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“Survive
and Thrive” Tournament Strategy
Tournament play in a large multi-table tournament
is much different from table play in poker, and even the specific type
and set up of the tournament will dictate what kind of a strategy a
player should take. While every table demands a different strategy, one
of the few tournament strategies that can generally consistently works
for a large series of players is the survive and thrive strategy.
Survive and thrive is exactly that: you thrive in the tournament and
make the money not by playing wildly and doubling up ten times, but by
avoiding playing as often as possible, playing extremely conservatively,
and then playing hard only when you have a strong advantage.
The true “survive and thrive” strategy is difficult
for many players because it does require such a conservative approach
that even goes beyond what a conservative table player would play. In a
re-buy tournament you can consider going all in with pocket 7’s or 8’s,
but in a regular tournament if there is a giant raise and several
callers, you need to think really hard about whether your hand can
outlast three other people, and that even means occasionally throwing
away some pocket pairs. Losing even a few minor hands early will have
you feeling the squeeze of the blinds, and may force you into a
situation of going all in on a hand that you really do not want to push
all your chips in with.
Survive and thrive does not mean to play timid,
however. When you get pocket A’s, you should push all in. Same with
pocket K’s. The reason for this strong aggression is that since you
don’t play many hands, you want to cash in when you do. These are hands
that start you out as a huge favorite. This is an incredible advantage,
and it you double up once or twice, then you can sit out even more
hands—even throwing away pocket 10’s or 9’s when there are a lot of
scary pre or post flop raises ahead of you, and you think someone might
have you beat. Why risk money on a coin flip hand or worse, when you
can wait until you are a 4 to 1 favorite?
Basically with a survive and thrive strategy, you
are letting other players take the chances and knock each other out, and
with each disaster you avoid, you keep crawling nearer and nearer to the
paid places. Not only to the raising blinds knock players out, but you
will notice as the blinds get higher and higher players seem to go nuts
right before another raise. Players especially tend to get really wild
and excessive as the blinds go up. If you can steal an occasional
blind, do so. The advantage of survive and thrive is that if you only
play hands worth going all in on, then when you go all in to steal
blinds no one is going to want to call you, so you can keep yourself
afloat since even blind stealing becomes safer when you use this
strategy.
Keep to surviving, and then once you hit the paid
spots switch gears and look for the double up hands. This is the best
strategy over the long term. Best of luck.
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