Tournament Poker

by Mike Sexton | Published: Sep 12, 2003

The new wave of popularity and growth in poker can be attributed primarily to one thing – tournament poker. Tournaments are what people new to poker see on TV (the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel and the World Series of Poker on ESPN). Also, due to the rapid growth of online poker, tournaments have become extremely popular.

Tournaments are popular because they are fun, affordable, and challenging, they fulfill our competitive juices, and we know the maximum amount of money needed to play. They have the appeal of providing the big payday, finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and increasing one's bankroll substantially by "turning a toothpick into a lumberyard." The media exposure for those who win is also certainly a drawing card for tournament poker. Players can now become "movie stars" by making the final table of a World Poker Tour event. (Look for every event on the WPT in the second season to increase in attendance.)

In the 1970s, the only big buy-in championship tournament was the $10,000 event at the WSOP. (A big buy-in championship tournament is one in which the buy-in is $5,000 or more.) In the 1980s, a few more big buy-in events came along. In the 1990s, a few more made an appearance, but some of them went by the wayside. If you fast-forward to today's tournament scene and the power of television, you will see substantial growth in big buy-in tournaments. There are currently about 20 championship events around the world that are big buy-in events (many of them are in the United States and can be seen on TV).

Online poker provides an opportunity for players all over the world to experience tournament poker at any time of the day or night. Online tournaments are an affordable and exciting way for new players to discover the fun and joy of playing poker. Online tournaments also provide opportunities to players that are not available in brick-and-mortar casinos (due to space restrictions and cost effectiveness).

Most online sites offer single-table tournaments around-the-clock. On PartyPoker.com, for example, single-table tournaments are available 24/7 and the buy-ins range from $5 to $100. Multitable tournaments are also offered throughout the day with a variety of buy-ins. PartyPoker.com has a tournament with a buy-in of $1 (the Lucky Dollar tournament), in which you could win a luxurious cruise for two and $1 million! It's hard to get a much better value than that. And unless you've been camping in the woods for six months, you know that World Champion Chris Moneymaker parlayed $40 into $2.5 million by playing in a tournament on PokerStars.

New players want to know what the best strategy is for tournament play. Players want to know if it's better to play tight and last longer in a tournament or gamble it up and risk the possibility of being eliminated quickly. My answer is that you have to play the style you feel comfortable playing. If you are a conservative player by nature, you will not feel comfortable ramming and jamming. If you are an aggressive player and/or believe you cannot play your game unless you have chips, you will have a difficult time playing tight.

I've always loved what former world champion and poker author Tom McEvoy says about tournament poker: "You have to put yourself in position to get lucky." This means that you have to last (survive) and then get lucky at the end when the limits are high.

Here's one word of advice: You don't see tight players winning many tournaments. Chips are power in poker, and you have to play to accumulate chips. Being aggressive is the ticket to the winner's circle in tournament poker. As we have seen time and time again on the World Poker Tour, the aggressive players are the guys taking home the titles and the cash.

My advice to anyone just starting out in poker is to play small buy-in tournaments. You will love them. Tournaments are fun and exciting, and it really doesn't matter what the buy-in is or what the payoffs are. They are also the reason poker is experiencing tremendous popularity.

Take care.