I have been playing in poker tournaments online for about 6 or 7 years and cash games for about the same. I have to say that when you are playing in a tournament you have to play tight and try really hard not to lose chips. Chips are so valuable in online poker tournaments that you shouldn’t play hands that you can play in a cash game. Hands like 10J suited under the gun or even AJ suited should be folded in an online poker tournament, but I would easily consider raising with them in a cash game (depending on the play of opponents at the table of course).

The biggest difference is that if you lose your chips unnecessarily in a tournament you can’t reload them like you can in a cash game!

When you are deep in a poker tournament and are a short stack when do you go for it? Some say that you should when you have 10 big blinds or less. I say that you should do it sooner than this if you want to have a chance to win the tournament. You have to accept that you are not going to have all the luck to win every tournament you play in, so if you have 15 to 20 big blinds you should start pushing with good hands.

I am not saying that you should push under the gun with 79 suited!!! I am saying that any two faces should be considered good enough.

Having Fold Equity is VERY important in tournament poker!

I have heard so many people say “I had to call, I was pot committed”. If you are in a tournament and you raise, putting in half of your stack and you get raised for the rest; there is no reason that you should feel pot committed if you have a loosing hand! The point in a poker tournament is to make it as far as you can and if call just because you think your committed and not because you have the best hand, then not only have you made a bad call but you are playing bad poker!

I see this happen often with players who have been paying too much attention to the professional poker players around.  Being aggressive, means you must be SELECTIVE in your aggression.  Raising in the cutoff just because its folded to you – is not a smart move in the early stages of a poker tournament.  Play tight, protect your chips, play aggressive when you have hands in all positions, and wait for the opportunity to take advantage of your opponents.