In holdem tournaments, it is all about survival. It is not about how many chips you have or about how much money you will win if you have the most chips. If you only focus on growing your stack size, you will very soon find yourself being eliminated, when a lucky card hits your opponent river, even when you were miles ahead at flop. If you want to survive, you must not focus on your chips at the beginning at all. You might succeed with grabbing as many chips as possible in play money tables or freerolls, but things are radically different in tournaments with real buy-ins. Even if you manage to double your chip count by risking a lot at the beginning, you will very soon find out that is not enough to compete with more experienced guys, who start taking more chances in the later rounds. In the 10th level of the tournament your doubled chip stack will only be able to pay for a round of blinds or two anyway.
Experienced holdem players know, that they are able to last long in the tournament only if they are patient and if they don’t take risks that are unnecessary.
