Managing your Chip Stack in Free Poker Tournaments

Whether you are new to playing in free poker tournaments or not, you may wonder how to play your chip stacks. If so, then read this guide which will help you decide how to play the stacks from short to big.

First here are a few pointers on playing a short stack. If you are a short stack play as tight as possible but play aggressive. By this I mean do not just call push all in or raise and force your opponents to a decision. Just by stealing blinds and antes (when applicable) you can prolong your tournament life as a short stack. There is no advantage to trying to trap as a short stack seeing you are risking a lot more than your opponents.

Next the average (medium stack). Here you should play your normal game and do not change your style as you are good enough on chips to not need to be aggressive in order to survive. This is a good position to be in, as you have plenty of chips to keep the bigger stacks on their toes, and also plenty to cover the small stacks. Its worth trying to steal the blinds at this level.

Now we look at the bigger stacks. There are two ways to approach this. You can sit back and play as tight as you can until the weaker players are out of the game, or the other approach is to be aggressive and force others into tournament life or death decisions. You can get away by moving with marginal hands in this case.

However, remember that playing aggressive can cause you to let others back into the tournament by doubling them up with marginal hands. So play wisely if you go this route.

By knowing how to play each type of chip stack should enable you to stay in the game longer and hopefully start winning some tournaments and increase your winnings.

I hope these pointers help you out, start by practicing and perfecting your method and skill in free poker tournaments and games and then move onto the money tables.