It’s human nature to think about the short-term when it comes to poker tournaments because you want to experience success right away. For example, if you play 10 poker tournaments a day, you want to come out on top after all the time you’ve put into these events.

Unfortunately, thinking like this just isn’t realistic because there is so much variance involved in tourneys. It’s very possible that you could go without cashing in 30 tournaments or more during a major downswing – no matter how good you are at poker strategy. Obviously this is depressing and defeating to think about, which is why it’s extremely important to view poker success in the long-term.

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Measuring Poker Tournament Success – Instead of worrying about how you do in a session or week’s worth of tournaments, a much better idea is to focus on month-long or even three-month intervals. For example, you’d track your play over the course of three months, then determine your profitability in poker tournaments over this time period.

Aside from just determining overall profits, it’s important to take a more in-depth look at how you fare in each style of tournament. For instance, are you making lots of money in 180-man MTT’s, yet losing money in huge guaranteed tournaments? Do you crush 9-man SNG’s, yet struggle in HU SNG’s? Being able to answer these questions is very important when trying to measure your success.

Consider Field Sizes – Never forget the major role that field sizes play in regards to tournament variance. For instance, if you play in a $100k Guaranteed event where 1,000 players buy in, you’re going to be dealing with far more variance than a simple HU SNG.

This being the case, you really need to focus on smaller poker tournaments if you’ve got a small bankroll. As you make money, you can continue to take shots at the bigger tournaments in order to hit a huge score.

The vast majority of online poker players out there are freeroll hunters who are looking to build a bankroll. And there’s nothing wrong with this because freerolls present an excellent opportunity to make money without having to risk your own. However, you also have to keep in mind that your time is at stake in freerolls, so it’s important to value this time when playing. That said, let’s take a look at some freeroll poker tournament strategy you can use.

Play Tight, Wait for Hands – The number one piece of poker strategy advise you should keep in mind for freerolls is to play tight and wait for good poker hands. This is especially the case in the early going when blinds aren’t a factor, and you can simply wait for premium hands. Playing like this will help you survive the early going when others who don’t value their freeroll seat are making crazy raises in hopes of doubling up. Furthermore, you are far more likely to get action on your premium hands with the average freeroll players.

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Open your Play up in Later Stages – Around the halfway point of a freeroll, many of the maniacs will be gone, which leaves more tight players like yourself (assuming you took the aforementioned advise). At this point, you need to open up the range of poker hands you’re willing to play because A) others players will be doing this too, and B) the blinds are rising. So if you’re willing to make a preflop raise with AQ or better from MP, you should open this slightly to include AJ too.

Make Bigger Raises to Protect Hands – Whether you’re trying to isolate one opponent after the flop with AA, or you’re trying to force an opponent to fold, you need to make bigger raises in freerolls to protect your hand. For example, if you are in early position with a stack of 2,000 chips and the blinds are at 25/50, you can’t just throw out a 4x the big blind raise here because there could be several callers; if this happens, you lose your advantage. The reason why is because there are more calling stations in freerolls who aren’t afraid to risk one-tenth of their stack to see the flop. So based on the table, you’ll need to make much larger raises to protect your good hands.

Turbo poker tournaments are always a huge draw to players because they’re quick and action-packed. Unfortunately, turbos are also quite tough because you’re dealing with rapidly rising blind levels, and this doesn’t give you much time to wait for premium hands. That being the case, let’s look at some things you should remember when dealing with blinds in turbo poker tournaments.

Don’t be Afraid to shove

After just a few blind levels, you’re usually going to be shortstacked because they increase so fast in turbos. And as many online poker players know, being short-stacked puts you in a shove-or-fold position. Now it might seem strange to be shoving early in a tournament with marginal holdings, but you’re often put in this position during the early stages of a turbo. Assuming your stack is at 10bb or less, look to shove with any decent hand.

Steal whenever Possible

Stealing blinds is crucial in turbo poker tournaments because you need to build a stack quickly. So you have to look to steal small pots whenever the opportunity arises. As a general rule of thumb, you should steal from the button any time action is folded to you. If the table folds to you in the small blind, this is also an excellent time to steal because the big blind is the only player that can contest you.

Be Prepared to take Coin Flips

Skill doesn’t always win out in the end when playing turbos, and you’ll often be left in a lot of coin flip situations. Of course, it’s necessary to take these opportunities when they arise because you can’t always wait for the perfect +EV situation in turbos. Also keep in mind that you’ll suffer plenty of bad beats in these tourneys with all of the shoving that goes on so don’t let it get you down.

One tough situation that often arises in online poker tournaments is when you run into an extremely aggressive player who bets 6-8bb preflop every time, raises and re-raises hands frequently, and generally makes players feel as if they’re risking their stack by challenging him. The situation only gets worse when this aggro player has built a huge chip stack!

This being said, you’re often put in very uncomfortable scenarios when facing these players, and it’s difficult to know when’s a good time to challenge and when to fold to the aggression.

One common thought is to loosen up your 3betting range since aggro players often raise with a wide range. Unfortunately, you also have to consider the fact that there’s a very good chance your stack will be going into the middle if the player isn’t afraid to 4bet big. So it’s actually a better idea to 3bet with the upper end of your range such as 99/AQ and up.

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Another good strategy for playing aggressive tournament players it to trap them postflop. In order to do this, you need to play good trapping hands like low pocket pairs, suited Ax and middle connectors. Assuming your hand connects on the flop or turn, you either make small bets or checks (depending on the opponent’s perceived thinking level) to lure them into the trap – where your hand will be waiting to take their chips.

Moving along, one more strategy you can use to deal with aggro tourney players is to simply avoid them. Now this move certainly sounds cowardly, but if you’re in the early or middle stages of a poker tournament, you can always hope to lay low until players are switched to new tables. With any luck, you won’t be on the aggressive player’s table, and they’re not your problem any more.

It will be a long time before Martin Staszko can ever top the thrill that he experienced from finishing second in the 2011 WSOP Main Event and earning $5,443,086. However, he has to be happy about placing 29th in a recent PokerStars Sunday Million event that featured 6,983 players.

Staszko was just one of the many players competing for a share of the massive $1,396,000 prize pool that was being offered in the December 11th Sunday Million. Of course, Staszko was certainly the biggest story here as he made a strong run at the first place prize of $209,494, before busting out in 29th place when his pocket aces lost to an eventual full house. The $2,904 prize that Martin Staszko earned for the Sunday Million finish certainly won’t compare to the $5.4 million he earned last month, but it’s certainly a nice reward.

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Staszko wasn’t the only Team PokerStars pro who did well in this $215 buy-in tournament since the following players also did admirably: Jude Ainsworth (998th), Toni Judet (514th), George Danzer (485th), Nacho Barbero (478th), Ana Marquez (427th), Christophe DeMuelder (158th), mement_mori (115th) and Andre Akkari (68th place).

Going back to Staszko, he’s been a huge story ever since finishing runner-up to Pius Heinz in the 2011 WSOP Main Event. He was a former chess champion five years ago, and also worked as a foreman at a factory. However, he eventually decided to pick up poker, and became a professional player just one year prior to the Main Event. Following his near win in the 2011 WSOP, the Czech picked up a big contract deal with PokerStars, and already, the deal seems to be working out well for both parties.

Although not uncommon, the most dreaded thing that can happen to you in poker tournaments is going card dead. And unlike cash games, you can’t just wait out a bad run of cards because the blinds keep increasing, which forces you to eventually make a move.

Unfortunately, most poker players wait too long to make this move, and they’re forced to shove the remnants of their stack with something terrible like 9-7(o). This being said, you need to take certain steps to at least give yourself a chance to compete when card dead in poker tournaments. And here’s a quick look at some tips that will help with this matter.

Constantly monitor your stack size – The first thing you should be doing in card dead situations is monitoring your stack size. Now this might sound pretty obvious for experienced players, but the reality is that many beginning players lose sight of their stack size, and instead are too worried about upcoming cards.

In any case, you have to be aware of your stack size to know when to make big moves with marginal holdings. Once you get down around 15BB, you really need to be opening up your range of starting hands. And when you’re at 10BB or less, you have to be willing to shove with any solid hand since you’re not in a position to waste chips by limping with low connectors or other poor drawing hands.

Play aggressive in late position – It’s also extremely important to play aggressive in late position because this is the only luxury you’re going to get when card dead. Now this isn’t to say that you should try to steal every hand on the button or in the cut-off, but based on what you’ve seen from opponents, you need to take advantage of players who are likely to fold to a shove.

For instance, let’s say you’re on the button and a tight player makes a small raise; at this point, you have to be willing to play your position strong because there’s no guarantee better cards will come later.

Open your range more on smaller tables – Your card dead situation becomes even more desperate when you are in a 6-max poker tournament. After all, less players means the blind orbits are coming around much faster. So if you’re card dead in these situations, you really have to play a wide range of hands to avoid being blinded out.

While much of the online poker world has suffered following Black Friday, it seems as if Party Poker has been one of the biggest winners. After the collapse of the CEREUS network, Party Poker moved up to being the third largest poker room in the world. Now they find themselves as the second largest room following the abrupt shutdown of Full Tilt Poker by the Alderney Gaming Control Commission (AGCC). Furthermore, Party Poker’s stock has been skyrocketing after positioning themselves right behind PokerStars.

As was reported by Gambling911, Party Poker saw their stock move up to 148.20 points, or an 11.43% increase. Assuming their traffic continues to increase like it did yesterday, we could see the site’s stock shoot up even more. Party Poker ended with a 7-day average of 3,450 cash game players per hour, but their peak yesterday was 7,171 (numbers courtesy of PokerScout).

Of course, this is still a ways from PokerStars, which had a 7-day average of 19,600 cash game players, and a peak of 38,008 players. In addition to Party Poker, the iPoker network, which includes Titan Poker, is right behind Party as the third largest online entity. They had a 7-day average of 3,350 players, and a peak of 6,514 players.

Going back to Full Tilt Poker, their shutdown by the AGCC was by far the biggest news from earlier in the day. The AGCC released a statement on the matter by saying, “The decision to suspend these licenses follows a special investigation prompted by the indictments unsealed by US Attorney General’s Office in the Southern District of New York on 15th, April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licensees and their business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation.” As of now, there is no word on when Full Tilt Poker will be operational again.

2011 WSOP Events 19-30 were truly an international affair with players from several different countries winning bracelets. And Frenchman Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier’s WSOP win put him in an elite class of players! Here is a look at Grospellier’s story, as well as some of the other big headlines.

Event #19: $2.5k Limit Hold’em (6-handed) – As mentioned before, this round of WSOP tournaments was a major international fest, and things started off early with UK player Darren Woods winning this event. Woods denied Stephanie Nguyen from becoming the first female to win in the 2011 WSOP, and he earned $213k.

Event #20: $1k NLHE – Jason Somerville made up for several WSOP heartbreaks by winning this tournament, and $493k after beating 3,175 players.

Event #21: $10k Seven Card Stud Championship – This is the tournament that Grospellier won, and he earned $331k for the win. More importantly, the PokerStars pro joined the small list of triple crown winners (EPT title, WPT title, WSOP bracelet) following the victory.

Event #22: $1.5k PLO – Right after Grospellier won, another French player by the name of Elie Payan won this tourney. Payan and ElkY are just the fourth and fifth French players to win.

Event #23: $2.5k 8-Game – John Monnette beat Eric Buchman heads-up to win the largest 8-Game tournament ever along with $278k.

Event #24: $5k NLHE Shootout (2,000 player max) – Mark Radoja won one for the Canadians by taking down this tournament and a $436k top prize.

Event #25: $1.5k Seven Card Stud Hi-Low – Poker announcers Norman Chad (12th place) and Mike Sexton (runner-up) made their bids for the title here. But Chris Viox topped them both and won $200k.

Event #26: $2.5k NLHE (6-handed) – Ukraine’s Oleksii Kovalchuk and Romanian Ionel Anton dueled for the title in this tournament, and it was Kovalchuk emerging victorious. He earned nearly $690k for the win, while Anton became the highest finishing Romanian in a WSOP event.

Event #27: $10k Limit Hold’em Championship – The side story here was Canadian Daniel Idema winning this tournament, and improving upon last year’s second place finish in the same event. The big story was Daniel Negreanu losing his temper and busting his headphones after being eliminated.

Event #28: $1.5k NLHE – Andy Frankenberger added a WSOP bracelet to go along with his WPT title from last year by winning this tourney. More importantly, he also won a $599k first place prize.

Event #29: $2.5k 10-Game – Chris Lee will always be known as the guy who won the first ever live 10-Game tournament. The Maryland resident cashed for $295k following the win.

Event #30: $1k Seniors NLHE Championship – James Hess earned a massive $557k prize after taking the Seniors Championship title. At 50 years old, he’s also the youngest winner in this tourney’s history.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Phil Hellmuth was battling John Juanda for the 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship. Unfortunately for Hellmuth, he failed in his attempt at winning bracelet #12, despite carrying a 3-1 chip advantage into the heads-up match with Juanda.

In the Seven Card Stud Championship Hi-Lo (8′s or Better) event, Hellmuth once again found himself on the verge of winning a twelfth bracelet. However, this time he was at a 3-1 chip disadvantage going into a heads-up match against Eric Rodawig. The disadvantage turned out to be too large of a deficit for the Poker Brat as he finished runner-up yet again. After missing out on another opportunity to distance himself from other bracelet holders as the all-time leader, Hellmuth is in danger of being in a five-year bracelet drought.

In regards to the winner, Rodawig, he was hardly known by anyone in the poker community prior to this big victory. He had just two WSOP cashes coming into the tournament, but his third cash definitely got the attention of the poker world.

As for other big finishers in this tournament, 2010 WSOP Main Event runner-up John Racener took third place, thus proving that he is indeed a great player. In addition to Racener, Ted Forrest also made a strong run at the title after finishing in fourth place. But after busting out in fourth, Forrest is now in a 7-year drought in regards to gold bracelets. French player David Benyamine is yet another top player who had a strong finish in this event after taking fifth place.

Here is a look at the final table results:

1. Eric Rodawig, $442,183
2. Phil Hellmuth, $273,233
3. John Racener, $171,122
4. Ted Forrest, $123,904
5. David Benyamine, $96,836
6. Mikhail Savinov, $77,222
7. Joe Tehan, $62,710
8. Ali Eslami, $51,750
9. Antony Lellouche, $43,317

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier ended a five-year drought at the WSOP by winning the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship along with $331,639. And there were several incredible stories behind Grospellier’s big win – including the fact that he had never even played Stud before.

In an interview following the tournament, the PokerStars pro told reporters, “As my friend pushed me to play, he said I had a really good memory for the cards so I can analyze the cards and the combination. I think I caught up quickly and all the poker games are all similar. It’s about reading your opponents and adapting to the situation.” He finished by saying, “Of course I have a lack of experience but sometimes I think it (aided) me because I was playing really aggressive, and getting my opponents to fold in some spots where they’re not supposed to fold.”

Another interesting aspect to this win is that Grospellier came back from near-elimination to win the tournament. In the heads-up final, ElkY and Steve Landfish battled over four hours before Grospellier landed a full house to eliminate the American. After adding the WSOP title to his resume, Grospellier is only the fifth French player to win in the world’s most prestigious poker event.

Perhaps more importantly, ElkY joined the exclusive triple crown winners club, which involves winning an EPT, WPT and WSOP title. The Frenchman earned the first two parts to his triple crown in 2008 when he won the WPT Championship and PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. And with the Seven Card Stud Championship, the three-part puzzle is finally complete. He now joins Roland De Wolfe, Gavin Griffin and Jake Cody as the other people who have accomplished this rare feat.