Structure determines Aggressiveness

One of my principles of good fundamental play is to allow the structure to determine your aggression level. With so many no limit poker tournaments being played these days you need all of the advantages you can get. One of the advantages you can have is to understand the structure of your particular tourney.

Part of employing good poker strategy is to be aggressive and make your opponents make decisions big and small for their chips. However, how often you have to do this and when you should are determined by the structure and speed of the poker tournament. Most online poker tournaments have a fast structure that usually has 10 - 15 minute blind levels with starting chips from $1200 - $1500. These fast structure tournaments require you to play you hands fast against potential flush draws and it is not unusual to see a player defend their hand with an All-In post flop.

On the other hand in a slow structure tournament where the blind levels are at least 40 minutes or longer you will see many more hands slow played for maximum value. Why? Because you are playing with a greater amount of starting chips in relation to the blinds and therefor maximum aggression is not as necessary as in online play. That is not to say that live no limit tournaments lack aggression. On the contrary, these days they are extremely aggressive and many of these player learned that aggression from playing online.

The bottom line is that you need to adjust your game accordingly to not only the table but to the particular structure you are playing on that day. Eventually understanding the structure and the adjustments you need to make will become second nature and you will find yourself at the Final Table more often because of it.