Strategy For Large Poker Tournaments

Multi-Table Tournament Strategies Multi-table tournaments are poker tournaments on a large-scale with a huge pool of players. Everyone buys in for the same fee and players are split across. Tournament Poker Strategy: Main Components. Firstly, we'll discuss the 5 key poker tournament strategy tips that novices and intermediate tournament players need to concentrate on to become tough tournament opponents. You know, the sort of player nobody wants to look up and see at their table. One of the biggest differences between cash and tournament poker games is the diversity of stack sizes, and it is essential to account for this when determining the best strategy for a tournament. Daniel says: “The number one mistake I see tournament players makeis you see a player who has a chip lead or a very big stack and then just.

Online Poker Tournaments Strategy. The official poker ranking is only useful for the large sites that display the player’s results and players over time. You can search for a player name on the site and get the required statistics to assist you in the future when playing. Strategies for poker tournaments Entering large poker tournaments will require a much different approach than that employed in traditional table games or small tournament play. A good deal of early tournament play is about surviving those early stages and building your bankroll into the later stages so you can be in a position to effectively.

When you are playing in large tournaments you’ll be sitting
at a table or tables for a very long period of time until you
can get into the money and cash in the tournament. Hours on end
will go by and it can be very difficult to maintain focus
throughout. When playing a big tournament you have to keep two
things in mind; know what the blind levels are and what the average stack size is.

These are the two most important things when playing through large
tournament fields. These will be the most apparent and relevant
during the middle of tournaments where you could lose focus. The
reason to keep in mind what the blind levels are is because when
playing through big fields you can sometimes lose track of the
blinds and how often they will increase. Also, you should set
short term goals for yourself in order to progress through a big
tournament field.

Keeping Pace

Keeping track of the blind structure of a tournament will let
you know how much longer you will be playing for at the level,
and it will also let you know when to play passive and when to
play aggressive. Also, keeping in your mind what the average
stack size is will help you to determine when to speed up or
slow down. Ideally, you would like to play a tournament and have
a stack that’s above the average throughout the duration of it.
This will almost never be the case with the
natural swings of the game, but in order to have the best
chance of doing that, you should always keep in the back of your
mind how you are doing compared to others.

Also, you should take mental notes of the stack sizes at your table. It will be
important down the road to be above the average, but it will
all depend on how you are stacked up compared to your table
mates. It will happen sometimes where you’ll be above the
average and have six other players who have more chips than you
at your table. If this is the case you are a short stack and you
aren’t able to maneuver chips as easily without being met by a
confrontation.

Small Tournament Fields

Smaller fields will force you to sit at the tables for much
less time than with a large field. In order to capitalize on a
small field of players you should wait for a hand to go on a run
with. Basically, you’ll wait for big hands to double up with
early on in tournaments with smaller fields. If you can show
down one big hand and acquire a stack early when playing with a
small field you’ll have more success in them and can run them
over.

A reason why you can run them over is because once a
player sees that you have been playing passively and waiting it
out they will be more prone to making a fold then a call against
you. If you sit back and wait too long, then you’ll be
the one barely holding on at the end and hoping you get lucky to
double up. You should never have to rely on luck when playing
tournaments even though a little always helps. You should also
spot the good and the bad players right away. If there’s a
small group of players in the tournament, you should be locked in
on your table from hand one looking for betting patterns and
tells. If you can pick a couple betting patterns up on people or
tells you will have success more times than not when playing
smaller field tournaments.

Also, when playing in tournaments
with small fields there will be fewer players paid out. To make
the money you’ll have the same chance as a big tournament
except you’ll get there faster. This is another reason why you will
need chips early on. If you coast along through small fields you
often go bust sometime in the middle of them.

When looking at both of them, there are major differences in
playing styles and what you should look to do. In big
tournaments you want to have short term goals that allow you to
slowly coast through them, and gather chips little by little. In
small tournaments your short term goals almost don’t exist. The
only one you should have is to make the final table, and then to
win the tournament. The reason is when playing with a small
field of players, players don’t drop at a rapid rate. They will
drop off one or two at a time and most will try to hang on to
their stack as long as possible.

When you see a table that’s
playing passive you should be playing aggressive and look to
build your stack up. In most cases when playing small
tournaments the time will come where you have to try and be the
table captain, controlling the table and how players will play.
When that time comes you have to pounce on it right away and try
to accumulate as many chips as you can. If you can do that at
the right time, you’ll most likely make the final table because
you’ll have enough chips to be comfortable, and allow yourself
to make hard decisions easier when the money bubble comes
around.

Large Tournament Fields

When playing through a large field, you’ll want to do the
opposite most of the time. At large tournament fields you’ll have
to slowly grind out chips. If you can slowly make progress and
not go on tilt from one hand you lost, you’ll be better for it
and survive. Survival skills in tournament poker, and especially
when dealing with large fields is something you have to have. In
general, the larger the field of players the larger the prize
pool will be.

Surviving is overlooked sometimes when you get short stacked,
but when you play big tournaments you need it at some point.
You simply won’t have the massive stack throughout a big
tournament the entire time. If you still have chips in front of
you, there’s still a chance of you coming back and gathering
that big stack if you are down to only a few big blinds. There
are a number of famous stories where players had one chip
left or almost nothing left after losing a big hand, and came
back to win the tournament. If you can continue to survive
and slowly make progress without making big mistakes you’ll get
there at the end.

Poker Tournament Strategy

Whether you’re playing micro stakes tournaments or the Sunday Million – you need to know what you’re doing to have a chance at winning. That seems obvious right? But trust me, there are too many players entering tournaments with no clue. That’s great news for you though cos it mean’s poker is not dead, despite what you hear. This article is going to give you poker tournament strategy tips that can be used to increase your cash rate, final tables and wins.

Don’t stop stealing the blinds

Strategy For Large Poker Tournaments 2020

Tournament poker regs seem to nit it up and count on making it deep with premium hands. Don’t be one of them. Stay active, keep stealing the blinds from late position and don’t give up. A lot of poker sites are advocating the slow down approach but that’s what your opponents want. Regs are playing too many tables, not paying enough attention and missing profitable spots to steal the blinds. Tournament poker will always reward those who are able to consistently steal blinds and keep their stack alive. The fact that people are defending their blinds loosely should not make you fold more often in late position. Why? You have position. You have the advantage in a hand, even if your hand is weaker. Never forget that.

Pre-flop bet sizing

Consistency is very important when it comes to raising pre-flop. It’s fine if you want to make it 2.5x then stick with that. Please don’t change it based on hand strength. It’s 2020 and even the most basic of poker players will notice and instantly tag you. If you are a poker training video membership member, you’ll know my preference re’ pre-flop bet sizing but I will re-iterate it here non-members.

Early Position Min Raise

When I’m raising from early position, I lack information on the rest of the table. I want to open raise if I play but I also want to steal cheaply and/or keep the pot smaller against my opponents that flat in position. I also have no problem with it folding to the big blind and them calling a min raise. In fact, I welcome it. I will have position, a better hand and have increased the pot a little. My hand range is likely to be stronger than theirs and I have the pre-flop aggression.

Middle Position 2.2x

With fewer opponents behind us, I am happy to increase the sizing a bit and play a slightly bigger pot against the blinds. I don’t want to raise too much as I am still potentially acting first post-flop if someone in position calls. I am also slightly dissuading the blinds to call which is no bad thing in tournaments. I am likely to have a wider range from here so I have no problem with them just folding.

Late Position 2.5x

This may seem counter intuitive to some. Why raise more with a wider range? I want to play bigger pots when I have positional advantage. Sure, sometimes I will be light but sometimes I will be strong too. I want to charge the blinds more than the minimum to play against my wider range. By making it 2.5x I am also protecting myself against 3 bet bluffs a little more. Consider a min raise from the button. The big blind is far more likely to 3 bet bluff that than a bigger raise.

Notice – my pre-flop raises changes based on position – it doesn’t change based on hand strength. Therefore, it is logically consistent as I am raising 2.5x from late position with A-A and K-6s.

Defend the big blind

Everyone and their dog are loving the small ball approach these days. The standard small raise is popular and with good reason – it works. One of the results of this is that you have to defend your big blind more. It means calling raises with hands you won’t necessarily want to but pot odds and solid poker tournament strategy dictate you must. Let’s look at a quick example to illustrate this.
Blinds – 600/1,200 (antes 120)
Player A- 42,500
You – 36,900

It folds to Player A on the button. He is a capable tournament player. He raises to 2,500. The small blind folds and the action is on you. Before even looking at your hand, let’s do some poker maths.
Pot – (1,080 antes, 1,800 in blinds + 2,500) = 5,380
Cost to call – 1,300
Equity needed to call – 19.4%

As you can see, you need to defend super wide in this spot. You just can’t afford to fold too many hands when you are getting these kind of prices in big blind.

3 Bet with 30 bbs +

Tournament poker is often playing shorter stacks and less “poker” playing but that doesn’t mean you must play shove or fold poker. You don’t want to 3 bet bluff with short effective stacks cos it means the 4 bet from your opponent will always be all in. With slightly deeper stacks though (30 bbs+), you can afford to 3 bet bluff and take away a lot of pots. Poker tournament strategy is usually to attack short stacks. Screw that, 3 bet bluff the bigger stacks. I find that the big stacks are just as protective as the shorter stacks, if not more. It also means you can potentially get the last bet in if they decide to 4 bet. Good spots for 3 betting are when the raise has come from middle or late position.

CAUTION – Avoid 3 bet bluffing when they are raising from under the gun or UTG +1 as their range is likely to be tighter.

Learn continuation betting strategy

This article is dedicated to poker tournament strategy, not continuation betting but the fact is, c betting is an important part of tournament poker. You need to understand which boards favour your perceived range and what favours your opponent. A lot of players waste chips throwing out foolish continuation bets. You need to appreciate board texture, number of opponents and stack sizes when choosing whether to continuation bet or not. If you want more help with continuation betting, check out our article on the do’s and don’ts of continuation betting.

Isolate the limper(s)

An oldie but goody. Raising over a limper or limpers is still a very profitable play. It’s crazy to think there are still players that adopt this limp in mentality, but it’s great for us. If people want to try and limp into the pot with pocket 3s or A-9 offsuit, that’s fine, we will take their blinds all day. In some scenarios, it may seem prudent to over-limp but most of the time, just raise it 4x and win it. If they call, you can often just win it with a flop bet anyway. It’s a great way to build a stack in tournament poker and is also good for your table image as people. This might help you get paid later in the tournament.

Practice heads up poker

Many tournaments end in deals being done but what if yours doesn’t? What if you’re against a tough player or someone unwilling to deal. You need to know how to play 1 on 1. After all, if you want to win the tournament you have to beat the last opponent. Heads up is a great poker format. Some basic heads up tips are below:

How To Play Tournament Poker

• Raise every button
• Bet most flops
• Check raise more
• Bluff catch 2nd pair down
• Stay on top of your opponent, don’t let up
• Don’t show bluffs

Join Poker Training Video Membership

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