Once you have it it's there for life and it's exactly like riding a bike - if you crash and burn you can dust yourself off and start over again hopefully leaving minor mental scars to heal themselves.

Repeatedly cashing in big field events requires a special skill, a special type of focus and a bankroll that supports your style of play.

For instance if you are prepared to bust out early attempting a double up when the board is stacked against you then you will need a bigger bankroll than someone who is a more conservative type of player.  I'm not going to talk about bankrolls here though, sufficient for the beginner to know you need a roll of about $1,000 to be continually playing $10 freezeout tournaments to begin with.

So let's see if we can come up with some generalisations to help the aspiring tournament player cash regularly in these events. Remember that simply scraping into the money, whilst great for the novice player as it recoups their buyin, is completely different to playing for the win and as you become a more confident player you will take risks before the bubble to try and create a bigger payday for the hours invested.

First of all let's get your mind sorted out properly.

If you've never made it past the first couple of hours - stop bluffing. Eliminate bluffing from your game and you will find the game is much easier to play.

A poker tournament like a $10 buy in 10k Guaranteed payout will typically have around four hundred players and more.

Making it to the final table means that you will have to invest something like five hours of play in the game. That's a long time to be playing poker and it's the number one reason that people bust out early, because they don't take into account the patience factor required to last the distance.

In a tournament you are usually putting your entire stack on the line every time you play a hand and whilst it's true that you do need some luck to win the tournament you also need to make sure that the luck is riding with you on the hands you play rather than against you to make it deep.

In no limit holdem you are going to hit the flop with any two cards 1 in 3 times. With a 30% chance of hitting the flop you could easily crush the flop every single time you play a hand or alternatively you could keep missing for long stretches and keep losing ground on the other players.

In a cash game it doesn't matter because the blinds are (hopefully) a small portion of your stack but in a tournament it matters greatly because you don't get that many attempts at hitting a flop before your chip stack is decimated.

So how much better would it be if we went into every flop with a made hand?

We get dealt pocket pairs every sixteen hands so the chances of getting a high pair in the first hour or being able to limp in with a speculative low pair are very good. This is all you need to play. I quite commonly go for three or four orbits without even thinking of playing a hand because "I don't need to".

This is the opposite approach to the way most poker players approach the tournament. They see the chip leader with a huge stack of chips and figure that they must be racing to catch up, but this is not the way to do it.

As the blinds get bigger in the later stages of the tournament you can go from a short stack to being a contender in a very short space of time if you get favourable cards and that is the time to be taking risks.

To make it deep in a tournament all you need to do is play premium cards. You will find plenty of fish that are prepared to try and hit the flop with J8 off suit and of course occasionally they will get lucky but your skill and advantage over these players lies in your ability to always have the better hand going into the flop.

Playing too many hands is the number one reason for players busting out early.

Next we need to look at resisting the urge to play "great" hands in poor position.

Folding good hands in early position will make you a good tournament player. Playing AJ under the gun will see you bust out regularly.

What you have to get your head around here is that you are not looking for luck to rush to your rescue. You are looking for opportunities to exploit.

For example Player A raises with KQ offsuit in early position, you are player B staring at pocket Kings or even AK in the big blind. This is a great opportunity to exploit.

How many times has this happened to you? It's a common occurrence that you wake up in the blinds with a stunning hand and now you are going to make all those limpers pay. The player with the KQ is in big trouble.

The problem arises because KQ is "probably" the best hand at the table. However raising into the unknown with this hand is a big, big mistake.

This is creating the opportunity for disaster. The opposite of seeing an opportunity to exploit.

Of course you see people do it all the time, and get away with it. But that doesn't make them a good player it simply marks them out as someone who is prepared to take unnecessary risks in the game.

The same goes for playing JQ offsuit in mid position. This is a hand that should be discarded without second thought.

Unless you are a good player who can get away from the hand when you get played back at on the flop and you catch a piece of it.

The same goes for playing any suited connectors and raising into the pot from early or mid position. You are not obliged to play these hands and if you don't need to - don't do it.

Lastly, when you do play a pot, come in raising and take no prisoners. If there are three limpers in front of you and you have AK - raise it up six or seven times the blinds so that you get only one caller or even get them all to fold. With AK this is a result not a missed opportunity. You will probably miss the flop and have to make a continuation bet into the unknown to win it anyway.

Don't be afraid of getting it all in preflop with AA or KK or even QQ if you are shortstacked.

When you spot a wounded fish who puts their last chips into the pot in front of you and you have a hand - raise it up or don't be afraid to push all in with late position to discourage other players from coming into the pot and isolating the poor fish.

This is what I mean by exploiting opportunites that present themselves to you. You know they are coming in with A rag or some similar trash to try and stay alive so be the one to squeeze their last breath from them. Anything down to A 10 will often get this job done.

Playing out of position or "forcing the action" as John calls it is horrible play.

And lastly, take what you see on TV with a pinch of salt. The highlights are edited drastically to make it entertaining and what you don't see is the stuff that you should be doing - folding good hands in early position, not bluffing and waiting for opportunities to exploit.