Many people who enter into the realm of the online poker tournament world do so with grand illusions of taking the thousands of dollars for top prize or winning a spot in a large televised tourney which will pave their way to eventual stardom.  The sad thing is that most of these dreamers never even make it out of the early stages of the tournament.  That being said, it is always crucial to have a very good strategy for how to play the early stages of an online poker tournament.

The first part of developing a strategy is to have a goal.  And a great goal is to simply finish in the money.  That’s right, just the money.  Too many people set their sights on winning and try to double up early on only to find themselves out of the tournament quickly.  Just finishing in the money might keep you honest enough to survive early on (although we’d certainly like to win given the opportunity).

Now, in getting on to the actual cards, you obviously want to avoid being the player who takes lots of risks in the early stages.  These are usually the players who either get a big stack early and blow it all later or bow out early trying to get this big stack.  But this doesn’t mean that you just keep folding anytime someone bets out.  Many people make the mistake of playing super-conservative and subsequently are short stacked the whole time.

The best strategy for making it through early on is to just play level-headed with a mind on starting hand requirements and table position.  If you are in late position and can see a flop with a hand for the price of the big blind then call.  If you miss your flop then just get out of the hand. 

However, if you call in early position with pre-flop only to be raised-reraised then it is a good idea to fold.  Yes, you hold an excellent pair of hole cards but you’re also in the early stages of the tourney and there’s no telling what the two people behind you have. Why take such a chance early on?  And this is what early online tournament play is about: Not taking unnecessary chances!