Poker Articles

Should New Players Try Tournaments?
By Mike Paulle

With the expansion of casinos across the country, there has been an explosion of cardroom poker. Until recently, of the millions of poker players in America, few had an opportunity to play outside their 'home' games without traveling to Las Vegas or Atlantic City.

Now that's changing. It may take as much as four-hour drives each way, but cardrooms are available to most Americans. With cardrooms, inevitably, come low buy-in poker tournaments.

The question seems simple enough. Should new players try tournaments? Sure, why not? What's the harm?

Although no one in poker covers more tournaments than I do, I consider myself to be your advocate first. And there is something you should know about tournament play as opposed to live play. THEY ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

You should know, going into tournament play, that the game may be the same but the strategy is so dissimilar that playing tournaments may affect your live play.

Live poker is all about patience. Tournament poker is creative impatience. Live, you have to wait for quality starting hands. In tournaments, that exact same strategy will get you an early exit.

The reason I'm telling you all this is because I've seen good live players have their game materially altered by playing in a lot of tournaments. Some live players improve, most get worse.

After tournament play, live play can seem boring. Nothing happens! You just sit there and try to scrape a profit out of the game. It's like a job. You are punching a time clock. Tournament play is like a gambling vacation. Big excitement, big prizes, big fun!

Some players, once they've gotten used to tournament play, can never go back. This is too their detriment. Over the long haul, live play is much more beatable than are tournaments. Sure, you can get lucky early and take down a big score, but generally tournaments are much more expensive to play and the results are far less predictable.

There are certain advantages to playing tournaments, if you know the potential pitfalls. The primary advantage is in handling big denomination chips. The normal $3-$6 player never has a chance to test themselves with large bets. How would you react to betting $10,000, and more, in poker chips? Sure it's not real money. $10,000 in tournament chips might be only $100 in cash. But there is a feeling you get, when you are betting big, that can't be duplicated any other way by most people.

Handling pressure? Live play shouldn't be pressurized at all. If you are betting the rent money, you shouldn't be playing. In tournaments, on the other hand, pressure is omnipresent. After the rebuy period is over, you can't go into your pocket for more chips. When your stack starts running low and the levels keep rising, you'll feel plenty of pressure believe me.

Most new players won't be able to resist trying a low buy-in tournament. They can break up the monotony of live play, there's a chance to cash in big for a small investment.

I heartily recommend that new players try poker tournaments. They are great fun and can be profitable. Just be conscious of the dangers. Don't let tournament play affect your live play or your bankroll will go downhill.