As the blinds increase
After a while, however, the blinds a increased. If the blinds were 10/20 from the start, they might now become 15/30 or 20/40, according to the “blind structure” being used. This raise of the blinds is repeated at pre-defined time intervals throughout the tournament and makes it ever more expensive to play.
If you have not succeeded to make your chip stack grow, eventually you will find yourself under strong pressure from the increased blinds, and sooner or later you will be forced to take a stand just to avoid being eliminated. This drives the play and creates a lot of entertaining action in the tournament.
Adjusting to ever changing situations
As the relation changes between stacks and blinds, a strong tournament player must know how to change strategy. When stacks are deep, you can play a wide selection of starting hands and try any creative plays you can think of. When stacks are short, on the other hand, any kind of action tends to put players all in, so you really need to be selective about what hands you play.
Another important factor that changes during a poker tournament is the number of players around your table. Depending on the number of eliminated players and how tables are re-balanced, you may have to play against nine opponents for a while and then against seven or six or even fewer. Before winning a tournament, you will have to fight one single opponent in a heads-up match.
Tournament play is varies from minute to minute, and you have to move along with the changes.