What to do when you are outclassed in Tournament play

If you are professional poker player or believe yourself to be playing at the same level as one you can safely skip this article. For everyone else in the poker world, listen up!

You're going to find yourself sitting at a table surrounded by sharks one of these days in a no-limit Texas hold' em tournament, and you'll need to know what to do. Keep reading for the secret weapon!

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The secret weapon is - play badly! Okay, that is a little melodramatic, but it isn't far from the truth. Much is made about the fact that a game of poker is skill-based, not luck-based - but even those who hold tight to the skill side of the equation have to admit that luck plays a role. The professional poker player does everything he can to minimize that role and to maximize the skill side. What you need to do is the opposite and maximize the luck factor until you can get to a point where you hold an edge. 

Let's say you got lucky and won a seat in the World Series of Poker but you know very little about the game of Texas hold 'em. Your only hope is to wait for the best hand you can get and shove all-in, fingers crossed, and hope to get lucky. The fact is in the big field tournaments of today even the pros need to get lucky if they want to win.

If you are sitting at a table and facing a bunch of players that you know are far above your skill level then luck is your only option. You need to amass enough chips that you can use the pressure on your chip stack to influence the professionals, and the only way you're getting it is if you get lucky.

Just remember, don't put yourself in a position where you have to call and get lucky. If you are aggressive you always have the chance of picking up pots uncontested.

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