Its tempting to play weak when the bubble approaches in an online poker tournament.  You have played for a while and made it so far, just a bit of a stretch to go until you make back a bit of money.

I think the best question to ask yourself at this point is: Did you play this tournament to win your buy-in back, or to take down first? 

We all know the answer to this question, so my question to you is – why bother playing weak to wait and make back your buy-in?  The biggest mistake made by less experienced poker players, is to become reserved during the bubble period.  This is a point in the tournament where you can take advantage of everyone elses weakness to pick up blinds and build your stack to be in better position once the bubble breaks!

Our best online poker secret for tournaments is most definitely:  PLAY THE BUBBLE, DONT LET THE BUBBLE PLAY YOU!

You’re playing in a tournament and you get deep with about average chip stack. You pick up a big pocket pair (TT,JJ,QQ), how do you play it?

This is a good online poker secret to maximize your play with these hands. If you are in early position it is a good idea to make a bigger than normal raise. You don’t want to see a flop multi-handed and the blinds are normally big enough to make it worth it if everyone folds. If you are in middle or late position with an early position limper or raiser then I would suggest going all-in to protect your hand. If you get called then you probably have to win a race but you put the decision on your opponent to make the mistake of calling with a weaker hand. The last scenarios on how to play these hands are in the blinds. If you yhave a limper or raiser, pushing is the best option, but if you are facing an all in from any position except the button or cutoff then I would suggest thinking about the size of the all in or if it was a reraise all in. You may have to let this one go if it looks like you have a multi-way pot when you may be dominated.