Tournament Practice

Before I even started playing poker, I was fascinated by tournaments of all kinds. I used to keep statistics on my Nintendo baseball game, as well as all sorts of other made-up tournaments.

I finally got into "real" tournaments at about the age of 14. I played in a weekly snooker tournament every Tuesday at the local pool hall. After a while, I became obsessed with playing a full week's schedule of snooker tournaments. I traveled to other pool halls on Mondays and Wednesdays, and practiced virtually every other day. I got to be pretty decent, and won a few tournaments along the way, but I knew that I didn't have what it took to get to the next level.

In traveling to these other poolrooms, I came across a sign one day that read: "Poker tournament every Thursday at 8 p.m., $50 buy-in." I'd already been playing "a little" by this point in a small house game, but I was still very green. Anyway, I played my first poker tournament that Thursday. It was dealer's choice, and stud, hold'em, 44, stud high-low, and a game called "Ponzai" were the only games you were allowed to choose. I always chose stud high-low, as it was my favorite game at the time. It created the most action, and I liked big pots! I hated both hold'em and stud, although that would eventually change.

There were about 70 entrants that night, with only five making the final table. I made the final table, and from then on, I was hooked and never missed a Thursday.

Eventually that tournament was discontinued, but by the time I was 19, I was playing in at least three no-limit hold'em tournaments a week! They usually had a $30 buy-in with $20 rebuys, but about once a month, there was a bigger one – $200 buy-in with rebuys. I played 'em all, and improved my game with every one. They weren't exactly the World Series of Poker, but the lessons I learned were invaluable.

Regardless of the buy-in, you can learn something from any tournament you play, be it the $20 shootouts or the $10,000 buy-in world championship at the WSOP. Never underestimate the importance of practice. The more often you play a situation, the easier it is to make the right decision. You can read all the books you want about tournaments, but without experience, you won't be able to apply what you've learned.

These days, there are inexpensive daily tournaments being held all across the country in which you can play to hone your skills. These tournaments should be everyone's training ground before stepping into the major tournaments. At least then, you'll be armed with some experience before you play with the big boys – or I should say, top tournament players (can't be too careful).

If you ever want to get to the top, you have to start somewhere, and there's no place like the bottom! That way, you won't miss any valuable lessons as you move up the ladder toward the major tournaments. Also, you'll likely have more success initially at the lower buy-in tournaments than you'd have if you just jumped right into the majors.

To this day, I still play in those smaller buy-in tournaments for a number of reasons. If I haven't played in a major tournament for an extended period of time, I like to stay fresh. I wouldn't want to play in a big event if I was too rusty. Also, I'll play in some small satellites or minitournaments before a major event for a completely different reason. There are always new players at tournaments. Playing with them in these smaller events could help me a great deal if I were to face them in the bigger events. If you read my last column, "Party Day," I'm sure that you can guess my third reason for playing them – to blow off some steam!

Obviously, if you play in the bigger events, you'll likely learn more, but you may also become discouraged and lose confidence if you don't get the results that you'd hoped to get. Don't take shortcuts – graduate from kindergarten to the first grade, not college! If you do extra homework, you can skip a grade here and there, but don't push too hard. With hard work and study, you'll be in the big tournaments before you know it. Good luck!

Editor's note: Daniel is a successful high-limit poker player and one of the top tournament players in the world. From 1997 to 1999, he won more major titles than any other player. He can be reached at [email protected].