WWF POKER

Back when I first came into poker, no limit Texas holdem was played in a very different way by the masses than it is today. There is no doubt that more and more players are playing poker in a far more aggressive way than they used to for sure. You may or may not have heard of the term old school and new school and wondered what that actually meant. Well basically old school tournament players never took many risks during the early levels of tournaments.

Their strategy when it came to playing no-limit Texas holdem in a tournament format was to take no risks during the early stages unless your hand was a powerful one. Their modus operandi was that the blinds were not large enough to warrant the risk and their chips needed to be protected until the middle stages where the blinds became meaningful to steal and stack maintenance was a key strategic objective.

However this philosophy differs widely from what are called new school players who believe that whatever dead money is available during the early levels may not be there during the middle stages. They get busy from the get go and to them, no-limit Texas Holdem in a tournament format is about gathering chips because in order to win a poker tournament then you are going to have to take risks at some stage so why not start sooner rather than later?

There is a lot of merit to this philosophy because the biggest stacks during the early to middle stages of most large field no-limit Texas holdem tournaments are created by aggressive players or often novices who do not know what they are doing but who are merely gambling. But the bottom line is that the biggest stacks are often made by the people who are gambling and taking risks whether these are calculated intelligent risks or not.

The nature of pay out structures in no-limit Texas holdem poker tournaments means that the top three places always take the lions share of the prize pool. This can have a profound effect on the strategy that is employed by many players. But you own individual objectives can have a huge impact on how you play and why. Let us say that you have managed to qualify for a $200 buy-in online Texas Hold em poker tournament by winning a $1 satellite tournament. The top 120 places get a minimum of $165.

To return $165 from a mere $1 is a massive return on investment and so you can hardly blame players who set out with the goal of merely trying to cash and nothing else. This is where the old school style of Texas Holdem poker of folding and playing tightly during the early levels can pay huge dividends. But for the professionals and serious players then their earnings at the end of the year are often dictated by those small number of large pick ups where they came in the top three and seriously cashed.