This Texas Hold Em Tournament Strategy tip explains how fundamental it is to play small pots in the beginning.

Playing small pots at the start of a poker tournament will be a key point of any good Texas Hold Em Tournament Strategy. By playing small pots in the beginning you can steal blinds and chop out pots to grow your stack bigger and bigger. Playing the small pots at the beginning of a tournament can give you a head start to growing your stack, which is the most important thing you can do.

At the start of a poker tournament nothing much will happen. Its more important to not doing anything stupid and stay in the game then it is to try to take massive wins. The pots at this level aren't much, they aren't really worth fighting for. As soon as the blind increases once or twice things start getting worth it. A usual poker tournament will have the blinds at $25-$50, then $50-100, then $100-200. Once the blinds hit about $200 you will also usually see a $25 ante come into play, where every player has to put this amount out every hand.

Playing small pots is a great way to grow your stack. Many good poker players will play pots aggressively, however, if the pot gets to big they will fold out. They know its better to play smaller pots and grow stacks surely over time then it is to go for the massive pots. By only playing smaller pots they reduce their risk of losing all their chips, or so many chips they are at a huge disadvantage. They would much rather play pots of $200-$400 then muck around with pots ten times that amount.

By utilising chop bets, that is little bets to get information on people and assess their game, you can create a picture of the kind of cards people have. You can know who's probably got what and get an idea if its worth playing the hand or not. If someone raises you when you make a small bet then fold your cards. Don't be interested in playing a big pot and getting into a battle. Don't play on chance (as in your hoping to hit cards). Its far better to just chop away at peoples blinds and antes and gradually build your stack. Don't put your whole stack at risk at any time.

Great poker players will frequently put in small bets to try to pick up pots for practically free. This is fundamental to a good Texas Hold Em Tournament Strategy. By chopping away at pots you will slowly but surely build up your chips for the later rounds of the tournaments. Its important to be able to use the information you collect to be able to put your opponent on a hand so you can know when you can steal pots or not.