A lot of the online poker rooms such as FullTiltPoker have started to offer players double-up tournaments where you have the chance of doubling up your buy-in minus the fee for the tournament. For instance if you go into a $10+$1 double-up tournament then the prize pool is going to be $20 for the top five players out of ten. These tournaments offer a straight up 50% chance of winning money which is better then any other type of poker tournament that is offered online. Today I want to share some tips and strategies on how you can survive and outlast your opponents in these tournaments.
* The first thing you need to take note of is that these tournaments are generally lengthier then normal single table sit and go tournaments so you need to have patience and of course the time to play the tournament in full. Since the top five players out of ten make money the action is generally pretty slow except for when two players have monster hands pre-flop and get there money in before the flop comes.
* Early on in these double-up UB Poker tournaments is a good time for you to start playing some pots early to see if you can hit some big flops. The reason you want to play early in the tournament is because the blinds are really small and you can normally see the flop for cheap. So when you have suited connectors no matter the size it’s smart to check out a flop and see what your options are from there. As the tournament progresses you’re going to need to slow down how many pots you’re playing due to the blinds becoming bigger so play some hands while the blinds are small.
* When you get down to six or seven players while playing, and you have a decent amount of chips and are sitting in first or second place I suggest slowing right down at this point. You should have enough chips if you’re in first or second to just wait out the seventh and sixth place finishers and win money. When you start playing hands you shouldn’t be this late in the tournament you’re going to end up getting burned on a bad beat and that’s the most terrible feeling there is especially if it costs you from winning money in the tournament.
* If you ever have the short stack go all-in near the end of the poker tournament and you have a hand you really need to think about whether it’s worth calling. Of course you want to knock out the player and end the tournament, but if you lose will you be in last place or will you still have a chance at coming back? You need to ask yourself these questions before making the call because sometimes no matter how good your hand looks it just isn’t worth risking the whole tournament in hopes of knocking out the final opponent. Let other players do the dirty work for the most part and only play your monster hands when you do play.