Survive Stage One
In tournament poker online, the goal is to eliminate every player possible while still surviving with a good chip stack. Some players believe you should always take the risk and seek to make any kill possible at any time in the contest. However, during the early stage of the poker online tournament, player elimination is not really a sound goal. Building and protecting your chip stack is where your focus should be.
The ultimate winner of a poker tournament is rarely decided in the early stages. The pots are typically much smaller than pot size in later stages. Your chips in the early stage must be held as precious. It is not worth putting any at risk to win a small amount by eliminating a short stacked player. Let someone else take that chance.
Does that mean you play so tight that you never go after a pot? No, of course not – to survive the blinds, you must get involved in some action and win some chips. But the early stage is not the time to focus on elimination opportunities. Instead, engage in selective tight aggressive play, and wait for strong starter hands that you can raise. Players typically are tight in the early stage, so look for semi-bluffing opportunities.
Let the others put their stacks at risk to eliminate players in the early stage. Just concentrate on winning the best pots you can.
