How to Beat Large Fields of Poker Players in Tournaments

Playing through really huge fields of players is a very difficult thing to do and mainly players will say you ran really well if you bested a big field. This is true because you have to run well to best a large field of players, but also the way you play hands will have a large effect on your results as well. If you play big pots without big hands, you are looking for an eventual collapse in your chip stack. To optimize your poker playing abilities you should always look to play against the fish at your table. No matter what your hand is at any given point in time, if you play pots against players you are better than then you will be able to win more pots without a showdown.

Winning hands without a showdown, meaning that you don’t have to show your cards and you won the pot will greatly improve your chances of beating a large field of poker players. There are tons of players who have had success playing poker mainly because they win so many hands without having to show their cards. When you don’t show your cards in a poker tournament and are not called by players at your table, you can use this as a huge advantage not only to you, but your chip stack as well. If a table is letting you run them over and you are accumulating tons of chips then you should keep the pedal to the metal until the players choose to slow you down. Winning tons of small pots in the end will amount to you winning a big pot. This basically will allow you to win chips without having to risk a lot of chips. As the blinds increase and the play gets faster meaning more players are going all-in before the flop, you should look for spots to win the blinds. Stealing the blinds in poker tournaments will get you to the end of poker tournaments. Most players overlook the small pots and only focus on playing big pots, but this is simply a terrible strategy. There are times and places to play big pots and throughout the grind of tournaments these spots will come up, but getting to the end of tournaments you have to win a bunch of small pots.

Stealing the blinds and playing pots in position is a key thing to keep in your mind at all times. If the table folds around to you and you are seated on the button you should look to steal the blinds. This is a high percentage play no matter what your cards are at the time. It is a high percentage play because you will either see players fold their hands, which happens most of the time, or you will see them over commit and basically tell you what their hand is. Playing the button is an integral part of besting large fields of poker players. If you do so correctly, you will win pots without a showdown and eventually annoy the players to your left. If you annoy the players seated to your left, they will shove all-in at some point, and when you wake up with a hand you will take down a massive pot. This is what you should look to do at every stage of a poker tournament. Playing pots in position is the best way for you to accumulate chips with minimal risk. Also, players who choose to play a pot out of position are putting themselves at a massive risk after the flop. You will have the overwhelming advantage when playing in position.

Also, when trying to best large fields, pick out the bad players and pick out the good players in your opinion. You don’t want to play big pots against players who are capable of pulling off big bluffs. If you do this you are asking for trouble and also you are not going to be consistently building a stack. You want to slowly chip away and build up a stack in a large poker tournament and then win a big pot. This is something to always keep in mind because you don’t want to play big pots with marginal hands. You will be left on the rail a good portion of the time if you do that. Also, stay away from playing pots out of position. This means that you don’t want to call a raise before the flop from the small blind or big blind. Most of the time you will burn chips when calling raises out of position and it is something that you should try your best to avoid