I take notes during online tournament poker games; here's what I have so far, about "lessons learned". Do you have any tips to share too? Main problem I have had is overbetting marginal hands both pre and post flop, so I remind myself to be patient. Here's my notes:

Lessons learned: DON'T OVER-BET WEAK HANDS OR PAIRS; PLAY TIGHT
- do Not play looser just because you're up; still act as though you've got a medium size account/stack
- don't overplay Ace-low (A3) since others may have A10 or other Ahigh
- dont go all in on straight or pair fills (AK) without something solid
- don't overbet low pair 55 pre-flop 1k too high had to fold post flop
- sometimes no matter what, you're being dealt bad hands for long time, walk away
- keep in mind, assume strength of other player's cards, they may have Ax
- if blinds/buyin preflop is cheap, enter those as often as possible to see flop even if low starting

hand
- suited connectors no good, be skeptical
- effective betting strategy is to increment (c-play?) eg 500-500-500 on flop/turn/river, beware too
- only high-bet pairs or better, unless late in tournament/being blinded out
- dont play dominated pairs eg you have 55 but flop has 2 7 J since other person probably has J

mistakes i made:
1) overbetting AQ spades w/o pair, bet way too much on it
(to fix: make sure you have a high pair or better before betting >$1k total)
2) overbetting high pairs post flop, need trips/straight/flush for high bets post flop

One of the first valuable lessons I learned about tournament poker, which took me awhile to fully grasp, is not to play a lot of all in showdowns, especially if you are in good chip standing (if you are short stacked, you have to gamble). Even if you are a modest favorite on 10 all in situations, only 1 of those 10 has to get cracked and you are out of the tournament.

Just my two cents

Good luck!

Those are good strategies, i don't think you should be relying on overbetting too much though. Overbetting is a concept used when you have a great read on your player and think they will call with a marginal hand. If that's so, a river shove is probably more +EV.

thanks - that makes sense...

one thing I find too is that a lot of people "sit out" a lot of hands, especially early on... not sure why that is? out of 9 at a table, there's usually 3-4 sitting out in play-money ps tourneys

Best advice. Since I went bust I've been playing through freeroll tournaments where on occasion I've had to grind through 9000 players. Playing tight is your best bet, especially at the start! On the start of every tournament the weakest players have to be knocked out, on many occasions betting crazy won't scare off these players. If you have a very strong hand and feel ballsy then knock them out and take their money.

TJ Cloutier had an amazing example I keep in mind every match I play. Do not focus on anyone else's chips. I tend to break this when I dump people all-in but his example was for the "morning glory," the players who will have a massive stack at the early portion of the tournament yet will be knocked out before even half way saying to not worry about them. Save your ballsy betting strategies until most of the players are knocked out, and keep your highly aggressive moves away until the prizes are reeling in.

Now, those are general tournament guidelines I use everywhere. Limit tournaments have a rule just for them everyone should remember. Tournaments start with low blinds and gradually work their way up, it's hard to scare anyone off early in a limit tournament of any game. Do not, I repeat, do not bet mad in a limit tournament for any reason no matter what you have. AA doesn't assure a victory and it is not possible to dump $1,500 of chips within the first few rounds of a limit tournament.

I have many, many more but those are some big ones. The biggest thing for a player in my mind is beating "the slump" where every player has the same amount of chips. I've seen pros being knocked out on that stage pretty often. I'll post some more later if anyone's interested.

Why? 2010 WSOP
http://youtu.be/EpCYrlMZNhg

The 2nd place winner folded and let 2 or 3 other players knock eachother out while he just had a tiny stack of chips. In turn, he made millions and millions more prize money. The same works in online tournaments, with a big stack of chips sometimes sitting out can result in a nice prize since the player only pays ante/blind.

Play money and freeroll are unique because they don't cost any money. So sometimes a player will join and not really play because they don't actually have time for it. There's many reasons a player may sit out, as for me I do have to take bathroom breaks from time to time. Or let off some steam from a bad beat... Hardly ever do I want to take the safe road and miss the action, though.

hey thanks, those are some great tips, makes sense... and i watched that 2010 playoff vid from the link, i see what you mean. thanks for the ideas, good points re differences in limit vs nlhe as well

Pretty much. Stealing with A3s and the like from button or CO is alright sometimes, otherwise it's best to instamuck them 9-handed.
+1, small pairs are only good to check out a cheap flop and root for a set. We should never call 3-bets, and rarely defend blinds with them I think.
Fact is, even TT has less than a 1/3 chance of no overcard coming on the flop, and that's a solid pair. You're facing trouble on the flop twice as often as flopping an overpair: worth pondering a little imo.
I guess raise/shoving JJ+, raising 88-TT (depending on position) and folding all else is robust enough most of the time. Leave 22 for the HU.
Some tourneys/SnG's are limpfests, you're okay getting on the limping train in late position. Just throw it away if you don't flop a good draw.
Not sure what you mean here, but betting in relation to the pot so that your bets follow a progressive pattern is generally better than betting fix amounts. If you have ever played limit holdem, you will know that once the pot grows big enough, people start getting excellent odds on chasing their draws and hardly ever fold as it's pretty much never a good idea to fold 8:1 and the sort, so your made hands become jeopardized.
Also, betting too big on the flop (ie. overbetting) isn't a very profitable strategy because you're only getting called by very good hands, so if your one pair OB gets called you're barely ever ahead, which means you're basically bluffing by overbombing the flop. Since that is the case, you need to win significantly more pots without resistance than get called, because you're winning less (the pot) in case of success than what you're losing (the bet) in case of getting beat. You also might want to look into the concept of odds, especially reverse implied odds:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_odd...plied_pot_odds

Hope some of this helps, cheers!

http://www.pokersavvy.com/plus-artic...while-to-learn

+1 hey thanks - great posts from both of you, I appreciate it... good tips in the posts here, and in that 'things it took me awhile to learn' ...great tips in that pokersavvy article, I'm printing that out to study... very helpful. i guess it's true what they say minutes to learn a lifetime to master.... especially all the nuances, details ... thanks!