Pacing and Timing in Online Blackjack Tournaments

When most players compete in online blackjack tournaments, they get carried away by the excitement of the game. They think the more aggressively they bet, the better they will do in the overall rankings of the tournament. However, the smartest players know that to succeed at online blackjack tournaments, they need to conserve their energy and play hardest at the end of each round.

Early Hands

Online blackjack tournaments are mostly games of attrition. Players who bet too aggressively in the early hands have a tendency to flame out and get overtaken by players later in the game. In order to perform their best, players should play the first half of each round of the tournament much more conservatively than they would otherwise. Early rounds should be used to weed out the players who get ahead of themselves.

Later in the Tournament

If players can weather the first rounds of the game by betting conservatively and holding out for only the best hands, they can switch up the game later in the tournament. As players reach the halfway point, they should slowly start escalating their bet sizes, pushing out the players who have lost parts of their stacks, and challenging those with larger chip stacks. By the end of the game, players should be reaching the bet limits and forcing those who can't pay to bow out of the tournament.

By starting out conservatively and steadily increasing the aggressiveness of their bets in online blackjack tournaments, players will have conserved enough of their stack to really push the other players. They will control the table and can much more easily walk away with a win.