With the arrival of the $25,000 Summer Splash Step Poker Series at NLOP, are you wondering the best way to play it? You will need an excellent strategy to make it to the final table. There are a few different things to know before the cards are dealt.
Playing in a step poker series, if nothing, can be daunting, to say the least; these tournaments consist of quite a few steps, usually lasting months with hundreds of participants. You’ll face many challenges; you will be forced to make many adjustments as you come across multiple players with many different skill sets.
To be successful, keep in mind before you begin your tournament play. Going into the first rounds of the game, you will face players of all skill sets. It will be essential for you to seek out the weaker players and knock them out first and try to keep advancing through the steps.
You will want to try and steal as many pots as possible at this point by playing some less desirable hands. Use your bluffing skills to get up you want. Fake it until you make it, on to the next table, and so on so forth. However, do not go overbroad; know your opponents.
Protecting Your Assets
Throughout the tournament, you will want to protect your position if you are big blind. Call more often; Try to bluff. You won’t make it far in the tournament if you continuously keep losing the big blinds.
The further you get into the tournament, the more the big blinds increase. This makes it crucial to protect them throughout the tournament. On the other hand, you should be suspicious of the big blind if you are in an opposite position.
Bigger is Better
Playing depending on your stack is critical; you will have to adjust play throughout the tournament according to the stack’s size.
If you are are deep stack, you will want to play as if it was a cash tournament. You should play aggressively, Take advantage of your deep-stack, keep the pressure on your opponent’s, and continuously trying to eliminate smaller stacks.
If you are playing with a medium stack in the middle, it would be wise of you to stay away from players who have much larger stacks than you. Meanwhile, you should be praying on players with smaller piles. With poker, the more chips you have, the better off you are, so try to go after smaller stacks to build up your worth in the meantime.
If you find yourself with a short stack, you are at risk of being knocked out by the whole table. Your best bet would be to look for the right spots to go all in, ideally when you have some fold equity.
Heads- Up, it is on
Heads-up play is crucial in these types of tournaments. If you want to win, you want to practice up on your heads-up play. Learn to play polarized. Stay aggressive; help your opponent to lose their confidence. You’ll want to steal as many big blinds as possible.
So get ready; you are in for a step poker series. Depending on far you make it in the tournament, you could be playing poker for many days. You will face opponents of all skill sets.
It would help if you were prepared and able to adjust your style throughout the tournament, depending on where you are, where you’re standing and the chips you are playing against, and how far you are in the tournament. Good luck!
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