Getting to a final table in an MTT is no small feat and it doesn’t happen often. When you do get there, you need to take advantage of the rare opportunity you’ve earned and go for the big money. Navigating your way through a final table isn’t easy though, as you have eight or nine other players with the same goal in mind. The amount of money you win usually increases dramatically at this stage, and some players will be content to sit back and try to ladder up a couple of spots. Other players will be thrilled just to have made the final table and will start to get careless and play recklessly. The best players are the ones who pay attention to what the other players are doing and attack and defend accordingly.
Short stack
When a final table begins, what you do will mostly be dictated by your stack size. If you are short, with say less than ten big blinds, you generally have two options. You can either start gambling, looking to double-up and put yourself in a better position to win, or you can sit back and try to move up a couple of spots to make more money. Which option you choose will depend mainly on how much the money matters to you, though ideally you won’t let the payouts get in the way of making the best decisions and giving yourself the best chance to win.
Medium or large stack
If you have a medium or large stack there is more you can do. It’s not much different from playing in the stages that led up to the final table. You want to attack the stacks you can bust or cripple and avoid confrontations with the stacks that can do you serious damage unless you feel you have the best hand. Sometimes a player will shift gears from loose to tight, or tight to loose, now that they have made the final table. If you see that someone is all of a sudden playing a different game, make a note of it and adjust.
It’s important at the beginning of the final table to relax and not panic. You’ve played for hours or days to get to this point and it would be a shame to let all that good play go to waste. The best thing you can do is to continue to play the same way that got you there, with a few adjustments based on the dynamics of the table.
Taking control as plays gets short-handed
Once you are down to five players at a final table you will need to make adjustments for several reasons. The first is obvious: play is short-handed and the starting hands you enter the pot with need to be adjusted. The second is in response to other players adjusting their play due to the table being short-handed. It’s important to avoid getting tied into hand values and what the normal play in a given situation is. Each hand is different and there are three specific factors you need to account for when deciding what you should do.
Factor 1 – Position
If someone has opened the pot, you first need to determine their likely range of hands. If they have been open-raising a lot, you can call or reraise (the more preferable option at these later stages) with more hands than you might against a player who has been folding often. If you are first to act, your main consideration should be the remaining players left to act after you, their stack sizes and the probability that they will fold. Obviously all of these are moot points if you are dealt a strong hand.
Factor 2 – Your opponent’s stack size
It’s also important to make note of how many chips your opponent has before deciding to play a hand with them. If the player who has opened the pot is relatively short-stacked, chances are they won’t fold to a reraise, so you need to understand that before playing back at them. The same could be said for a big stack who has you well covered. They very well could put you to the test for your entire stack, so before reraising them you need to determine their likely actions.
Factor 3 – Your starting hand
This will probably seem obvious, but certain hands play themselves at this stage. If you have a hand like A-Q and have opened the action and a player has put you to the test, you’re going to have to take your chances and put your chips in. The probability is that you are either ahead or facing a race. You shouldn’t be folding hands like A-Q when you are four or five-handed unless you are 100% certain your opponent has you dominated, and it’s hard to ever be 100% certain in poker.
The final hurdle
When you get down to three-handed and heads-up play, the two main factors you need to evaluate are relative stack sizes and your opponents’ playing tendencies. There are typically five different stack-size relationships to consider – we’ll call them stages – and four different opponent types. They are as follows.
Stack-size relationships
Stage 1 - You have a huge chip advantage (5-to-1 or better).
Stage 2 - You have a significant chip advantage (2-to-1 or better).
Stage 3 - You are about even in chips (1.5-to-1 or worse).
Stage 4 - You are at a significant chip disadvantage (2-to-1 or worse).
Stage 5 - You are at a huge chip disadvantage (5-to-1 or worse).
Opponent types
Type 1 - Tight, predictable player (rock): only plays premium hands, only bets when he has something.
Type 2 - Calling station: never raises, just bets or calls bets. Will see virtually any flop and call any bet with any piece of the board or a draw.
Type 3 - Loose, aggressive player (LAG): will raise every hand and reraise substantially with lesser hands than another player might (e.g. Q-T, A-x). There are two types of LAG, one is the all-in specialist, who will simply move all-in every hand, and the other is the player who will just continually fire out pot-sized or less bets and raises.
Type 4 - Tight, aggressive, unpredictable player (shark): this is the player who will mix up his play effectively. There will be times when he is a type 1 player and only play premium hands. There will be times where he will call down a hand and be a type 2 player and there will be times where he is the type 3 player and be relentless in his aggression.
Don’t think about stacks and opponent types as independent factors, but how they work in combination. By weighing up all this information before you act you will give yourself the best chance of navigating your way to the win.
Forming a game plan
When you get to the final table of an MTT and you’ve got just a couple of players left between you and a big score (not to mention the glory of the win), putting together a game plan can often work in your favour. By cross-referencing the factors listed above you should be able to formulate a coherent plan and keep adjusting it as the game dynamics shift. Here’s an example of how you might plan a heads-up strategy against a type 1 (tight, predictable) opponent at the various stack-relationship stages.
Stage 1 (You have a huge chip advantage)
Raise a standard amount every hand out of the SB. Raise if he limps in the SB when you are the BB. Fold to any raises unless you have a big hand. You don’t want to move all-in against this type of player as he’ll only call you when you’re behind and this is not the type of player you want to double-up.
Stage 2 (You have a significant chip advantage)
Play the same as in stage 1. If you do see a flop against this type of player, there’s only one way to play him. Trap with your big hands, fold all others. If he raises preflop, he’s more than likely going to bet postflop, so check-raise or bet small to induce the big raise if you hit the flop hard. He’s also likely not to give you the right price to draw, so avoid these kinds of hands against him.
Stage 3 (You are about even in chips)
Play the same as in stage 2. This type of player simply isn’t going to play any hands with you unless they have something, so raise, raise, raise any time they limp or any time you are the SB – your cards are irrelevant. As in stage 2, you want to trap them with your big hands, as that’s how you’re going to bust them – sometimes it’s okay to call a raise with a hand like 8-7 suited when they have raised in order to try to hit a big flop where they over-commit themselves with an overpair.
Stage 4 (You are at a significant chip disadvantage)
You don’t need to move all-in against this type of player in the hopes of getting lucky and levelling things up. Simply do as in the previous stages and you’ll gradually chip away your opponent’s chip lead.
Stage 5 (You are at a huge chip disadvantage)
The play for stage 5 is the same for all opponent types. You’re simply going to have to stick it in, hope you don’t get called and win enough blinds/antes to move up to the next stage, or get lucky and double through. You don’t have time to sit back and wait for hands when you are at such a big disadvantage.