The number one goal in a poker tournament is to win it. In order to get yourself into that position you will need to survive through various stages where the focus should be more short-term. Many variables change during the course of a tourney like opponents, stack sizes and blinds. These various factors will affect how you adjust strategy as the tournament progresses.
In the early phases, you will have a large stack relative to the size of the blinds. Normally your stack and the average stack will both be considerably more than 50 big blinds.
During the middle phase of the tournament the blinds increase and you will usually have anywhere between 15 and 50 big blinds. Sometimes even less than that. The middle phase usually ends when the tourney approaches the bubble. If the top 100 players get paid in a tournament for an example, the middle phase will stop when there are roughly 120 to 150 players remaining.
Early in the tournament your stack is huge compared to the blinds. It doesn’t cost you a lot to fold weak hands and wait for good ones. Later in the tournament if you are short-stacked, you might be forced to play super aggressive with marginal holdings but that is not the case early on. If a hand looks dangerous, weak or mediocre, fold it! Do not call to grow the pot and then be left to make a tough decision. If the hand flops poorly, you should cut your losses by folding as early as possible.
If you happen to have a very strong hand early you need to turn on the aggression. Make big bets or raises whenever you are given the opportunity.
So remember:
Always play solid hands and do not risk your stack with medium strength holdings.
Avoid marginal hands which often develop to top pair without a solid kicker.
Play very aggressive and straightforward with very strong hands like premium pairs or a set.
Play speculative hands or small pairs if you can see the flop cheaply.
If you miss the flop with speculative hands, let it go without losing any more money.
Good luck and good variance to you all!!!
