How To Play Poker At High Blind Levels
Playing poker tournaments can be tremendous fun, but unless you want to yield entirely to Lady Luck, you will need a strategy specifically for playing at high blind levels as well as a good understanding of how a tournament blind structure actually works.
Learning how to play properly with high blinds is essential to winning online poker tournaments. The big mistake many online poker players make is that they think the same strategy will see them through the entire tournament but unfortunately you need to adjust your poker game as you progress through the different stages of the tournament.
What adjustments should be made at the different stages?
A good poker player will play different hands depending on what stage of the tournament blind structure they have progressed to. In the early stages of the game you can afford to play loosely and call with many hands hoping to hit a flop, but by the time you reach the middle stages, you need to tighten up your play and stick to playing only the premium hands aggressively to avoid unnecessarily losing too many chips.
How to play with high blinds
Playing at high blind levels is much harder than playing in the early stages of poker tournaments. By the time you reach the middle stages of a poker tournament, blinds and antes increase and it will cost you more to get involved in a pot. As you move into the later stages of the game, most players will be more aggressive in response to the high blinds and antes, so avoid flat calling or playing your cards unless you have a hand worth committing your chips to.
A high blind level strategy
Try and avoid playing too tight in the later stages as the high blinds and antes will dwindle away your stack. If you have a decent hand, for example a pocket pair, play aggressively and you stand a much better chance of being the last player standing when everyone else has folded.
Once you have reached the final table in a poker tournament, keep a close eye on your opponents and look for any weakness in their play. Put your opponents with small stacks under pressure and play to win. Do not play too passively or you might blind yourself out. Lastly, if the table is relatively tight, look to collect blinds where possible as blind stealing is essential to staying in the game. Don't be afraid to push all in when the conditions are right - ie; when you have a decent hand, there is possibly one flat caller to your right, and tight players or just the two blinds to your left.
Whilst play will differ once you reach the stage of high blinds and antes, you can win as long as you adjust your game, so stay aggressive and keep your head under pressure!
Playing poker tournaments can be tremendous fun, but unless you want to yield entirely to Lady Luck, you will need a strategy specifically for playing at high blind levels as well as a good understanding of how a tournament blind structure actually works.
Learning how to play properly with high blinds is essential to winning online poker tournaments. The big mistake many online poker players make is that they think the same strategy will see them through the entire tournament but unfortunately you need to adjust your poker game as you progress through the different stages of the tournament.
What adjustments should be made at the different stages?
A good poker player will play different hands depending on what stage of the tournament blind structure they have progressed to. In the early stages of the game you can afford to play loosely and call with many hands hoping to hit a flop, but by the time you reach the middle stages, you need to tighten up your play and stick to playing only the premium hands aggressively to avoid unnecessarily losing too many chips.
How to play with high blinds
Playing at high blind levels is much harder than playing in the early stages of poker tournaments. By the time you reach the middle stages of a poker tournament, blinds and antes increase and it will cost you more to get involved in a pot. As you move into the later stages of the game, most players will be more aggressive in response to the high blinds and antes, so avoid flat calling or playing your cards unless you have a hand worth committing your chips to.
A high blind level strategy
Try and avoid playing too tight in the later stages as the high blinds and antes will dwindle away your stack. If you have a decent hand, for example a pocket pair, play aggressively and you stand a much better chance of being the last player standing when everyone else has folded.
Once you have reached the final table in a poker tournament, keep a close eye on your opponents and look for any weakness in their play. Put your opponents with small stacks under pressure and play to win. Do not play too passively or you might blind yourself out. Lastly, if the table is relatively tight, look to collect blinds where possible as blind stealing is essential to staying in the game. Don't be afraid to push all in when the conditions are right - ie; when you have a decent hand, there is possibly one flat caller to your right, and tight players or just the two blinds to your left.
Whilst play will differ once you reach the stage of high blinds and antes, you can win as long as you adjust your game, so stay aggressive and keep your head under pressure!
