One of the largest challenges when playing online poker tournaments is understanding how to create a profile for yourself that confuses your opponents. Most players fulfill this by getting involved in a few small pots with weaker hands or draws that they can show at the river.
Forethought should always be taken however, because your adversaries in the early stages of online poker tournaments are willing to risk far more than you would expect.The game changes during the middle stages where more daring plays against risk-averse players can be very profitable and show long term EV.
Your goal here is create disarray in your opponents and that may take some experience to do correctly and inexpensively. It’s not exactly an easy thing to do, but with some practice and dedication to your game you can start to make some good reads – even online.
Just be sure that when you play in pots with weaker hands you exercise prudent judgment with your chips. This is paramount and goes to your emotional training and experience in playing poker, because you will often run into aggressive, prudent opponents and your inner urges may lead you to clashes where you’re far behind.
This is often the biggest hump to get over when improving your poker game, but you must do it so as to avoid being too easily readable by sharp opponents. For long term winning in poker tournaments, a lack of control will cost you money.
This is a strategy I often use when starting a poker tournament. Take a connector hand or two, and be intent on raising with them whenever you get them dealt to you during the tournament. Of course, not always in case someone else went all in before you or made a huge raise from early position, but you when you are in those small ball pots against strong players, raise with your 67 suited, your J9os or your Th8h.
Keep those hands in mind throughout the tournament, and the randomness of them being dealt to you will mix your play up sufficiently. The added bonus here is that if your opponents are using poker software to track your style of play they are getting misinformation.