When You're the Poker Chip Leader

Joining poker tournaments is an excellent way to hone your playing skills and hopefully go home with a lot of money. However, it's not easy to stay on top of the poker table much less a poker tournament, so maintaining poker chip lead is another strategy that you can use to your advantage.

Suppose you joined a poker tournament just for the heck of it. You joined hoping to pick up a few tips and techniques that can be put to good use in future games, not expecting to win. To your pleasant surprise, you suddenly find yourself as the poker chip leader with a comfortable lead over your closest pursuer. What is the best thing to do in this situation?

When you are the poker chip leader, you can play the role of a bully. As you already know, a bully is a person who uses size to intimidate weaker and smaller people. In poker, a bully uses the size of the poker chip stack to scare and intimidate opponents with fewer chips.

You can use your poker chip size to scare your opponents from going after the big pots. Remember that you are the chip leader. You can afford to bluff your way to the pot and thus discourage other players from competing for the pot, knowing that you have enough chips to act as leverage. However, don't do it all the time or else they will find a way to counter you.

As much as possible, avoid showdowns with big stacks. If you're the poker chip leader, you might want to widen the gap between you and your closest opponent. But avoid getting into a showdown with big stacks, because if you lose, you may suddenly lose your chip lead. Go for the smaller stacks. If you lose, you still have your chip lead and if you win, you'll eliminate them for good.

Don't be overconfident. Just because you are the poker chip leader doesn't mean that you can afford to get reckless and make bets left and right. Being the poker chip leader doesn't give you the privilege to abandon your strategies. When you're the poker chip leader, there's more reason for you to stick to your strategies than when you're at the bottom, because your opponents will be doing their darndest best to pull you down and overtake you.

Being the poker chip leader doesn't change anything for you, except for the fact that you now have the most chips. You might probably be more confident to play aggressively knowing that you can afford to lose some chips and still be in the lead. However, it's still better to play wisely and carefully and let the other players get into each other's throats.

Now you already know what to do once you're the poker chip leader, you can maintain your lead up to the very end and win the game. Being the poker chip leader gives you more opportunities to increase your lead and eliminate the opposition one by one, but be careful in doing so. You could easily lose your chip lead as fast as you make it to the top if you are not too careful with your play.

Remember to stick to your strategies and throw your weight around when this situation calls for it. This way, your poker chip lead will translate to final, ultimate victory.