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Poker tournaments are exciting, but also long and exhausting.

On TV you will see the bright lights and bundles of cash on the table with a bracelet or a trophy for the winner. But behind the victories lies a lot of dedication. Getting there requires discipline, patience, and usually a lot of practice.

The major difference between a tournament and a cash game, from the players’ perspective, is the amount of control you have over the conditions. In a cash game, you can leave any time: Feel hungry or tired? Grab a snack or a nap. Did all the bad players just leave the game and get replaced by pros? Go find another game. Notice that you are not focusing very well? Take a break. Did you play a hand perfectly but get a bad beat? Buy back in. Whatever else happens, you are on your own schedule, and you get to control which games you sit in and how long you stay.
In a tournament, you have essentially none of that control. The tournament organizers choose where you sit and who sits with you (usually by random draw). And the tournament organizers decide the schedule and when the breaks are. Moreover, you have to play until you are eliminated or you win the entire tournament—which can sometimes take a week or more, playing ten hours a day. And of course, once you are eliminated, you are out—no matter how unlucky it was (unless the tournament offers rebuys).
To make it in the tournament world, then, you not only have to be a skilful poker player, but you have to maintain your focus over the course of the entire tournament. You also have to keep at it: in any given tournament, you may play very well and be eliminated due to misfortune—but over time, in tournament poker as in cash game poker, the skilful players succeed.
To do this well, you have to treat poker like any other sport. Tournament poker is about mind, body and soul. All three need to work in rhythm and sync in order to make those key high pressure decisions over and over again. You may hear of players paying attention to mindfulness, meditation, exercise, and nutrition. These are all very important when you are playing days of poker with little rest.

7 tips on poker tournament strategy

For anyone who thinks they might want to play in a tournament (rather than just games with friends or at the casino):

Don’t get over excited in the first levels. The blinds are relatively very small. If you pick up decent hands or you think you can win a big pot with low suited connecters, then go for it. But be careful not to get too excited. The upside isn’t so big that it is worth taking a lot of risk early.
Tournaments are long. You are going to get some bad beats. See the bigger picture. It will put the bad beats into context. Your tournament strategy can survive a couple of bad moments if you don’t lose your head.
Try and spot weak players to play against. By the same token, stay clear of the really good players until you can figure out their play.
Always try to mix things up. Be very aware of your table image. For example, you’ve been playing for an hour and you have good hands. So naturally, you have been raising pre-flop a lot without having to show your cards. However, to mix things up try raising on some weaker hands too, and keep your opponents guessing. I myself did just that half way through my poker career. And once your opponents spot that you have loosened up, play tight again to get them to make mistakes.
Table assignment is something you need to be aware of. Which table you are on, and which players you are playing with, is out of your hands. Sometimes you can be with some very good players, sometimes less so.
Remember your position at the table. That will change over the course of the tournament when you change tables as you progress through the levels.
And be aware that because you will be playing against so many different players over the course of a few days, often players you have never been up against before, you need to be reading their tells, their bluffs and their traps.

5 tips for surviving the length of a poker tournament

On the human level:

Give yourself time before the tournament starts to sit quietly, collect your thoughts, and gather your energy.
Try and create some sort of playing ritual, so whenever you win or lose you are steady and focused. This could be inhaling to three, exhaling to six and repeating three times.
Come prepared. Bring healthy food and if needs be energy drinks, (but be wary of too much caffeine, it can make you impulsive and too aggressive at the table).
Try and find food groups that stimulate your brain. And remember to stay hydrated. It sounds obvious but the brain needs to be fed and water is vital in that process.
Make sure you know where the restroom is because if you are playing long levels with few breaks there will be times when you might need to rush out.

These are just a few of the things I have come across playing tournament poker. If you can include them in your game both in terms of health and playing style then you will be on your way to becoming a winning player.
Poker is not just flopping hands and winning chips, it is everything that goes on behind the scenes. A healthy lifestyle gives you an edge at the table and in life.

As we wrote about, many of the best players in the poker world arrived in Manila to play the Triton series in February.

The first tournament played over the first two days was the smaller of the two when it came to prize money. But it had a great field and a really exciting finish between two of the best players in the world. The third day though saw the start of the big one. There were 39 buy ins (from 29 players) into the HK$1,000,000 (approx. USD 128,800) main event. Would Dan Colman be able to repeat his good performance? Or would we see different faces at the final table than the ones we saw at the 6 max in the first couple of days? The answer was – as so often in poker – the latter. Different days, different outcomes.

The Main Event was a three-day affair. The first two days were all about getting to the money – whittling the 29 players down to the final six.

And some big names didn’t survive the process. 6-Max champion Dan Colman, poker legend Phil Ivey and the 2016 one drop winner Elton Tsang all didn’t make the final six.
There were two clear chip leaders, and therefore favourites, at the start of the money levels: Sergio Aido from Spain with 2,490,000 and Germany’s Koray Aldemir with 2,420,000, both a long way ahead of their four rivals. Would they be the last two standing? In third was Wai Kin Yong (1,705,000) who won the November 2016 version of this same tournament. Dan Cates (1,475,000) was also there (as he so often is), as were Devan Tang (1,045,000) and Bryn Kenney (615,000), who finished second in 2016 to Wai Kin.
With those sorts of numbers Bryn Kenney was clearly the most vulnerable with his smaller stack. He had just 20 big blinds. Would he play safe or go for broke? But, actually, he wasn’t the first player at the final table to go to the rail. That, very surprisingly, was Wai Kin Yong, previous winner and third chip leader.
Yong had been playing a lot of hands – losing pots as often as winning them – so he was unable to make much ground on Aido and Aldemir who were pulling away from the rest of the field. And he came out on the wrong side of a couple of hands with Bryn Kenney, who was valiantly getting his way into the game despite starting at such a huge chip disadvantage to the rest of the finalists.
In fact, he wasn’t the next person to fall away either. That was Devan Tang. He flopped two pairs, but was blown away by Aldemir who made an Ace High straight with a ten on the turn.
Bryn Kenney’s run did end, however: he was the next to go. Having started the final table with just 615,000 chips he had done incredibly well to get his way up to over a million. But he lost out to Cates on a close hand.
That win for Cates meant the last three players all had similarly sized stacks – 3.5m for Aldemir, 3.2m for Aido and 2.9m for Cates. Cates had done very well to pull his way back to almost level terms with Aido and Aldemir. And he was feeling confident enough to reject a prize money sharing deal between the last three at the start of the 3-way hands, proclaiming “I feel like a gamble!!”
He may have regretted that a few moments later, coming out second best in a series of hands, first to Aldemir, then in a big one and a half million chip pot to Aido. Cates then did agree a deal with the other two – which meant that he would take 28% of the winnings, Aldemir 35% and Aido the remaining 37% no matter the result from then on. Good work for all. But there was still the trophy and HK$400,000 the three players kept aside to make things interesting.
Just as well that Cates struck the deal, as he busted out a few hands later, as his king jack off suit lost out to Aido’s king queen suited with the kicker.

So we were left with Aido and Aldemir, the two chip leaders when the final table started.

Aido had a 6 million to 3.7 million chip lead at the start of the heads-up, but that didn’t end up being the insurmountable advantage it appeared to be. Aldemir soon caught up – taking two pots in the first ten minutes of heads up play. He never looked back, taking pot after pot from Aido – and within the hour the trophy was his. What a comeback! An amazing hour of play from the German. Though he has had a string of good results since the summer of last year, this was Aldemir’s first major title in his career. We’re sure there will be more.
It was really exciting action, with some of the top players from around the world. And although we saw some big bets and pots, it wasn’t just about the winnings. Like the One Drop, the Triton Poker Series has a charity aspect too. The series donates a percentage of the prize pool to a number of charities, including: women’s cancer support group, project pink and the Red Cross. Giving in poker is something that players are increasingly passionate about. Players really want to do something outside the poker community, and to donate to causes that they feel strongly about. Winning means a lot to these players – but it isn’t everything.

When two of the best players in the world end up capturing the first and second prize in a contest that is not even the main event, then you know you have a great tournament on your hands.

That’s precisely what took place at the Triton Series in February at the Solaire Resort in Manila. Dan Colman, Dan Cates, Phil Ivey and others came to play at what is now one of the most established dates in the Asian poker calendar.
The Solaire is a great venue for this tournament. If you haven’t been, it’s a very new development right on the sea. The attention to detail in the rooms, the tables, and the restaurants is incredible. All in a friendly environment with excellent service. It’s a great place to spend a few days.
The pros arriving from all corners of the world had two bites at the cherry. One a 6 max tournament with a HK$ 250,000 buy in over the first two days. And then a HK$1,000,000 main event which took place after. The winners of both would have to beat some of the greats of the game – players firmly established in the all-time money earning list.

Triton poker tournament manila — Triton Poker Tournament at the Solaire in Manila

The first tournament had 43 entries (including eight re-entries) each withtheir eye on the HK$3.6mn prize.

At the start of the second day fresh faced Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov was the early chip leader. Paul Phua fell away early, as did great players like John Juanda and Dan Cates. Rainer Kempe was the beneficiary. He quickly built up a big stack and got to second place.
Other players who fell away included Koray Aldemir, who would have a much better time of it at the higher buy in event starting the next day. You never want to be the bubble in a poker tournament but the tournament organiser Richard Yong graciously performed that role by bowing out in eighth place!

The last seven players left in the tournament congregated at one table to play out the remaining action.

Mikita Badziakouski lost to a pair of Kings with his ace-ten. The popular Italian player Mustapha Kanit was next.
Kuznetsov, who had done so well early on day two, went to the rail in fifth place – a prize of US$92,040 equivalent still not a bad return — losing almost all of his chips in just two consecutive hands. A tough sudden turnaround for the young Russian. Sergio Aido was next, narrowly missing out on a place on the podium.
So the last three players were Rainer Kempe from Germany – who had done so well during many of the early levels – against two Americans, Eric Seidel and Dan Colman, who are 2^nd and 4^th on the all-time money list. That shows you just how strong the field was at that last table in Manila.
Kempe was the first to go. His pocket queens were no match for Colman’s ace-six suited. A six appeared on both the flop and the turn too – leaving Colman with the winning hand.
So then it was Colman versus Seidel – two of the biggest poker prize winners in history facing each other off in heads up action. Colman started with almost twice as many chips as his opponent. But that was by no means the whole story. The lead would change more than once.
Seidel caught Colman bluffing for jack-high. But then Colman bravely called his opponent soon after and the lead went back to the young American again. The tournament ended in great style – the sort of hand you would want the first prize to be won with in this sort of company. Colman began what would be the last hand with ace-jack suited. His eyes must have lit up inside when he got two jacks on the flop. And, you guessed it, he scored an ace on the turn! With the full house in Colman’s hands, the six max came to an end, with the HK$D 3,641,600 (USD 473,408) prize going to the young American star.
However, despite the action-packed finish, that was only the starter to the main course that would get underway the following day. The million Hong Kong dollar 10 max tournament with unlimited buy-ins on day one. Another very strong field – but with a totally different outcome.