the most chances to win the hand? On the other hand let’s imagine the blinds are infinite, it will mean that every player will be forced to play with the first hand they got.
From the above you can make a conclusion, the bigger the blinds are the looser your gaming must be and the smaller they are, the tighter you got to play. This is very important because some players start playing loose and tighten their play when the blinds are growing bigger just to save the chips. Actually the right strategy is just the opposite, when the tournament starts and the blinds are low you must play very tight because your M is very high and you can afford a lot of blinds without running out of chips.
As the tournament advances, blinds are growing and you must play looser. If your M is less than 10, you must start playing loose usually when you are in a stealing blinds position, stealing blinds is very important in a tournament but even more when your M is not in the ideal zone and you must keep your chips. It won’t be very good if you wait and wait until you get good pocket cards and it happens when you got very little chips because you didn’t steal any blinds.
When the tournament is very advanced and all players have an M less than 10 because blinds are so high (this usually happens when you are in the final table and there are less than 10 players on it) it is very important to be very loose to steal blinds. Going all in with cards like AJ off is ok in this situation, or any low pair, even 22. If everybody folds you are getting nice blinds and if they call, you are usually getting a 50% or a little less chances of winning the hand. The typical fear at the final table forces a lot of players to fold hands just to wait for other players to be busted and get more money, use this in your own profit and steal blinds, on the long run you will get better results unless you are playing with maniac players or calling stations of course…
This is a great way to start off your game with a little advantage. I love learning new strategies and tips, every bit helps.
Poker is fairly new to me, and I must admit that when I first started playing I felt somewhat intimidated and even overwhelmed when it came to the small and big blind. After reading this though I now feel much more confident and comfortable.
It is a shame that alot of people do not realise the advantages that they can make for themselves right from the very start of the game at the posting of the blinds. There are some people who could benefit extensively in their game from reading something like this as well as any of the other articles on this site, all which have been helpful for me in improving my game.