This article will introduce a basic Texas Hold Em Tournament Strategy and give you an overview of how a Texas Hold Em Tournament will work.

Having some sort of a Texas Hold Em Tournament Strategy is important because playing a Texas Hold Em Tournament is very different to playing a cash game. Although poker tournaments are also exciting, challenging and potentially rewarding, the sheer fact that everyone receives the same amount of starting chips at the beginning, and you cannot buy more chips or buy in after your out means that your tournament play must be a little different to how your normally play. General play is the same as any normal cash game except for one point, the amount of the blinds and antes will gradually increase at pre-determined time intervals. Because of this, only the players that are increasing their stack will survive. Standing still is indeed going backwards.

The basic Texas Hold Em Tournament Strategy I will explain today is simply to learn how to survive. Survival is key in tournaments because if your out, your out. If you lose your stack you cannot simply add more money to your account and keep playing. You blew it. Its over. For this reason I believe that actually just surviving in a tournament is one of the most useful strategies to use. I don't care how well you think you play, how fancy you cards are or how well the odds depict you 'should' win, if you don't stay in, if you don't make it to the last table you will never win a tournament.

Knowing how long to wait before actually moving in all of your chips to take a pot is a vital part of the survival strategy. You want to do everything in your power to survive as long as possible, getting to the last table. Then you hope to catch a few cards and snatch a win. Towards the end of the tournament the blinds and antes get so high that you have to get lucky and rake in a few pots in order to win. Its not fair, but its life. The skill is getting to the final table, what happens there is left to the gods.

Another avenue to successful survival in tournaments is to become very powerful. By playing alot of pots and accumulating alot of chips to grow your stack you will have a better chance of surviving then if you don't play many pots and have your stack widdled away by the blinds. Its far easier to win at a tournament when your the chip leader.

My favourite Texas Hold Em Tournament Strategy is that if everyone is playing tight at a table, you play loose to pick up the blinds and antes. Or, if there are several loose players at the table, you play tight, waiting for your chance to pick them off with a solid hand. Play the opposite of how your opponents are playing at that table for the tournament and you may find yourself at the final table or winning a poker tournament. Remember though, you can't win if your not in it, so you must survive at all costs.