Poker Tournament Strategy

In the early stages, a great poker tournament strategy for beginners is to play ‘ABC’ poker – the aim being to accumulate as many chips as possible to put yourself in a favorable position later on in the game. This means playing conservatively and betting only with strong hands.

Playing hands which are huge underdogs is a high-risk strategy – and one that is more often than not a waste of chips and your time. A popular MTT poker strategy is to stick to strong starting hands, and our experts suggest the following as ones to play, depending on your poker positions:

Of course, you can be more aggressive once you’re a bit more experienced – this is just a simplified hand range guide to get you started. The main poker tournament strategy here is to outlast your opponents who are taking risks – don’t be afraid to be a little tight in your play.

At this point in the tournament, many players will have been eliminated and the blinds will have increased. You’ve done well to get here – this is where poker tips for intermediate players kick in. Don’t let your initial success get to your head: being reckless and overly-loose with your play here will likely mean that you don’t make it into the all-important bubble – where the players remaining all get a portion of the prize money.

Open up your range of hands to play here, and start to look for opportune moments to win blinds to sustain and bolster your stack. For early position, consider adding 10-10 or AJ-A10; for middle position 9-9 and A10-9 and for late 7-7-5-5 or A8.

There is no definitive best poker tournament strategy for this point, but as you approach the bubble, expanding your range can pay-off. Depending on factors such as how big the tournament is, you may start to notice that players begin to tighten up at this point as they fear missing out on the prize positions.

You can elect to use the same online poker tournament strategy, but then if the other players are all tightening up, opting to play aggressively at this point can help you to potentially steal vital blinds. This is a sure-fire poker tournament tip to position you well for the bubble, as a lot of the time, players are quick to fold under minimal pressure due to fear of elimination at this crucial stage.

Congratulations, you’re in the late stages of a tournament – this is where you can use advanced poker strategy to propel you to the top. However, every tournament is situational, and depends on the size of your stack when entering the final table.

If you happen to have accrued a large amount of chips, a late-stage tournament strategy would be to apply persistent pressure to your opponents to continually win the blinds and increase your stack. This is best done against those with average-to-high stacks, who will often fold when pressured, and not with short stacks who will often go all-in against you to try and double their totals up.

Another late stage tournament strategy is to sit back, watch the action unfold and allow others to take risks and get eliminated. Just keep in mind to try and pick up blinds as and when you can, as by now they should be huge, and you don’t want your stack to diminish.

Having an average stack means that only one poker tournament strategy has to be applied: don’t sit back and do nothing. Try and pick up chips from those with shorter totals than you, and avoid playing against the chip leaders unless you have a strong hand.

If you’re unlucky enough to have a short stack in the final stages, raising when you have either a pair of two face cards is the best poker tournament tip. If you are called then you’re often in a coin-flip situation – if you’re fortunate enough you may just double your chips and stay in the game. With 10 big blinds or less, you should pretty much be all in or fold for every hand, as you can’t afford to just raise, miss the flop, and fold.

When assessing how to play poker tournaments before any flop action, the golden rule here is raise in a way that fits in with the action that’s going on around you: it has to make sense to your opponents. Raising 5x the big blind amount when everyone else has been betting 2.5x will put an unnecessary spotlight on you.

The correct sizing varies based on tons of variables. In general, for an unraised pot, you want to raise more than the minimum 2x, but under 5x. Choose your bet in this range based on the information at your disposal: how many players have limped in (called the big blind and not raised); what position you are in and what has happened before.

A poker tournament strategy for beginners is to stick to a standard pre-flop raise, which you can vary as the tournament progresses. Do try to tweak it a little now and then, just so you don’t look too predictable.

The first community cards are out – now you really need to bring your best tournament poker strategy. In the majority of cases, if you were the preflop raiser, you should be betting again. As a guide, a good continuation bet would be between 50%-70% of the overall pot.

Be aware: the bet you make at this stage indicates the strength of the hand you’re holding. A bet in the 50%-70% vicinity generally gives the impression that you have a worthwhile holding. Anything smaller could encourage a call or re-raise, and the opportunity for your opponents to see another card. Anything larger could lead to a situation where you’re almost forced to go all-in, even if you have a mediocre hand.

Short poker stacks, often ranging from between 10-12 big blinds in size are notoriously hard to play. You have too many chips to raise all-in but not enough to raise in a hand and play it through to its conclusion, without risking all of your stack.

In tournament play, when you’ve dwindled down to a short stack, it’s time to risk it all. The general play here is all in or fold. This is because calling and folding on a missed flop will cost you a big percentage of your overall stack. If you hit pockets or a strong ace, jam it all in the middle and pray to the poker gods.

Medium stacks, usually between 21-35 big blinds, are a unique amount to play with. You have enough chips to play with some freedom, whilst there is still the prospect of one pot having an impact on the overall success (or failure) of your tournament.

Recommended MTT poker strategy here would be to target those with smaller stacks to whom you can apply pressure. The perfect move when in command of a medium stack is to risk 20-30% of your total in a hand which in turn makes your opponent decide whether to risk their whole stack.

Avoid aggressive and loose players at this point, as a re-raise on one of your bets could expose your poker tournament strategy.

Just like late-stage tournament strategy when big-stacked, applying relentless pressure to your opposition is the way to go when you find yourself in this situation. Open up your hand range and feel free to take more chances.

When you have around 55 or more big blinds at your disposal, look for opportunities to use playable hands when in good position. Even if another relatively-high stack raises, don’t let this bother you: if you have a playable hand, call – you have them covered, and it indicates that you’re not going to give away blinds easily.

One poker tournament strategy here though is to try and avoid situations where you can double up an opponent’s stack and leave them ahead of you – this will only serve to diminish your threat as the big stack at the table. For example, it makes more sense to bully the short stacks than the person in second.