Tournament Strategy

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DDGAggies

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Usually in tournaments I play tight until the money and then looser after that. I have not been having much luck lately and am looking for a new way to go at it. Any thoughts or suggestions would be extremely appreciated.
 
SaintNick1968

SaintNick1968

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The beggining stages of a (non bounty) tournament should be played much like a cash game, because you have a lot of blinds and your tournament life has little value at this stage. It is a much better strategy to attempt to play anything that wins you chips early on and take thin edges than to sit there and lose your blinds. You can actually steal a little looser than a cash game because of the antes making this more profitable.

As the bubble approaches, you need to be a little less willing to call off big portions of your stack with marginal holdings so you can make it into the money. You also need to pressurise other people with medium stacks who can’t call off easily by being aggressive against them. However. you shouldn’t take this too far because making it into the cash isn’t your main objective. All the money in MTTs is locked up at the top.


After you’ve made it into the money, you can start to play in a more ‘normal’ way until the final table approaches. This is due to the fact that the initial ladders are almost irrelevant. Bear in mind that your stack will be worth less big blinds by this point so (depending on the tourney structure) you will need to be willing to risk your chips and not lose the blinds.


Once you make it to the final table ICM becomes a huge consideration. As a short stack, you need to be loose and try to get a chance at making a stack again, because you are unlikely to outlast other people by sitting there and waiting. As a medium stack, it is essential to try to outlast other players with medium and short stacks. The amount of equity you’d lose by busting at this stage is far more than the equity you gain by doubling up. As a big stack, you need to be very loose, especially against the medium stacks who have to be tight against your raises.


I hope that makes sense. It’s fairly brief because this is a huge topic but I think that will point you in the right direction. If you want more info I’d recommend researching how ICM works.
 
NHequalsFU

NHequalsFU

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Tournaments are high variance so even if you play 100% good poker you could break even or even lose for 500+ tournaments. So you have to have volume in tournament poker.
 
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JRNorris95

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Before playing a tournament I set my initial goals/expectations. Depending on the buyin sometimes I focus on playing to last (If im shooting for min cash), other times I focus on playing to win (if I am shooting for final table).

If I am playing to win, then i will play high variance hands at the beginning of the tournament. The goal is to get as large of a chipstack as possible early on. If I lose the flip then I can rebuy and the amount will still be close to the average chipstack in the tournament. After climbing to towards the top of the player pool I will tighten up my game and try and preserve my stack.

If I am searching for an easy min cash, I will usually start the tournament playing tight. Because more players play loose at the beginning of a tournament, being more selective means those hands usually pay out. If I am at a comfortable stack when it comes closer to the bubble, I wlll play more aggressively from that point forward so that I can run as deep as possible without running out of chips. If my chipstack isnt doing so great, I will be incredibly selective with hands and just try and last through the bubble.
 
zwbb

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Balance your game by raising some hands from a position, this will help to mask your cards and mislead opponents when you have a monster on your hands.
 
korneel

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I actually try to be a bit looser before the bubble burst, because everybody else will be alot tighter> So it's easy to steal.

And you should be tighter just after the bubble, since some players will call with marginal hands because they're so happy they are ITM.
 
molodoi3000

molodoi3000

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Patience my friend. You have the best tactics and it will begin to work soon
 
FF2586

FF2586

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Hi there,

The best tactic is to be very aggressive without investing much when you are deep, the majority of the tourneys begin very deep, like 250BB each, and this kinda of play helps you stay deep. The key to this tactic or strategy is to play very well post flop and play the player not your cards. The goal is to win as many little pots as you can.


This is very complicated strategy but I believe it is the best, you just gotta control what you're doing and enjoy exploiting weaker players. Of course remember that not investing much and not getting committed to the many weak hands you play is essential.


In addition, with this strategy, when you hit you get payed more than twice as much as a regular player gets payed when he hits.

I can't get into the details, otherwise I would write a book here, but you get the idea, I hope.


Do some research and you'd find many articles and books about this strategy called small ball poker, but it takes commitment to get value from it.


GL with your game
 
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DDGAggies

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Thanks for all the suggestions! Looks like I have some work to do!
 
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