Winning poker tournaments with discipline and patience.
Winning poker tournaments demands a selective attitude in regards to hand strength and your position at the table when deciding to get involved. It's not the volume of hands you play, it's the quality of the hands that you play and the likelihood of each of them being profitable. Fundamentally, you just need to win the hands you play. Yes, you need a disposed adversary to play against your good hands, but forbearance is a very important skill and a foundation mind-set of some of the most prosperous tournament players in the history of the game. You need to know more than calculating poker odds and understanding poker rules to win these days.
By keeping a close check on the play even when you aren't in the hand, you will be able to pinpoint opportunities to get involved, even without mighty hands. They too can be lucrative, winning hands.I often play much weaker hands against weaker opponents, simply due to their propensity to make huge errors. Because of these hands, you will be blending up your play sufficiently enough to throw off almost any opponents. You will still earn respect are the aggressor in a hand, but you won't be so readable to invite frequent aggressive plays against you. Ideally, this is where you will be setting the stage for your over-aggressive opponents who play out of position and with vulnerable hands.
Discipline is very important in no limit hold'em poker tournaments. Take all the time you need to be sure you know what you are doing before getting involved in a pot that will too big to turn away from. Take all the time you need to be sure you know what you are doing before getting involved in a pot that will too big to turn away from Cocksureness, or anxiety will often guide you into the beast's cave, if you don't take a few extra moments to think things through. One of my good friend's claims the best advice I ever gave him was to count to 10 anytime he was considering going all-in - no matter what.
The thorniest plays in poker tournaments usually involve you folding. We all know how that feels. And none of us envy being the scared little mouse having to wag and recede against an assertive opponent. But if it's too early in the tournament, and your tournament chips stack is still yet Green Mzone, then that is very likely exactly what you should be doing unless you know you have the better hand. It takes a huge commitment to winning this game so as to fold the difficult hands, and it's one of the hardest aspects of the game to learn. However, once you understand, you will know how to win poker tournaments.
When you are able to merge this type of patience, discipline and loyalty to your game, you will start to make more and more final tables, steady cashes, and more and more correct plays, which will result, at least he eventually, in profitable final results. There are no two ways about it.