If there’s one arena of poker that we love, it would definitely have to be tournaments. However, multi-table tournaments are really the best of the best out of the category, and we think that more poker players should get excited about these types of tournaments as well. It’s not just enough to play a few hands on a Saturday night with people that you’ve never met — you have to go head to head eventually. You need to be in a large tournament because it helps you develop poker skills that will serve you well for the overall life of your entire career. The last thing that you want to do is try to just keep playing poker and not getting the practice that you need to really make things happen. And as always, when we say “make things happen”, we’re usually talking about your ability to make a lot of money. It’s better to go in knowing that you want to make a lot money rather than just assuming that you should give up before you’ve even gotten started.

If you think about it, everyone’s seen at least one multi-table tournament, and that would usually be the World Series of Poker. It’s the big one with a lot of money to be won. Millions of dollars are at stake, but what usually gets passed over is the fact that you really won’t have to place that high just to finish in the money. Sure, you’re going to have to battle a lot of people, but you can overcome them.

Since poker is psychological, we’ll just remind you that you can do anything that you put your mind to. You don’t have to feel like it’s impossible to get what you want merely because it looks impossible. Nothing is impossible. A lot of people probably didn’t think that Internet sensation Chris Moneymaker couldn’t win the WSOP, but he did and the rest is history, isn’t it?

We’ve covered tournament play before a little bit, but there’s a few more points that we wanted to cover.

Mindset

You think that mindset is important in regular games? That’s a good thing. However, mindset is definitely going to matter a whole bunch when it comes to multi-table tournaments. As we mentioned before, whether you think that you can do it or you think that you can’t do it — you’re right. That means if you don’t want to go into it fully prepared to make money and win, then you might as well sit out. Tournaments are a great way to get a lot of experience in a short frame of time against a lot of players, but it’s not for everyone. For one, you’re going to have to set aside time to make sure that you can play the whole tournaments. Tournaments can go on for a few hours, so you don’t want to just think that you’re going to play for an hour and win — it can take longer than that. That’s why so many tournaments are done on the weekends where people usually have nothing but free time.

Chip Stack

Do you think that bankroll management really ends when it’s time to play a tournament? Of course not. This is just another extension of the overall concept of bankroll management. You want to make sure that your style of play matches your chip stack. If you’re lagging behind, then you need to play a bit more selectively. Sometime sin order to stay in the tournament you would need to fold hands that you think are killers. They have a funny way of biting you when you least expect it, which isn’t good at all.

Position

We say it all the time on the poker sites, but we have to say it again — position really does matter. Late position is a great time to bet heavy and challenge people, and early position is a great time to make sure that you really do have something worth playing. Remember that it really is better to fold than it is to limp in thinking that you’re going to steal the pot. That might work sometimes but you’ll run into situations where such a move falls on dead ears — as it well should!

Sportsmanship

Sure, you’re not playing live poker where people can actually hear you talk. However, if there’s a chat room you don’t want to start belittling other people at the poker table with you. That’s a really good way to create enemies and possibly even be removed from the tournament. When you’re putting your hard earned money into a tournament, you don’t want to get kicked out for such a ridiculous reason. You might think that there’s really no way that you can control the way you feel from hand to hand, but that’s really not the case at all. It is possible to lose with grace, and it’s also possible to win with grace. You never want to put anyone down, even if they make bad plays — that’s a good way to create enemies too. Remember that everyone was new once, and you never know — the people that lost against you one day might be the people that defeat you another day. Everyone has the power to be a better poker player. The question is desire — how bad do you want to become a better poker player?

Overall, there’s definitely a lot to think about in the world of poker, and we can’t stress enough how important it is to always be analyzing your progress. Sure, you might not be able to get detailed stats on all of your tournament plays, but you can take notes. You can study the way you feel. If you’re getting emotional too often, you might need to reevaluate what your goals are in the world of poker. You can’t get emotional over the cards. Sometimes a nut hand will turn into a fizzle by sheer luck — you have to roll with the punches and keep on keeping on, as cliché as that sounds.

If you stay focused, keep learning, and refuse to give up, you too can win a multi-table tournament!