The crux of any winning Texas Hold Em Tournament Strategy is to get chips and use the power of the chips.

Getting chips, growing you stack, becoming more powerful is the most important part of any good Texas Hold Em Poker Strategy. Chips are power, that is that. When you have more chips you have more options. Growing you stack and getting more chips will put your in a good position to win a tournament, or at least get to a money table. If however your chips dwindle and your stack gets smaller and smaller your odds of winning decrease.

In Texas Hold Em Tournament poker, the players with big stacks will prey on the players with little stacks. The more powerful someone is because they have so many chips the more they will abuse this power and push everyone else around. In poker this is called 'bullying' and it is completely within the rules.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is because the players with lots of chips will continually attack and consume the players with the smaller stacks. Its a never ending circle of demise because the players with smaller stacks get afraid to fight the big bullies plus when they do fight they don't really have that much impact. When you have lots of chips your options expand - suddenly you can afford to take a chance on that all-in because even if you lose your not out of the tournament.

In tournament poker the blinds and antes will increase at period intervals. It could be 20, 30 or 60 mins depending on the tournament, but the whole point is that they are only going up. If your not at least increasing your stack in line with this then you are going backwards. Indeed staying still is going backwards. You need to be winning at least one hand per round or else your stack will shrink and you won't be able to keep up with the blinds.

Players who are so tight that they only ever play pocket aces or pocket kings, however well they do in cash games, will not survive in tournament poker. They might get to later in the tournament just by not losing but they won't increase their stack enough to keep up with the blinds and their demise will be inevitable. Being short stacked later in the tournament is pretty much a ticket to losing.

Chips are indeed the most powerful part of poker tournament. Your Texas Hold Em Tournament Strategy needs to be one that successfully grows your stack - in line with the blind increases at a minimum - or else it will be doomed for failure. Growing you stack, playing more hands, bullying and calling all-ins at the right time are all fundamental to having the most chips, the most power and the biggest chance of winning the tournament.