Live Mtt Poker Tournament Strategy

Reaching The Tournament Final Table Is Only Half The Battle!
This Article Shows You How To Adjust Your Final Table Strategy To Maximize Your Returns.

Let us set the scene… after several hours of play you have just reached the final table of a poker tournament at your chosen online poker room. 700 players are already out - just you and 9 others now remain. The prizes now climb steeply for each place – in fact you are looking at your biggest cash to date, one that could transform your poker bankroll overnight...

While getting to a tournament final table is the dream of many online poker players how many have actually thought through their strategy for when they arrive there? After all, one mistake could now cost $100s if not $1000s!

MTT Poker Tournament Strategy - 10 Steps Guide. Multi-table tournaments let you play for huge sums of money for a small outlay – aim. SUMMER 2020 UPDATE: The channel broke 1,000,000 views! Please donate to support new content. For every $100 USD raised across all donors, I (green. The highest rate you can expect to win at by following a mindless strategy, you will break even or lose money after paying the rake. For example, if you normally play $65 live tournaments, and $15 of the buy-in goes to the rake, which is fairly standard in most casinos, a 15% return on your $50 investment means that you will win $7.50.

This article looks to address final table strategy for beginning and developing players by looking at 5 tips that will help any player improve their final table play - after all, you can not control the cards or other players, but can make sure you do many things to ensure you maximize your potential payout..

Poker Tournament Final Table Strategy: Tip #1 - Watch The Last 3 Tables!

Having ‘reads’ on your final table opponents before reaching the very last table will give you an immediate edge. When the game gets down to the last 3 tables make sure you are watching each one closely and are taking notes on the style of your potential opponents. Things to watch out for include aggression, bluffs and strange bet sizes. Any information that gives you a read on an opponent is an important aspect of NL Holdem Final Table Strategy.

Poker Tournament Final Table Strategy: Tip #2 - Who Is Playing to Win?

Sure, everyone would like to take first prize - but there are many players whose first priority will instead be to move up the payment scale. A valuable part of your final table strategy is to identify who is ‘playing to win’ and who is playing to move up the payment ladder. If you do identify timid opponents who are less likely to take risks then you should ensure you play many hands with them. Conversely, those players willing to 'gamble' in order to take the first prize are candidates for big bets only when you have premium holdings.

Poker Tournament Final Table Strategy: Tip #3 - Learn Basic ICM

ICM is an acronym for the 'Independent Chip Model', this formula works by taking into account that tournament chips change value as the game progresses - and that jumps in the prize pool at the final table mean that chips lost are worth more than the chips won in individual hands. I have explained this concept using examples in a dedciated article here. While you will not be able to do the complex calculations required in-play, simply having an idea of this model and the changes in strategy associated with it will give you a mathematical edge over new opponents. Even if you choose not to use it yourself, experienced opponents will know about it - so having a basic understanding will give you a better understanding of their play.

Poker Tournament Table Strategy Tip #4: - Awareness Of Stack Sizes.

By the time you reach the online final table players will have a wide range of stack sizes. Awareness of each persons stack size will help your final table strategy in many ways. Some examples include:

• Small Stacks might be desperate enough to go all in with medium strength holdings, and may shove 'any two' when folded to in later positions. Note that some small stacks will desperately try to survive, hoping to move up the payouts.
• Big Stacks may raise without strong hands to 'bully the table', this is a great strategy when there is a short stack around, since people are often reluctant to bust before the short stack does.
• A medium stack who raises after a small stack has already entered the pot usually has a stronger hand than when that same person is first to raise. This is because players who expect to be called do not usually raise without good hands.
• Stacks of 12 to 17 times the big blind are ideal for re-stealing (re-raising over an opponent's raise to steal the pot). If an aggressive opponent has a 'resteal stack' you can often 'induce' them to go all-in over the top of you when you have a premium hand.

Your own stack size, especially in relation to the blinds and antes, is also a significant factor in your final table strategy. Calculate how many times you can go through the blinds before your stack disappears and use this to decide how tight or loose to play... Dan Harrington's 'M' gives a great framework for judging the flexibility you have in your play with various stack sizes.

Planet Mark's Final Table Experience Tip: Some online tournaments are so huge, that your chances of making the final table are tiny (even though the prizes are big!). I recommned choosing a site that hits the sweet spot with smaller tournaments, and easy to beat games. 888 are my strong recommendation for both of these factors, you'll clock up some final table experience in no time - and hopefully you'll be able to do it in games with guaranteed prize pools too. You can try out the tournaments at 888 without needing to deposit, they give new players up to $88 free bonus in tokens and cash game buy-ins (terms do apply). See www.888poker.com and see how easy those tournaments are for yourself!

Poker Tournament Table Strategy Tip #5:- Practice Heads-Up Play!

To win an online NL Holdem tournament you have to beat your last opponent heads-up. For players who are used to full tables adjusting to this can be a big challenge. Practice heads-up poker play in advance, either with a friend or at an online poker room. Experience in the relative strength of hands in heads-up situations will greatly assist your NL holdem final table strategy… remember that the jump from 2nd to 1st prize can be several thousand dollars!!

Final Table Tournament Strategy - Bonus Tip #1 - Deal Making

Especially when you get short handed, the jumps in payments mean it can be beneficial to make a deal to share the prize money. This is especially welcome when the chip stacks are shallow compared to the blinds and antes - meaning the chance fall of the cards will make a big difference to who gets the money. If the money makes a big difference to your bankroll (it often will!) then you should go ahead and negotiate a deal. 'Chopping' is automated at some sites including Party Poker and Full Tilt. PokerStars allow this, though you will need to write to support to get a moderator to assist you, other sites are more tricky - leaving it to the players to transfer the money. The simplest chops are based on chip-counts, though the prize money can also be divided using ICM or you can haggle over a custom deal to take skill differences into account. My advice for newer is to make a deal when the jump in prize money is big enough to affect your play. Depending on the skill of your opponents, it might be more profitable in the long-term to play the game to the end - but when the money will make a big difference, I would go right ahead and deal.

Final Table Tournament Strategy - Bonus Tip #2 - Look Up Your Opponents Stats

Some of your opponents may be experienced small-stakes pros, for whom this is just another day in the office. Others will be brand new to the game and at their first final table, or long-term losers who have just got lucky. You can find out by looking up your opponent's win / loss statistics at services like Sharkscope or the excellent Poker Pro Labs. Knowing which type of players you are up against will help you decide how to play against them. Is that pro making a move to put pressure on you, since he knows it is your first final table? What hands will a losing novice player call with that a more experienced player could fold (suited cards and aces with bad kickers come to mind). Player stats might even give you information on who is playing above their normal buy-in level.

Planet Mark's Strong Rec: Since getting to a final table unprepared could end up costing you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in missed profits - it is vital that you gain some experience before you hit the 'big one'. Pokerstars.com 180 player SNG tournaments are ideal for this. You'll reach the final table in under 3 hours in the turbo games, and will have a chance to understand the dynamics - as well as make a nice profits from these soft games! With buy-ins between $2.50c and $15 super-busy, you will never have to wait for a game.

You'll get $88 free to try out the tournaments (and some cash games) at the super-soft 888 poker. You'll find the games so easy, that picking up final table experience is only a matter of time. Take a look at www.888poker.com for yourself now!

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• US Online Poker Tournaments (the offshore sites)

Turbo Tournament Strategy Adjustments - How To Profit In Faster MTT Games!

by Matt

Turbo multi-table tournaments are a beast all their own. Especially if you come from a non-turbo background. Some players adjust too much, opening tons of hands at 10/20, only to realize they're busting tournaments left and right. On the other hand, you have guys like me, who sat down at his first turbo sit n go only to watch the entire game breeze by him like he was standing still.

The key is to find a sweet spot. Know when to pick up the aggression so you can build a stack and stay ahead of the blinds, and not have to resort to a push/fold strategy. We want to have a workable stack that we can use to lean on and abuse other players.

That's what I'm going to help you with now.

Key Differences Between Turbo and Non-Turbo MTTs

The first thing I want to do is point out a couple of differences between a turbo and non-turbo MTT.

• Turbo MTTs have 5 minute levels. Standard MTTs have 10-20 minute levels.
• Antes are in play a half hour into a turbo MTT. Antes are in play 1-1.5 hours into a standard MTT.
• Assuming you haven't chipped up, you'll reach a level where you have 10-15 big blinds in 30 minutes in turbo MTTs. It takes about an hour to reach that level in standard tournaments.

What you want to take away from this isn't so much that turbo MTTs are faster.

That's obvious.

What's important to understand is that mistakes in turbo MTTs compound faster. Make a mistake and you have minutes, maybe seconds before the blinds change and (effective) stack sizes and fold equity shrink. That's unlike a non-turbo tournament where you can make small mistakes and have time to correct them before the blinds go up.

So, with that in mind lets move on to some strategy.

The First Couple of Levels, Nothing is Different

Your turbo MTT strategy should be similar to your non-turbo strategy during the first couple of levels. That's to play relatively tight. The reason why is the same. You start with 100, 150 or 200 big blinds, so picking up a 30 chip pot does little to change that, much less your equity in the tournament. To put this into perspective, picking up the blinds with a 2000 stack increases your stack by 1.5%.

Whoop dee doo.

What we want to do instead is focus on building our fold equity. The image we want to project is that we're tight. We'll use our image/fold equity later on when antes kick in to (successfully) steal the blinds, or shove if we have a short stack (10-15 big blinds). So stick to the top of your range, including hands like pocket pairs, broadways, premium/suited aces, (over-limp) suited connectors, etc.

Since you'll have some downtime during this stage, what I recommend you do is check the win / loss records of everyone at your table using services such as SharkScope or the awesome PokerProLabs - and record their stats. Pay attention to who appears to be good/bad too. All of this will help you to develop ranges for later on.

Ultimately, during the early stages you don't want to overcompensate for the faster levels. You can still widen your hand range some, compared to a non-turbo MTT or even a turbo sit n go. But your primary goal should be to create a tight image so you can use that fold equity in the levels with antes.

Planet Mark's Rec: Seeking out inexperienced opponents will make an immediate difference to your results, especially when it comes to Turbo tournaments. For this reason I strongly recommend you check out the soft tournament fields over at 888 poker. This site has many more recreational / amateur players compared to pros than sites like PokerStars. New players also get up to $88 free to try out the games (in tokens / cash buy-ins, no deposit needed) . See the visibly softer Turbo tournaments at www.888poker.com now!

Turbo Poker Tournament Strategy: Antes = Aggression

The antes in a turbo tournament will kick in about a half hour into the tournament. Assuming you haven't chipped up, your stack will be around 50 big blinds.

This is the time that you want to start picking up the aggression. The pots start to actually matter at this point because of the dead money the antes create. We're not desperate though, so you should still be selective based on position, your opponent and effective stack sizes. But go ahead and start opening a wider range of hands to steal from middle to late position. I prefer to open hands that still have some equity (potential) if I'm called. For example, I'll open Ax, Kx and even Qx suited hands, anything that might have high card / showdown value and the occasional suited connector.

Once you get a few levels (with antes) in, the pots are big enough to justify 3-betting your opponents. This is a great move to make to build your stack. If called you can just c-bet the flop and often times you'll pick up a large pot. Reshoves are very effective, too. You'll want to have your ranges dialed in, though, and I don't recommend reshoving until the pots make up 20% of your stack, or more.

Speaking of reshoves, you'll want to be aware of stack sizes to your left when you open hands. Players with 15-20 big blinds are going to look for opportunities to build their stack (or stay alive), and will shove on you with a wide range of hands, especially if you're stealing the blinds frequently. To counter this you'll want to open less, opening with hands you can call off with. But don't keep opening/folding -- that will chip away at your stack quickly.

If you're on the short side yourself (around 10-18 big blinds), don't sit on your hands. Find a good spot and shove. Waiting around does you absolutely no good. The smaller your stack the less fold equity you have. The increasing (turbo) blinds are bad enough as is. Don't make it harder for yourself.

The last thing I wanted to point out is to always check the blind levels to see when they're going up next. Sometimes you'll want to make a wider shove because the blinds are going up in 30 seconds and/or they're going up and you're going through the blinds next hand. So you'll want to shove wide to maintain your fold equity for when the blinds increase.

Late Stages - Before the Final Table (Bubble)

During the late stages your strategy is going to depend on several things. Things like your (effective) stack sizes, your position in relation to certain opponents and your stack size in relation to the other stacks. You need to pay attention to all of this. It's going to affect your opening/stealing strategy, as well as who you can lean on.

Live Mtt Poker Tournament Strategy Explained

Overall, my strategy going into the later stages is the same. Reshove, steal and selectively play pots to build my stack. One thing to add to this list is isolating short stacks. That's another good way to build your stack. However, it's important to have stats/reads on these players so your ranges are close. Isolating short stacks with incorrect reads will do just as much harm as good.

Live Mtt Poker Tournament Strategy Chart

Our goal at this point is to build our stack so we can lean on medium sized stacks during tense situations of the tournament, such as the money and/or final table bubble. We also don't want to get to the final table and be short and desperate. Not if we can help it, at least.

Live Mtt Poker Tournament Strategy Guide

And that's my strategy for turbo MTTs. In a lot of ways it's the same as my turbo sit n go strategy, other than being a little wider/aggressive in spots. But you still want to start off tight to build fold equity, explode during the ante levels to build a stack and consistently add to your stack so you can exploit players later on. If you follow this approach closely I'm sure you'll make more than your fair share of deep runs in the turbo MTTs you play.

Check out the super soft fields in the small to mid-range buy-in Turbo tournaments at 888Poker.com right now - the easiest for turbo MTTs!

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