There are a great deal of poker modalities, as for instance Omaha Hi, Omaha-Lo, Seven Card Stud, Five card draw and Texas Hold’em among many others. In the same way, there are also a great variety regarding the types of poker tournaments, being one of the more commonly played in both online and land based poker rooms the Multi table tournaments. In fact, the most popular tournaments, and therefore the ones that receive more media coverage, fall in this type. Probably the best known example is the WSOP.

In order to enter those tournaments, you have to make a “buy in” or in other words pay a determined amount of money in order to participate. The “ buy in” can be quite expensive in the big tournaments, however that do not stop players from entering the tournament, seduced not only by the game, but also by the possibility of winning the final prize. However, players taking part in this type of tournament must know that only the last 10 players staying in the game will receive a prize, all the others will leave the tournament with empty hands.

Paying the “buy in” give all tournament players the same amount of chips so they will all enter in equal conditions. Once the tournament starts, as the players get eliminated the remaining players keep moving around the tables, to ensure that there is an equal number of participants in each one.

As you can image, big tournaments can last during a few days. The early phase of the tournament is characterized for the great amount of players, all of them, beginners and professionals try to keep their place in the table. In the middle phase of the tournament, the majority of “fishes” are gone, and the remaining players are good poker players. And in the final phase, the last table is normally composed by real poker professionals, and the game is more aggressive than in the two previous phases as the final prize is too tempting.

Taking that into consideration, poker experts recommend being really tight during the first phase, selecting very well the hands where you want to participate and avoiding bluffing, to become a bit more aggressive during the middle phase in order to be able to collect enough chips for the final table. It is in the last table when you have to become really aggressive, and if you have a good hand take some risks in order to make the most of them.