Nothing feels better than dropping the ax on an opponent during a tournament. Well, okay, lots of things actually do feel better. Most activities that involve the newly single Cindy Margolis or a hot fudge sundae (possibly both) would probably feel a lot better than knocking someone out of a tournament. In a sheer, competitive, poker sense though, being the source of someone's elimination and adding their chips to your stack is a wonderful feeling.
A mistake a lot of players make is that they are constantly in search of the knock-out punch. Let's face it, you are probably not going to win a championship unless you add a few opponent stacks to your personal collection of chips. While always looking to deliver the coup de grace, don't ignore the scores of little battles that happen before a big, climactic, moment.
As big a part of eliminating an opponent is the pots that can be stolen outright. The first goal of a player in any tournament is survival. To survive a player must break even during each round. This means, at the very least, making the equal of the blinds every time around the table. A key element to base survival is stealing pots.
This will be easier to do in the early part of a tourney; before the escalating blinds force players to loosen up their play.
If you take care of the little things, you will survive long enough to be able to deal with the big things. Players may not win a poker tournament on steals, but it will help put someone in position to win. That's pretty much all anyone can ask for.
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