Playing online poker tournaments has become popular, and the dream of winning a big tournament is alive for poker enthusiast everywhere. Winning an online tournament is a lot like running a marathon. You have to be in it for the long haul to reach the finish line.

How to win an online poker tournament is not a set in stone game plan but merely a set of steps or strategies in hopes of helping you make it into the money. Sites like Pokerstars.Com and Party Poker host regular big money tours with as many as 1,000 to 10,000 players and payouts reaching in some cases over one million dollars.

There are as many "best strategies" to winning a poker tournament as there are poker experts. Each expert explains in detail what they believe to be the best way to play different hands and different stages of the game. They are neither right nor wrong but have offered only advice what has worked for them. Here too, the items covered will neither be right or wrong but workable approaches and suggestions based on what has worked for some in the past.

It is estimated that 25 to 35 percent of all players in a big tournament will go bust within the first hour. Winning online poker or any poker tournament begins by letting others move out of the way for you. By folding a larger number of hands in the first part of a big tour you will move closer to placing in the money. During the early period of an online poker tournament your goal is to survive the bad beats and avoid pots that will put you all in. Playing tight and passive can garner some pots and keep you alive longer in big online poker tours.

You can’t win the online poker tournaments during the first stages of play. You can however play smart poker by calling with premium hands or hands that can create monster flops. Don't worry about other tables or players and size of their stack. Focus on surviving into the next round by winning small pots and avoiding confrontational big pots.

As stated in Step 1, survival is the key during the beginning of online poker tourneys. If you survived to see half of your opponents go bust, you have moved into round two. This is where you want to start playing a more aggressive mode of poker.

At this point of online poker tournaments it is time to start working to increase chip count to position yourself to reach the final rounds. To accomplish this you will need to be more aggressive each hand. Playing aggressive doesn’t mean risking your chips recklessly.

Aggressive play involves raising pre-flop. The purpose here is first to eliminate players who may have a weak hand but wanting to see the flop for a chance to capitalize. A good aggressive play pre-flop before the button would be half the pot. Doing this will entice others to fold and give the illusion of you having a better hand then you may have.

At this stage of play you may also want to play weak aggressive while holding top cards (AA, AK, KK, etc). Playing weak aggressive allows you to appear to have a weak hand and allow for bigger pots to capture. Key here is a willingness to fold if post flop cards put your as a disadvantage. Another advantage to playing weak aggressive is while holding the nuts (unbeatable cards after flop) and a player has moved all-in. At this point you can now come in and reap the rewards by doubling up.

By the time you have reached the final table you should have found a comfort zone with your playing style. You’ve raised your chip count, bluffed and played weak while holding great cards. Up to now you main focus has been to make it into the money round not winning the tournament. Now is the time to start thinking how to win the tournament.

Because your goal now is to win the tournament it is important to play your best game here. Playing your best game requires awareness of your chip count compared to other players.

If at this point you are short stack, then your only hope is to fold more and mostly play prime hands. Being short stack puts you in a dangerous position since both the blinds and other players will be working against you. Stay focused on the game without sacrificing missing plays that could increase your stack.

Playing as chip leader or above average chip count will allow you see more pots and play more hands. It also allows you to easily put lower chip stack players on the bubble, forcing them to commit most or all of their chips to play. Being the chip leader also becomes risking when you play against mid to above average chip stack players. Be cautious when playing weaker hands at this stage so not to lose your lead and capitalize on strong hands by enticing others into play.http://technology.ezineseeker.com/how-to-win-at-online-poker-tournaments-13d4054d4e.html