Blinds In Online Poker Tournaments
In online poker tournaments, procedures are quite a bit different than they are in regular ring games of Texas Hold Em or Omaha Poker. One of the main differences is blinds and how they affect game play. You should become familiar with how blinds work and what they mean to your poker strategy before you begin to play in tournaments.
Why do blinds and stakes matter in a poker tournament? As the poker tournament progresses, so do the stakes raise, as well as the blinds. If they didn’t go up, then tournaments would take a much longer time to finish. With rising blinds, players are under pressure to act or otherwise face being swallowed up by the blinds entirely. This is especially important when it comes to Multi Table Tournaments and deciding on your Multi Table Tournament strategy, and as you can imagine, becomes a huge factor in massive tournaments such as the World Series of Poker.
Most poker players will play tightly during a poker tournament because they value staying in the game. This means that they’ll usually not put up a fight at the start of the game in order to protect the tournament blind bets. For them, the blind bets represent a small amount that is not worth risking. In actuality, the tournament blinds are usually worth between 10%-15% of the total pot worth at the time of the showdown and it’s worth going after them on occasion.
Blinds influence the entire poker tournament betting structure, because early game blinds are small and allow for large raises, while the later game blinds are more substantial. Using a strategy of playing just to grab the tournament blinds is a great strategy to use in various online poker tournaments, and it is even better if you combine it with other strategies as well. Take a look at the blinds in the next poker tournament you play and see what’s ripe for the picking. Truly great poker tournament players are able to use the blinds as a gateway to the rest of the event, bluffing or playing a hunch to steal them whenever possible. Aiming for the blinds builds a chip stack for later play, something that’s essential during stretches when the cards aren’t agreeing with you.






















