Let It Ride

Early in poker tournaments, people are usually met with a chance to double-up and set themselves up pretty well for the rest of the tourney. The catch is that they also risk all their chips, and have a slightly better than 50% chance to win. Matt Matros says to let it ride, because there are only so many chances one has in a large tourney to double-up:

"Some say calling with the queens would amount to a good player letting his skill go to waste. Here’s the thing about poker — the skill is about finding edges. And edges are precious. Think about it; on most hands, we fold before the flop. It’s very hard to find a way to get our chips in profitably. And here, we have a known edge. We know that in the long run, we’ll earn $810 by calling with the Q-Q. That’s not a small edge. Folding here would be akin to flushing an hour’s work down the toilet. Calling here doesn’t negate our skill over the field. Calling here is our skill over the field."

If you don't have the balls to do this, don't be in the tourney. You are over your head, money and skill-wise.. Period.