Poker Tournament Strategy

The aim of the game in poker is to win as many chips as possible, but this can’t be done without an effective poker tournament strategy.

Poker is one of the most popular games in the world, as it offers the chance to win life-changing sums of money for relatively little investment. Every player enters with dreams of glory – but to go the distance, you need to know how to win online poker tournaments.

How to Play Tournament Poker

The first logical step is to learn how to play Texas Hold’em – the most common form of poker around – then to soak up our tournament poker tips to use in the crucial moments in the game. For example, to have a chance at winning the big prize, your play in the initial rounds will need to differ from your late-stage tournament strategy.

Knowing how to adjust your game based on blinds, how many chips you have, and the strength of your opponents is vital in your quest for success.

Poker Tournament Strategy in Stages

Multi-table tournaments (MTTs) are vastly different to single-table games, as the pool of players is greater. This can mean that they can go on for hours and even days, but this also means that the prize pool is bigger.

Longer tournaments mean more stages, and having good poker tournaments strategy will help you to know when to switch gears and vary your tactics.

If you find yourself wondering how poker tournaments work, familiarize yourself with the variations of the sport before diving into gameplay.

Early Stages

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:

Early Position (the first two or three seats clockwise from the dealer): AA-JJ, AK-AQ
Middle Position (players 4-6 clockwise): AA-1010, AK-AJ suited/off suit
Late Position (the final 1-2 players): AA-88, AK-A10 suited/off suit, connectors

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.

Middle Stages

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.

Late Stages

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.

MTT Poker Strategy: Betting

Ultimately, to figure out how to win a poker tournament, you need to know the best poker tournament strategy for betting. Whether bluffing or playing a strong hand, this is where your chip stack either increases or decreases, and decides where you finish in a tournament. Follow these poker tournament tips on betting to give yourself the best chance.

Position

Position is vital when it comes to poker tournament strategy. The position you are in determines the amount of information you can get on an opponent’s poker tournament strategy – and in poker, information is power.

As we already know, each seat at a table can be categorized as either early, middle or late position. This rotates as the dealer moves clockwise, and so you have a chance to be in each position in turn.

All early position seats have the chance to act first in each betting round after the flop. These players have the opportunity to either fold, call or bet – and there is no guaranteed way of knowing what the players acting after them will do in response.

So if a player in an early position decides to call and you’re in a late position, you can choose to check: another card for ‘free’ is more chance for you to make a strong hand.

Increase the Pressure

Alternatively, a poker tournament tip would be to bet at this point and apply pressure to your opponent. This will test whether your opponent wants to call that bet and stay in the hand, knowing that they’ll then have to act before you on the flop which will again give you a chance to suss out their hand strength.

Those in late position have the benefit of seeing what every other player is doing before making their decision – and it’s no surprise that a high proportion of successful players win the majority of their hands from this position. You can try this for yourself in the best online poker tournaments.

Bet Sizing

Bet sizing can make the difference between reaching the final table and being eliminated early. To know how to play online poker tournaments you need to be able to bet accordingly, and this is crucial at two main points in the game: pre-flop and post-flop.

Pre-Flop

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.

Post-Flop

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.

Aggression

Aggression, when employed at the right moment, is an important weapon in your poker tournament strategy arsenal. If you’re consistently limping in from the blinds, checking, folding and rarely raising, you could be perceived by your opponents as being weak or unconfident. A well-timed raise can erase any of these thoughts and is one of the best poker tournament tips.

As your confidence increases, so may the amount of bluffs that you make. Be warned: don’t get carried away! Only use bluffs when you’ve considered your position, whether the story behind the bluff is believable, and your stack size is suitable.

Stack Management in Poker Tournaments

If you want to know how to win a poker tournament, stack management is an important aspect of play that needs to be mastered. In essence, this means that you are aware of how many chips you have and how this compares to your opponents’. Changing blind levels and how this relates to yours and the other players’ stacks is also important to consider.

Short Stack Poker in MTTs

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 Stack Poker in MTTs

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.

Big Stack Poker in MTTs

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.

Live Poker Strategy

Now you know online poker tournament strategy, it’s important to consider some key differences in the real-life version of the game.

A major distinction is the chance to pick up on physical ‘tells’ in the live version of poker. Many opponents give away information about their hand – whether by flinging their chips down when bluffing, or engaging in more conversation when having a good hand. These can be observed when studying a player closely.

A poker tournament strategy is to simply try and not give these signals away – which takes practice.

When playing online, each round of betting is automated and so you don’t have to wonder how big the blind amount is or when to act. In live poker, the temptation to raise, especially when you have a strong hand, can be overwhelming. However, we must wait our turn, because acting out of turn is a huge faux pas in the poker community.

Slower-Paced Poker

One big difference is that live games are much slower compared to online. This is because of the amount of time it takes to shuffle, deal the cards and collect and distribute the pots. Players also take their time when thinking over a move.

Live poker is more of a social occasion: players like to talk, laugh, and enjoy themselves – this contrasts to the all-action nature of the online game.

A tournament poker strategy is to prepare for a live game accordingly: you may be sitting for a long time. Make sure you’ve had a filling, healthy meal, and perhaps get a workout in beforehand to ensure you don’t get itchy feet.

Understanding Poker Tournament Variance

Poker is a game of time and patience. As games can go on for long periods, your poker tournament strategy can vary vastly from stage to the next.

Even if you follow our expert poker tournament tips and play only strong starting hands from the off, there is no certainty that this will correspond with winning lots of hands.

Don’t let this get to you – stick to your guns and, over time, your efforts will be rewarded. Becoming frustrated and taking unnecessary risks can lead to you busting out early – and the grand prize gone with it.

Some tournaments offer the chance to use crypto as currency. You can do so at the best crypto poker sites.

Cash games differ in the sense that the amount of chips you have in the game directly represents real money. For example, a $100 chip on a cash game represents $100 in real life. This can be cashed out at any point during the game.

Some players prefer this as you can see exactly how much winnings you have at any given time.

Poker Tournament Tips

You’ve studied poker tournament strategy, and feel ready to brave the tables. Keep these top tips in mind so you can be successful:

Focus on decision-making: Don’t make the mistake of expecting to win immediately. Instead, focus on studying ABC poker and playing the hands that you know are good. With experience and time, results will follow.
Avoid going on ‘tilt’: This is a poker term for making rash decisions, usually after losing a hand or two. Losing hands is inevitable – don’t let this ruin your game.
Play your position: As we now know, your position at the table is one of the most important things to keep in mind when deciding your poker tournament strategy. Loosen or tighten your hand range depending on what position you’re in, and remember that acting from a late position often gives you an advantage.
Respond to your environment: Your strategy should evolve, change and develop as a tournament progresses, based on stack size, position, stage of the tournament, and your opponents. Remember, all information is power in poker – use everything you can to get to the final table!
Always keep learning: Studying and continuing to get better is unbelievably vital to your success. The more volume you put in, the better you’ll become. Otherwise, you’ll let everyone else pass you! Once you master Texas Hold’em, it’s common to move onto games like Omaha. After that, you can learn how to play Short Deck poker and other more complex games!