This article comes from a post I put up on the PKR forum which proved to be very popular in my pre-sponsorship days. It’s a basic outline of my MTT strategy that I wrote after a couple of players asked me to give them some pointers. It might not be everyone’s optimal way of being successful at the tournament tables, as it’s just my opinion, but if it helps you that’s great!
Avoid early headaches
In the early stages of a tournament I try really hard not to get too involved with marginal hands from early position, such as any pair lower than 8-8 or any hand like A-J or less. I’ll happily fold all of these attractive looking holdings from the first three positions (at a ten-handed table anyway). My theory on this is the same as a lot of people in the know and that is if you are raising in early position with these ‘marginal hands’ and you get a call or reraise then the likelihood is you are almost certainly behind! I’ve found that in the long-term playing these kinds of hands will lose you more money than it can potentially win for you. And of course you invariably have to play the whole hand out of position which isn’t great.
Avoid giving yourself difficult decisions unnecessarily. You start a tournament relatively deep-stacked, so donking off half your stack with a dominated Ace isn’t the best way to start your long climb towards the final table.
In middle position and late position in the first 5-6 levels of a tournament I don’t see a great deal of point in raising to steal blinds with weak hands. If you do, the other players will eventually stop respecting your raises, which could be disastrous if you go card-dead later in the tournament and are forced to steal lots of blinds. I’d recommend restricting your raising range in middle and late positions to suited connectors, any pair and solid non-paired hands, i.e. A-K, A-Q, A-J, A-T, K-Q, K-J, Q-J.
The middle game
I believe the middle stage of an MTT is the most crucial to the outcome of your tournament endeavours. If for example you are not getting any cards and thus not playing any hands you are missing out on a lot of chips. In my opinion chip accumulation is one of the three most important skills to have in tournaments (the others being maximising winnings when ahead and minimising losses when behind).
During the middle stages I believe three-betting and raising with otherwise marginal hands is imperative to your tournament chances. If you feel someone is on the steal and you think you’re able to get them off their hand then you should be reraising with any two cards. If someone shows postflop weakness you can just start flat-calling them and then leading out on the flop to take control of the pot. Hands such as 8-9s and A-J, which I’ve said to avoid in the early stages, become reraising hands because they have the potential to hit big even if you are called and thus will offer good disguise on the flop. If you miss the flop you’ve already shown strength and will often be able to take the pot down on the flop.
Controlling the table
Imposing your will on the table is vital at this stage. You should pick on the weak and the tight and refuse to allow the bullies to bully you. It often only takes one instance of you fighting back for most players to start looking elsewhere for easier targets.
In a recent MTT I was moved onto a new table straight into the big blind and it folded to the small blind who raised. I re-popped a standard amount and he folded. It wasn’t the greatest play in the world but it made a statement in the very first hand to this guy: ‘Don’t touch my blinds.’
Plays like this make players more tentative when it folds to them in late position because they know that if they raise light they may have to fold, so they tend to just pass to make life easier for themselves.
The final lap
As a tournament approaches its final stages in and around the bubble period, raising in late position is very much a part of my game plan, because the blinds and antes hold so much value compared to stack sizes and are always worth stealing. If you can apply pressure to the smaller and medium-sized stacks all the better, as some of them will be hanging on for dear life just to scrape into the money. My plan, on the other hand, is to finish first or nothing, as I’m playing to maximise the return on my investment. I see it as being more profitable to win one MTT and miss the cash nine other times than scrape into the money ten times. If you can spot the players who are aiming to cash rather than playing to win you can bully them even more.
Bossing the final table
On the final table, I find the key is well-timed aggression. There are certain stacks who are looking to double up and then to go on for the win, while others have one eye on the money jumps and are willing to sit tight and pass hands. The latter must be identified and brutalised! Hand selection is not so important at this stage, as there is not a huge amount of flop, turn or river play, especially in smaller stakes tournaments where it is generally shove/fold for most players by this point. By being aggressive you are continually raking in blinds and picking up pots, which increases your stack and should help to build an aura of fear around you that may freeze your opponents. The fewer players at a table the more you should stretch your range of playable hands.
Heads-up and three-handed play involve a different kind of skill from normal poker. Second and third pair are often good and any pair and or Ace are normally ahead preflop, so feel free to open up with them. You’ll have to get involved in a lot of pots with hands you wouldn’t dream of playing full-ring, so adjust accordingly because aggression is more necessary. You’ll have to read when your opponent is being aggressive because of his hand and when he’s just reacting to your continued aggression.
I hope this helps you in your tournament endeavours – it has helped me just to remind myself of these points while writing it!