Internet Tournaments for Fun and Profit (3)

The need for speed ! Given that my satellite / small (as in few runners) tournament plan is looking good for now, it might be fair to say that speed tournaments are more for fun than major profit. Nonetheless, especially if you don’t want to put a lot of money online, the speed tournaments on Poker In Europe are well worth looking at.

At first sight they shouldn’t really be any value at all. The blinds go up every 3 (three) minutes. However, a huge proportion of the players have no idea how to play a short stack. After 15 minutes in one of these, you’re usually on a short stack. After half an hour, everybody’s on a short stack. The mistakes people make at this point generally boil down to trying to play poker. No. Not here. You get it all in hard and you get it all in first. Take up the right attitude and become completely fearless ! Don’t sweat running into a hand or being outdrawn, just do it, and you will get caked up much more often than you would think. After all even if it goes pear-shaped on the bubble it was still only 45 minutes.

There is a parallel with the later stages of conventional tournaments when the blinds get high. If everyone knows what they’re doing then luck will decide the outcome. However I could say that about any stage of a tournament. When everyone doesn’t know how to play a short stack, when you can exploit their fear and play without fear yourself, you’ve got more of an edge than you might think. Get some practice in online and next time you can turn down that deal and watch them sweat.