Playing poker in a sit and go tournament is quite a bit different than playing a regular ring game. It kind of makes sense too if you think about it. In a regular ring game, the whole objective of the game is different than that of a tournament. While taking some early gambles and doubling up the stack early on in the game ( or during just about any stage of it) is a priority in a ring game, in tournament game it presents no guarantees whatsoever that it'll offer the player a big enough advantage that would be worth the chances taken.
In tournament play doubling up will only mean that one will probably last a bit longer and will push one opponent closer to ellimination.this is not a bad bonus, however the risks one takes going all in on marginal hands is simply not worth the possible benefits.
The fact that the value of the chips you possess at a given moment in a tournament cannot be cashed out means that the expected value in such 50-50 situations is actually negative for you.
The object in a sit and go tournament is to last as long as possible. Last long enough and you might well win the tournament itself.
Now there was an ineteresting observation I've made in an online poker tournament. I noticed that some opf the aggressive players were faster to leave the play than a couple of others who probably weren't at their keyboard, and the comp posted their blinds for them, and subsequently folded on all bets.
These guys ( who weren't even playing) did better than some of the players who went to great lengths to give the opposition a hard time.
One probably can't come up with a better example to how early aggressive play impacts one's tournament performances. My conclusion after what had happened was, that if one can just be a little bit better than a player who is not even at the table, that is, a bit better than nothing, chances are he/she can win the tournament as is.
Once again: if you're early on in the tournament you can most probably outlast half of the field playing extremely tight ( even though everybody will read you ) and making folding your religion. Building up this tight image might even help you later on in the tournament, when you let your true game off the lease.
"Perfect" hands should also be treated with extreme caution. In order to make you understand the perfect hand theory I should explain about the perfect hand first.
A perfect hand is not an extremely high value hand, it is something that is made perfect by the circumstanced in which it's played. It usually made up by high cards, hence the increased danger it represents. We're all likely to consider a good high card combo a most likely winner, however there may always be better hands that could possibly beat the crap out of out good hand. The hand that is marginally higher than the good hand the opponent holds is called the perfect hand. With a perfect hand the pot will swell to an incredible size sice the opposition thionks they hold the perfect hand too.
Extra care is required in the opening phases of sit and go tournaments in order to avoid possible problems posed by such near misses.
In a tournament a bacfiring "perfect" hand has the potential to eat up someone's buyin from a single blow and thus knock him/her out of the tournament instantly.
Online poker tournaments held at online casinos.