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About the Author

Curtis Mayfield III is a freelance poker writer with several years of online and live experience.

He is also the son of R&B superstar Curtis Mayfield. As a player Curtis excels in all forms of poker and prefers No Limit Deep Stacks tournaments.

Curtis is author of the Do or Die Poker blog

He resides in Chicago, Illinois with his wife and 2 daughters.

Favorite Quote: “In order to live, you must be willing to die!” –Amir Vahedi

Poker Tournament Selection is key

Posted by Curtis Mayfield III on Thursday, June 18, 2009 - 01:08

Far too often I see poker players that do not take a whole lot of time to determine their odds of doing well in a particular poker tournament. This may sound a bit over analytical but we should all pay attention to a few things before we enter a poker tournament. First, Tournament Structure should be high on your list of things to examine before plunking down your hard earned dollars. Obviously, if you are not a regular you will not know much about the players at a particular venue. However, the buy-in amount and tournament structure can give you a fairly good idea of what kind of competition you will face along with the venue itself.

Typically, low buy-in poker tournaments bring out all kinds of players and there is plenty of money to be made with all of the fish. This means that if the buy-in is less than $500 you are likely to see a large field and quite a few fish looking to get lucky.

On the other hand their are the $1000+ buy-in tournaments that hold several good players mixed in with a few professionals on the prowl. The difference in this kind of tournament is the structure. The higher the buy-in typically indicates a slower structure where skill plays a much larger part than luck. The opposite is true of the lower buy-in events. The First Prize money is certainly appealing but it will not be easy to obtain and you had better have a serious set of post flop skills if you expect to compete at this level and higher.

Lastly, I like to talk to the poker room manager prior to the event. They usually have all of the tidbits one person can stand. True, they do tend to be busy but if you are polite and persistent they have a wealth of knowledge that can be useful to you. It's worth the time and effort! When you know you are committed to playing in a particular tournament do everything you can to get the information you need. Even the smallest of edges can be enough to help you prepare for your journey to the Final Table. Pay attention to detail and you will see how much of an advantage it is over your opponents.