How many times have you just started a tournament and on the 1st hand someone goes all in and someone calls ... and neither of them have AA or KK ??  I've seen it time and time again.  Personally I've only called an all in on the 1st hand once (that I can remember) because I had AA.  I quickly doubled my stack through my opponent who had K 9 ??

When I started playing sitngo's and multi table tourneys I quickly learned that there is a yearning from many players for action.  They want to be involved in almost every hand !  They LOVE the action.  Some of them have money to play with so they feel they can take alot of chances to try and get lucky early and take the chip lead.  I dont advocate this type of play but I certainly dont mind it !  These players usually dont last long.  I just hope I can get most of their chips before they are eliminated !

Early in a tournament you should only be playing premium hands,  with few exceptions.  In the early and middle positions you should not be playing anything but premium hands (AA, KK, QQ, AK).  To me there is just to many players after you to act and being that its early and you might not have a feel for the table and its players yet the best thing to do is fold and preserve your chips.

When I'm utg or on the button I might play something like Ax suited, suited connectors or pairs but only given the right conditions.  One of those conditions would be that everyone has folded to me.  If it is the 1st level or 2 I might limp to try to inexpensively see a flop.  The reason I like these 3 types of hands is their potential.  If you flop the nuts in any of these situations you can easily win the hand and perhaps double up as well if your opponent has caught anything.  If you flop close to the nuts and can see another card inexpensively and hit, your chances for a big pot win is great !

In an earlier conversation with Tony I stated that I was doing fairly well seeing somewhere around 25% of the flops.  He stated that was way to high for him and that he likes to see 10-12%.  I thought that was to low but after analyzing some of my recent wins after making that comment I realized that in several tournaments(after looking at several hands) I had just been lucky to hit some cards.  I fine tuned my game a bit and now I am usually seeing about 15-17% of the flops in the early and middle stages.

I have learned the hard way that playing KQ suited early is not a good play.  To help me 'want' to fold these hands I simply remind myself to look at my chip stack.  When I fold I see that it has not decreased in size and I have not put more chips at risk.  The more I fold in the early stages of a tournament the more I see other 'gamblers' giving their chips away.

When I do go into battle and enter a hand I will have more chips backing me up with a good hand than if I had played in 25-30% of the flops early.  Not only that but you are establishing a tight table image so when you do enter a pot with a raise you might not have as many challengers thinking that they have the better hand.

Learn to love the fold and the many benefits you can realize.