Online Poker Tournaments - Why Aren't You Cashing

So you’ve made a deposit and collected your online poker bonus. Maybe it’s time to look closer at your tournament game and try to put that bonus money to good use. Imagine you’re in an online poker tournament, and you’ve played near-perfect poker for hours. Towards the end of the tourney, as the blinds and the pots become quite large, your game begins to suffer a bit. You know you’re close to the money. You can almost savor the sweet taste of a cash finish. The next thing you know, all of your chips are gone. A combination of poor late tournament strategy and rotten luck has erased your hours of quality play. So what are you supposed to do? You know that you can play decent poker. For the first couple of hours, you were collecting chips like there’s no tomorrow. Now you’re tourney is over and you got nothing to show for your efforts. Why aren’t you cashing? If you want to improve your chances of finishing in the money, you need to change the way you look at tournament poker. Poker tournaments force constant changes in your approach. Early tournament play requires patience. You need to play tight, bide your time, play premium starting hands and avoid stealing blinds. In the middle rounds, you need to loosen up a bit, play more hands and start betting more creatively. In the later rounds of the tournament, you need to be cautious and antagonistic at the same time. If you want to finish in the money, you need to fine-tune your approach in the late stages of the tourney. Bubble Play
Playing on the bubble isn’t easy. You have to balance your desire to survive with your need to gain more chips. You have to be guarded when you go up against ultra-aggressive players, but at the same time, you need to be extra aggressive against opponents that are playing and super-tight. If you see some players enter into survival mode, start stealing their blinds. Avoid confrontations with the big stack at the table. Don’t over commit to a deceptive move. Just play smart, tight poker and be aggressive when you have good cards or when you’re up against players who are holding on for dear life. When You Attempt to Steal Blinds, Target the Middle-Range Stacks
Stealing blinds late in the tournament is mandatory if you want to accumulate chips and improve your chances of making it to the money. When you go after the blinds, do it from late position, and don’t try to target the small stacks. You’ll likely be met with an all-in call (unless the player is in ultra-survival mode). Don’t take on the big stacks either. These players have enough chips to call your pot stealing bets. By going after the middle-range stacks, you’ll be more likely to force a fold. If you want to finish in the money, you need to be patient. Online poker tournaments are like marathons. If you want to remain competitive, you need to keep pace with the pack. As soon as your chip stack starts to lag behind the competition, you need to loosen up your game. Play smart poker when you’re on the bubble. If you can balance timely, targeted aggression with tight play, you’ll increase your overall tournament earnings. Just practice switching gears so that you can close out your tourney the right way.