Unfortunately, this has also increased the number of fools who enter these tournaments with the delusions that there will be easy money up for grabs. They may also put their focus on fantasies of winning the big prize which will, in turn, give them an automatic spot in some huge televised poker tournament where they’ll become famous with their wild antics.

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The reality though is that many of these players won’t even make it past the beginning parts of the tournament. The reason is simple -- people like this have no goal, no strategy and are generally very unrealistic about their chances of winning compared to their skill level.

This being said, one should always go into any serious online tournament with some type of strategy so they don’t wind up like the previously mentioned people who seem to have a preference for blowing their chips as quickly as possible.

But before one can develop a winning strategy, they need to come up with a goal first. And, contrary to what some people think, this goal should not be aimed at winning as going for the gold early on by trying to double one’s stack is a recipe for a quick tourney exit. Instead, a much better goal is to simply finish in the money. Although it would be nice to be the overall winner, finishing in the money keeps one focused on just getting through every stage of the tournament like they should.

After a goal has been mapped out, it is time to focus on the actual play of the tournament. During early tourney play, there are always going to be plenty of wild players. And because of this, many people plan accordingly to get past these people. This usually involves playing pretty tight (playing about 1 of every 9 hands) just so that one can survive the early going.

Mucking pocket 6’s in early position (first 3 spots at a full table) after a raise by the first player isn’t all that uncommon for a seasoned online player. Using moves like these should ensure that one will get through all of the crazy bets made and hands played by the out of control players who have no business putting money on poker anyways.

But sometimes the plays aren’t always as easy as throwing out early 6’s when there are chips on the table. Sometimes there are more tempting hands that arise and make a person think for a moment about increasing their stack with a risky move.

To illustrate this point, let’s go through a potential scenario that one might come across in an online tournament. Say you get 10’s when you’re sitting in third position and the first two players have folded. You call and everyone folds until the dealer who raises you. Now calling again becomes very enticing since you have a decent pocket pair and everyone else has folded.

However, this is still going to be a big gamble because you are in early position. Even without knowing the dealer’s pair, you have virtually no advantage in this hand and there is a good chance that they are holding a big pair. You have to act before the dealer every time and this makes calling very questionable. So the best bet is to fold here.

You’ll want to keep hands like these in mind if you are going to advance well past the beginning of the tourney. However, there is such a thing as playing too tight in the beginning parts. In fact, some people want to play so tight that they avoid betting with anything that isn’t pocket Q’s or higher at somewhere like middle position (next 3 spots at a full table).

And while it’s good to play tight as already mentioned, a person still needs to keep in mind that their overall goal is to finish with some money in the end and that will require one to get a few chips in the early going or at least win some blinds back to stay even.

In order to accomplish this feat, just use common sense and make sure to remember your table position and starting hand requirements before jumping into anything risky. If you’re sitting in late position holding a suited 6, 7 pair and you can take a look at the flop for the low price of a big blind, then go ahead and check it out.

But remember to avoid doing anything that could get you into trouble in the early going as these little mistakes can keep adding up until they equal an early tournament ousting. And nothing hurts worse in the poker tournament world than to never even have a shot at winning anything.