Did you ever hear the expression "leon how come sometimes when you play online poker you get leaks in your game"? Well I did not but the concept can be applied to come poker. Leaks in your game are just something you are not aware of that tilts your decision making when you play. I was just playing a tournament and there was one player who was a consistently good cash game player that took it as his final game to showdown. I played against him for about 5 hands and I deposited about $1,500, all in preflop with pocket 3's.

As the hand was ending, I was in fairly good position with the 3's and I called his all in. Sometimes in tournament poker you are in position and sometimes you are not but this guy was in pretty good position throughout the hand. I mean I could have sat back with the 3's and called but I really wanted those blinds to add up a little to my stack.

Anyway, he flipped over QQ and I happened to have quad 3's and my quad 3's were undefeated against anything. But I also realized that a hand like AQ suited is pretty beatable by a raise. I called and slowly worked my way up to about $2,700, including $1,500 in chips.

Then I started to play a hand called small blind steal. I was in the small blind and there was one player ahead of me. I decided to call his all in because I wanted to see if the flop would be better than my hand. It was pretty boring, but I hit the hand and I felt that I was not going to give this guy a reason to charge me. Well, I did,, but not in the hand I was driving at.

I raised, he calls, we both got (nearly) all of our chips the flop was 5, 7, 10, J. I checked, he waited for the turn and river, and I called his all in! I had absolutely nothing and heealous flop, so I called his all in. He flipped over pocket 5's!

That turned into a really good news flash - I didn't have to call his all in. He flopped a set! I had deuces! Then I started jumping up and down and then noticed I had 2 pairs and a lot of suckers out there. I didn't think about that at the time, it was a good thing that he paired up on a jack.

However, if I player that, it would have been a bad mistake. The next thing: I should have banded together with the other players at the table and made a big pre-flop raise. It would have taken all the strength out of his hand and made it easy for me to pick up the win.

This is a mistake I will never make again. It's a mistake that other players will use against you and you will end up losing a lot of money.

There are some spare $500 in the red box, and $500 in the blue box. All you do is put the $500 in the red box, and then someone else will put in the $500 and bet the pot. You don't have the same advantage of someone else putting in their $500 in the red box.

That's why I strongly urge you to learn poker tournament strategy and the associated concepts. If you learn early, you will be setting yourself up for a loss of money, or at the very least, a tough loss if your opponent out beats you.Mastering your opponents in poker tournament strategyis the crux of the strategy. Never underestimate your opponents, and always assume you have the best hand. If you make a few mistakes, you will still be at a mathematical advantage over your opponents.

You can't master poker tournament strategy overnight. It doesn't matter if you took a few years of practice, or a few months. But if you had an overnight big win, you would have a reputation for being a good player. Just like in sports, if you play consistently you will be known as a player who finishes the tournament with a lot more money than just a tournament win. Don't try and show up at a big tournament with the goal of just winning it, instead, focus on playing a solid game. If you are known as a solid player, when you take a big win at a tournament no one will want to play with you because you will be a prime candidate to win a bigger prize.

You can't have big wins unless you also have a tight system of ring games, and you are constantly putting in pleas for more money. When you are begging for poker tournament strategy, you'll even have to beg for practice, so you will have to produce something that other players are going to want to play with.