Advanced Mtt Poker Strategy
Multi-Table Tournament Strategies Multi-table tournaments are poker tournaments on a large-scale with a huge pool of players. Everyone buys in for the same fee and players are split across multiple. Advanced tournament players are able to consistently pick off the blinds in an attempt to really build up their stack. This isn’t a risk free way to go about winning pots and increasing your equity, but it is safer than going all in and hoping for folds all around. Advanced MTT Tips You’re already successful players, and it’s assumed you can play tight, loose, mix it up, perform a range of MTT tricks and regularly make it pretty deep and into the money. Experience is the key to increasing your run in MTTs in all honesty. Multi table tournaments are one of the most popular forms of online poker, because they give players a chance at a huge score with only a minimal investment. Early Stages MTT Strategy The early stages of a poker tournament are when you should be taking things.
Unfortunately, a complete poker tournament strategy cannot realistically be broken down into just ten steps, simply because so much information goes into a complete tournament strategy. However, that doesn't mean that a top ten list can't be useful - in fact, the reality is quite the opposite.
This top ten list can be digested in a few minutes, and will transform amateur tournament players into educated players who will have a much better shot at winning a big tournament score.
Ok, enough fluff - let's get right into our top ten tips for No Limit Hold'em tournament players:
Tournament Tip #1 - Play Tight in the Early Stages
The small blinds in the early stages of poker tournaments tempt many players to play a loose game. Don’t let yourself fall into the same trap. The early stage of a poker tournament is full of loose players. All you have to do is sit tight and wait for strong hands. Besides, you don’t want to waste your chips on marginal hands early in the tournament; you’ll be needing those chips later.
Tournament Tip #2 - Increase Your Aggression as the Blinds Increase
The higher the blinds get, the more you need to steal them to stay alive. Unless you are lucky enough to win a few giant pots, you’ll spend most of your time in a tournament short stacked and worried about the next blind increase. The bigger the blinds go, the more you need to steal them.
As the bubble approaches, you should increase your aggression even more to take advantage of the players just trying to sneak in to the money. Right before the money, you’ll notice many players tighten up. They are just trying to survive long enough to make it to the money. These players represent a perfect opportunity for you to steal the blinds and pad your stack.
Tournament Tip #3 - Keep a Healthy Tournament Bankroll
If you want to minimize the chances of you ever going broke, a tournament bankroll of at least 50 buy ins is recommended. This means that if you have a $1,000 bankroll, the most expensive tournaments you should play in are $20. Tournament players have to have a huge bankroll because big wins don’t come often. The large bankroll gives you enough breathing room to survive those long draughts between wins.
Tournament Tip #4 - Drawing Hands Have Less Value
As a tournament wears on, the players will have increasingly small stacks in comparison to the blinds. Small drawing hands like suited connectors and small pairs lose value because your average opponent is so short stacked. If you spend a lot of money prospecting with such hands, you won’t get paid off with large enough pots to cover the expenses.
Tournament Tip #5 - It Requires a Stronger Hand to Call than to Go All-In
David Sklansky calls this the “Gap Concept.” The idea is that you don’t have to have as strong a hand to push all-in as you do to make a big call. When you push all-in, you have the advantage of aggression and therefore have two ways to win the pot: by having the best hand or by making your opponent fold. When you call, you can only win the pot if you have the best hand at the showdown.
Remember this tip when it gets down towards the end of a tournament and the pressure is high on everyone to collect chips. You’ll do better if you collect chips by pushing all-in rather than by making big all-in calls.
Tournament Tip #6 - Steal From the Middle-Stacks
You’ll have better luck by stealing from the players with average sized stacks than by stealing from large stacks or small stacks. The players with large stacks aren’t afraid to make those calls because they have the chips to lose. The short stacked players will call your steals out of desperation.
The players with medium stacks aren’t yet desperate enough to make wild calls but they don’t have enough chips to make loose calls. These players are the most likely to fold to your steals. Attack these players as often as you can get away with it.
Tournament Tip #7 - Improve Your End Game Skills by Playing Sit N Gos
Players who play multi-table tournaments have a tough time getting practice in end-game scenarios like the final table and heads up play. Sit N Go tournaments (SNGs) are the perfect place to practice your skills. You’ll start out in a situation similar to the final table and then get the opportunity to play in shorthanded situations as the players knock each other out. You might even win a little money while you’re at it.
Tournament Tip #8 - Take Notes
Always pay attention to your opponents and take notes. Not only will you learn useful things about their tendencies, but you’ll also keep your head in the game. Plus, you would be surprised at how often you see the same players in different tournaments. Those notes will come in handy time and again.
Tournament Tip #9 - Think About Position
Position is vital in poker tournaments because it represent a major knowledge advantage. When you act in late position, you get to see what your opponents do before you act. You can get away with playing weaker hands in late position thanks to that advantage. In early position, you need all the help you can get so you should stick with cards that are inherently strong.
Tournament Tip #10 - Play to Win
Your tournament results will vastly improve if you play to win rather than to make it to the money. For example, if you build up a decent chip stack early, don’t squander it by sitting tight and waiting for the bubble to break. Keep the pressure up and keep on building your stack.
The payouts for tournaments are heavily skewed to favor the players who reach the final table. If you play just to make it to the money, you’ll cash more often but for small amounts. If you play for the 1st place finish, you will be knocked out more often but the occasional massive score will more than make up for the times you go out early.More General Poker Tournament Strategy:
Categorizing Yourself as an MTT Player:
It’s quite tricky being able to categorize yourself as a tournament player these days. In terms of quality, there are many things that differentiating players in terms of skill, experience, ability, and what strategy is best suited to you. A lot of players will use sharkscope for their MTT ROI to see their ability; others will just assume their ability is matched to their bankroll.
Dividing Tournament Players into Skill Groups
I’ve decided to write this article to simplify the matter of categorizing tournament player quality. I’ve broken the article down into 3 different competitive player categories.
The levels I’ve split MTT players into are:
- Novice/Newbie/Rookie/Fish
- Intermediate/Casual Player
- Advanced Player (a step below pro – otherwise, why would you be looking for tips on this site)
Before giving you some free tips to improve your tournament strategy, I’ll first explain who fits into each of these categories.
The Novice
The novice is a new poker player. He may have done some background reading to poker strategy, and might even understand pot odds – but overall he’s a nit and will play tournaments very badly. You can expect 25% or more of entrants in low stakes MTTs to fit into this category. Most of the time their playing with up to 20% of entire bankroll. If you fit into this category, you’ll probably understand the basics of tournaments, that you need to be tight, but overall your lack of knowledge and experience will be getting a negative ROI < 0%. Overall you have a lot to learn to be successful in tournaments, but that isn’t to say you won’t get lucky in the lower stakes.
The Intermediate
Players in this category have way more experience then novices and are cashing out and breaking even. Intermediate tournet players will have read most the poker strategy articles and are able to apply them successfully to their game. That being said, these players still have big flaws in their game, particularly their ability to accumulate chips in the mid stages and defend binds, but they’re earning a decent MTT ROI of 5 – 20%. I suspect most players in low stakes online poker ($0 – $30) fit into this category. You can play poker, you can beat fish with ease, you can mix up your play; but when push comes to shove there is still something missing from your game – maybe that extra experience in tournaments. You might be unable to read 3bet ranges correctly, or just be losing yourself post-flop.
The Advanced
These are the regular sharks. They will have way more experience than most in online poker tournaments, probably over 200 tournaments in the belt. They cash out regularly, get a solid ITM (in the money percentage), and will have a good ROI of 20 – 60%. They’re about as good as can be for an experienced casual poker player; and can pull of a number of advanced techniques in MTT strategy including limp shoves, blind defending and small ball.
Tournament Tips for Each Group/Category:
Novice MTT Tips
Some basic fundementals will take your tournaments a long way – I would even say double your ITM. Play tight aggressive (ABC) poker, focusing only on playing premium hands like A-A, Q-Q, A-K and pockets throughout the tournament. Always look for the chance to get your money in early with AA, KK, QQ or AK and don’t try slow playing these hands – you’ll not know when to correctly do this. When you pick up medium pocket pairs in mid-late position you should be raising preflop 3-4 big blinds and hoping to hit something. Make sure you release these hands if you hit some action and fail to hit a set on the flop however. For small pocket pairs, try to get your chips into hands with 3 or more players only and rely on the implied odds for hitting +EV. When you hit great drawing hands on the flop with multiple players in the pot, try to jam your chips as early as posible. If you manage to hit a set when holding pockets, check-raise your opponent – this should build up the pot nicely for a value shove re-raise/jam. Most important of all, if you think you belong to this category learn bankroll management and stop playing sub-premium hands like KQ or JQ preflop. These hands will end your tournament life because you won’t know how to play these post-flop (bearing in mind you’ll be behind often). You’ll end up getting sucked into pots by AQ or AK and won’t be able to fold/read a player’s hand due to your ability.
The above tips and new player tournament strategy should work well for you, regardless of your stack size. If you’re in deep/big stack, don’t feel the pressure to dominate the table and pressure short stacks – you won’t have the ability to do this. Just keep this tight aggressive style of play and concentrate on your own hands. This strategy will usually get you far in the 90 – 180 man MTTs. When you’re short-stacked, just go all in and shove with any of your top 50% of hands: AA, KK, AK, AQ, AJ, 10J/67 suited, or medium and small pairs preflop.
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Intermediate MTT Tips
You’re already successful using the principles MTT strategy so it’s time to step up your game. Firstly you should be comfortable to expand your range of hands in late position and mix up your game a little. Limp shoving and value shoving are worth looking into, and you should be stealing/defending blinds better. For example when you’re in BB/SB start re-raising more from players in LP or MP who are blatently stealing. Remember if you can win the same number of hands as before but with the added provision of being less predictable and more loose, you’re bound to be playing a better game. Also try to identify tight players at your table and really try to start analysing your opponent’s. Use MTT tools like tournament shark if you want to improve your game – these let you analyse your opponents and their style of play. Also invest in developing your endgame by practising sngs and using ICM software. Finally, once you begin to identify players try picking off their blinds and hitting back at them when they check/call in early position.
Generally for the intermediate player, small adjustments to your game, creating a looser image and being able to win more pots without the better hand is what will increase your ROI.
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Advanced MTT Tips
You’re already successful players, and it’s assumed you can play tight, loose, mix it up, perform a range of MTT tricks and regularly make it pretty deep and into the money. Experience is the key to increasing your run in MTTs in all honesty. If you know MTT strategy, it’s just a matter of improving your reads on people and becoming more succinct and sharp when picking places to make aggressive moves. Scrupulously taking notes on players, identifying 3bet ranges and tracking software will take you to the next levle.
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