The tournament poker community is vast with different methodologies and ideas permeating the arena continuously. Plays people considered fishy 5 years ago are now considered plus EV, perception of table image has diminished and tournament M is barely discussed in poker forums. What does this all mean? It means a successful tournament player in the 2020’s needs to learn to adapt to win consistently. You can’t learn the fundamentals from 2010 and think the game is solved, rest on your laurels and win. The game is too complex and players mentalities change over time. Solid poker tournament strategy today is an advanced art that needs to be assessed and finely tuned regularly.
Poker Trends Means Rethinking Strategy
Poker, like many things, are subject to trends and fads. There was a time when squeezing was non-existent, then it felt like it was every 3 orbits. Poker trends can be seen through the forums, social media and filter down to the tables we play at. This is key information as you will get an idea on how opponents may well play at the table. This means planning ahead, reacting to the rends by thinking up solutions to plays the common poker player is making. For instance, if you can tell regs only limp with intention of re-raising, you don’t need to iso-raise weak to medium strength hands, just your premium hands.
Become Predictable and You Won’t Win
The other, obvious reason to adapt your strategy to opponents is to throw them off. When you have your game and don’t change, you run the risk of becoming predictable. A predictable opponent is the easiest type to play. You will be able to narrow their hands down easily and basically play perfect against them. Even strong players take a chance of being predictable, particularly when multi-tabling. For this reason and others stated earlier, we recommend altering your strategy, based on opponents’ styles, tournament types and the calibre of opponent too.
In short, if you are continuously trying to improve your poker skills, tweaking your game, you will become a tough opponent to beat. Most expert players avoid the tougher opponents, this means opportunities to steal more much needed tournament chips.
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