Poker Tournament Strategy – In the Money

Poker Tournament Strategy – In the Money

Congratulations – if you’ve made it this far, you’re going home with at least your buy-in and possibly much more.

Hopefully at this point you’ve built up your stack to be at the top of the field, but if not you’re still in decent shape and should be able to recover.
The main factor in determining your proper strategy is your stack size, and this article will look at the three stack sizes (large, medium, short) and how to play each stack to go deep and possibly make the final table.

Playing a Big Stack

If you’ve got a big stack you’re in the best possible position, and should have the easiest path to the final table.
When you have the big stack you want to continue accumulating chips slowly, and avoid any huge risks to your stack that could cripple you and destroy your chances for a deep finish.
I’d recommend stealing blinds 1-2 times per round, and seeing an occasional flop when you have a really strong hand such as AA or AK.
One trap that the big stack often falls into is calling off large all-in bets just to try to knock other players out.
Of course, if you have a solid hand you should by all means get into a big pot, but it is foolish to call another player’s all in bet with only QJ suited just because you have more chips then them.
This is the easiest way to blow a big stack, and will leave you out of the tournament wondering what happened in no time.One strong play you can make as the big stack is to put another player to the test for all their chips.
If you have a hunch someone is stealing the blinds, make a re-raise that puts them all in to see if they really have anything.
Most of the time you’ll pick up a big pot, and if you do happen to get called down, you have a chance to win anyways.

Playing a Mid Stack

If you have an average stack, you’re likely feeling pretty strong pressure from the blinds and antes, and are struggling to keep your head above water.
Your best moves here are the steal and the re-steal, and you should be executing those plays at least twice per round.
As long as no one has entered a pot before you, and you’re in good position, you should be raising any pocket pair, any big suited cards, and most suited connectors.
Also, you can raise hands like AQ or KJ as well.
The re-steal is when you’re in the blinds, and a player is constantly stealing your blinds, so you make a re-raise next time he/she does it.
Although this is a risky play, you’ll have to do it at some point because you can’t just lie down and give your blinds away every hand.

Playing the Short Stack

If your stack is under 10 big blinds, then you’re a short stack, and are in big trouble.
Your stack can only survive one or two more rounds, and if you want any hope of a comeback you need to make a move ASAP.
Your best play here is either all-in or fold.
If you get any sort of hand (any Ace, any two big cards, any pocket pair, etc) you should be pushing all-in and hoping for the best.
This article was written by the owner of PokerSite.org, a site that offers poker site reviews, provides players with advanced poker strategy, and gives readers reviews of no download poker sites.

No Limit Hold’em Middle Stages Tournament Strategy

 No Limit Hold’em Middle Stages Tournament Strategy

After you make it through the early stages of a poker tournament, your next task is to start building your stack to make a deep run into the money.

The middle stages are all about chip accumulation, and you’ll have to take a few risks to build up a big stack. Our goal here is to be in the top 25% of the field once you reach the bubble, because if you have that many chips you won’t be under severe pressure from the blinds like the rest of the field.
Also, with a stack like that you can afford a mistake or two in the later stages, which is important because you’ll be making so many bluffs and aggressive plays once you reach the money.

Like we mentioned in the article detailing the early stages, you should continue to play with your tight aggressive style, but you can open it up a little preflop to start picking up more uncontested pots.
I’d recommend opening pots (opening pots means entering a pot with a raise) with middle and big pocket pairs, and all big connecting cards like AK and KQ.
If you’re in late position you can raise with small pocket pairs too, but I like to usually limp in and try to make a set or fold.

Continuation Bets

One of the most important plays during the middle stages is the continuation bet.
This is when you bet the flop after raising preflop to show strength, and to hopefully pick up the pot right then and there.
I recommend continuation betting at least 2/3 of the hand that you raised preflop, because it makes you really hard to read. If you’re almost always betting the flop after raising preflop, your opponents will never know if you hit or missed, and eventually will start folding to your preflop raises because they don’t want to get involved with your aggressive style.

Staying Aggressive

Blind stealing will be important as you start to near the bubble, because blinds will become really significant, and you’ll need to steal them roughly once or twice per round to maintain your stack.
I like to wait until antes kick in to start stealing blinds, because antes really increase the size of the preflop pot, and most players don’t even notice their effect.
To steal blinds you should ideally be in very late position, and the hand should fold to you.
I like to raise roughly 2.3 big blinds as opposed to a standard 3 big blind raise, because when you’re caught stealing you’ll lose less money, and when your opponents have rags they’ll still fold to the small raise.

The BubbleS tealing Blinds

Once you near the absolute bubble of the tournament, play will change significantly.
Players will tighten up quite a bit because they want to sneak into the money, and you can take advantage of this by stealing even more blinds while everyone else is folding.
This is a great time to really build your stack for a deep run, because you can run over all the middle stacks who are trying to fold into the money.

 This article was provided by PokerSite.org

No Limit Hold’em MTT Opening Stage Strategy

No Limit Hold’em MTT Opening Stage Strategy

If you decide to enter an online poker tournament, it helps to be armed with proper tournament strategy so you have the best possible chance of making the money and perhaps going even deeper.

There are basically three stages of the tournament: the opening stage, the middle/bubble stage, and the money stage.
This article will look at the start of the poker tournament, and will explain how to start accumulating chips and how to survive the opening stages of the tournament.

Staying Tight

The most important thing to do at the start of a poker tournament is to play a tight range of preflop hands, and to protect your chips when you don’t have the best of it.
Your preflop hand selection should include high pocket pairs and big suited connecting cards when you’re out of position.
When you have position, you can add in low pocket pairs and some lower suited connectors like J10 suited.
If there’s a raise in front of you preflop, I’d limit my hands to AA-QQ or AK, and I’d be re-raising.
It’s very important to stay super tight here because there’s no sense wasting chips right away when blinds aren’t pressuring you whatsoever.
Although I recommend playing tight, that doesn’t mean you should be tight-passive, because there’s a difference.
Playing tight is only playing solid preflop hands, and playing passive is playing those hands weak, such as limping in with AA then check/calling all the way to the river.
The proper strategy is tight-aggressive, and now I’ll talk a little about that playing style.

Be Tight Aggressive

Tight-aggressive means that you wait for solid hands and play them aggressively to protect them and make as much money as possible. When you get a big hand like KK, I recommend raising preflop, then betting the flop aggressively as long as it’s not too scary.
You shouldn’t slow play hands like these, especially at the start of the tournament, because you’re just inviting weak hands in to lay a bad beat on you and most likely put you on tilt or out of the tournament.
Protecting Your Chips Although you’re playing aggressively when you have a big hand, you should be playing very passively when you don’t have a big hand.
At this point in the tournament, blinds are placing no strain on your chip stack, so there’s no sense getting all-in with a weak draw or on a complete bluff.
If you raise preflop with AK, miss the flop, and are bet into, just fold. It’s senseless to draw to 6 potential outs that could cost you your whole stack if you’re way behind.

Maniacs at the Table

One thing you’ll often see at the start of a tournament is multiple maniacs going all-in every hand.
This is especially common in low buy-in tournaments or re-buys, and if you spot someone playing like this its acceptable to open up your starting hand ranges and get all-in with them early on in the hopes of doubling up and being in great shape for the later stages of the tournament.
This article was provided by PokerSite.org, which is a leading online poker website that reviews USA poker rooms and provides informative poker strategy videos.