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Poker players often disagree about the proper strategy to employ in no limit multi-table tournaments. Many poker theorists argue that survival should be the ultimate goal. They believe that unless you are very certain that you will win the hand, folding is the best option.

They argue that you can’t win a tournament in the first hour, therefore playing a very tight game is the ideal strategy. They feel that if you survive until the later stages of a tournament you will have the opportunity to get lucky and make a run at the final table.

Many of the top poker pros deviate from this strategy and believe that taking risks early on in order to build a large stack gives them the best opportunity to win.

Instead of playing an extremely tight game at the beginning stages of a tournament, many pros will try to play a lot of hands provided they can see the flop cheaply. They feel that there are many bad players who will bust out fairly quickly and the top players want those chips.

The top players want to build their stack so that they will be able to push other players around. By building a big stack early, they avoid being worried if they go card dead during a later stage of the tournament since they will have enough chips to pay the increasing blinds.

The downside to this strategy is that by taking some risks early on, these players are much more likely to be knocked out earlier than a tight player. The funny thing is that some players don’t really think of this as a downside. They would much rather get knocked out early and join another tournament or a ring game, than play for hours and hours just to win back their original buy-in. They know that payouts in tournaments are usually very top heavy, and their goal is to make the final table.

Poker players can have success with either strategy. The key is to play a style with which you are comfortable. Playing a “survival” style will decrease your variance and allow you to play longer on average in tournaments.

The survival strategy might be ideal in situations where you had to drive for hours to get to the tournament and there are no other games available if you get knocked out. Online players can quickly join another game, so busting out early is not quite as disheartening.

One of the biggest mistakes that many poker players make is that they lose money playing too many hands from the blind positions. Overall you will lose money from the big blind and small blind, since every rotation you are contributing to the pot regardless of the strength of your hands. Players often call raises with poor starting hands because they feel that they have already put money into the pot. Once you have put money into the pot, you should no longer consider that money your own. That money belongs to the pot.

When you call raises from the small blind, you are the first to act throughout the rest of the hand. This is a huge disadvantage that many players do not realize. They often have to either discard the hand on the flop, or even worse, cost themselves more money by calling bets on each street with the second best hand. Dangerous hands such as hitting top pair with a poor kicker, will just cost you a lot of money in the long run. You don’t want to throw away good money after bad.

There are exceptions however, as there are with any poker guidelines. In very loose games, when there are at least four players seeing the flop, you will often have the pot odds to call raises with a much wider range of hands. In these types of games, you need to demonstrate good post flop skills in order to be profitable. Suited cards will slightly go up in value, since you will have the opportunity to flop a flush draw. Playing connected cards such as 76 can also be very profitable in loose games, but be aware that you are looking to flop two pair, trips, straights or straight draws.

Hands like K4 off-suit and Q7 are trouble hands and by calling raises with these poor holdings, you are putting yourself into a dangerous spot. The only outcome in the long run will be that you will lose more money from the blind positions than you should. Those single bets that you throw away as a result of calling raises from the blinds add up, and often mean the difference between being a winning poker player or a losing poker player.

Many poker players sit down at an open seat without giving any thought as to where they should sit at the table. Seat selection can have a profound effect on your win rate, as well as make for a much more enjoyable session. Take a couple of minutes to observe the table before you sit down, and choose your seat wisely. Typically, you want the aggressive players to sit to your right, and the more passive, predictable players to sit to your left. Aggressive players, especially ones who play a lot of hands, will be constantly betting and raising when they are involved in a hand.

Look at what happens when you have aggressive players to your left… Each time you enter the pot thinking that it will only cost you one bet, an aggressive player behind you raises, costing you more to see the flop. Post-flop you might see yourself in a similar situation. You may think you have the pot odds to continue in a hand, only to find it will cost you many more bets than you anticipated. You bet a good hand, only to have the aggressive players continue to raise. They are using their position against you to their advantage.

Now, when you are sitting to the left of the aggressive players, you will have more information when it is time to make a decision about how to play your hand. You will know how many bets it will cost you to continue with the hand. By having an aggressive player to your right, you will have the opportunity to raise their bets and isolate them against the rest of the field. You will force the opponents who act after you to call multiple bets if they want to outdraw your hand.

To illustrate the importance of seat selection, let’s say you have JJ and a loose, aggressive player raises pre-flop. You can then raise, thereby forcing your opponents to call three bets if they want to see a flop. The tighter, predictable players will be much more likely to fold hands like KQ and AT, so if an overcard to your Jacks falls on the flop, you can win a pot that you otherwise would lose. Isolating the aggressive player will give you position throughout the hand and make your decisions later on in the hand much easier.

Now let’s look at the dangers of having a loose, aggressive player to your left. You raise pre-flop with your JJ and the aggressive player raises. The other players at the table know this player is a bit of a maniac and therefore do not respect his re-raise and are consequently much more likely to call. After the flop, the aggressive player will be more likely to raise your bet even if he didn’t hit his hand, and you will find yourself paying multiple bets not knowing where you stand in the hand.

So take a few minutes and scout out the table before you sit down… you will find that your wallet thanks you.