| NL Hold Em| Multi Table |
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Playing tournament poker is not for the meek or those with little patience. On the contrary, it takes an immense amount of patience and well timed aggression to finish in the money of a multi-table tournament. Sometimes in multi tournament play you might not see a hand worthy of playing for an hour or more. Early Stages In early stages of the tournament you need to be extremely protective of your chip stack. Playing fewer hands and grabbing pots that you enter in order to increase your chip stack should be your focus. At this stage of the tournament it is your job to be an observer and when not in a hand to be taking mental notes of the other players betting habits. Some individuals believe they should play ultra aggressive early in order to get ahead in the tournament. This philosophy simply said is get up or get out. However, the grim reality is that this philosophy of tournament poker routinely lands those players out of the tournament well before finishing in the money. If you just observe a tournament or two you will find that those who start with big chip stacks rarely finish in the money and even more rare to finish deep into a tournament. Being aggressive does have its part in the tournament but not in the early stages. Middle Stages The middle stages of the tournament are when it is time to open up your play a little. This means that the cards in your hand mean less and your position means more. This doesn’t mean to become reckless and play every Ace you see it just means that playing more starting hands in certain positions becomes more crucial to finding success. Picking up the blinds and antes when they become available when in position becomes a good move to make in order to increase your chip stack. In earlier play this doesn’t make sense because of the pot size created by the blinds. Being observant in earlier stages will help you in the middle stages of the tournament. Of course it is important to observe all players at the table, however, it is particularly important that you pay close attention to the two players on your left and right. The two players to your left (small and big blind) are important to know because when on the button you can routinely pick up small and big blinds by raising if one or both of the blinds are not calling stations. You need to know the two players to your right in order to know whether a re-raising pre-flop or raising on the flop will make your opponents fold. It is important that you play your stack though at all times. Meaning, make sure that when entering a pot and especially raising a pot, you are aware of the stacks that get involved in the hand with you. Stay away from the much larger stacks unless holding very strong hands throughout play of a particular pot. Calling off chips by fishing for hands is common for those more inexperienced in tournament play. Fishing for cards to complete hands creates certain doom for those wishing to finish in the money and getting deep into a tournament. If you decide to go fishing, make sure that the bet placed by another player is worth the odds compared to chips to call. (See our Odds and Outs section for examples) Mixing up your play becomes more necessary in this level of the game. This means that you need to not be habitual whether you have a hand or not. For example, always raising before the flop, then checking the flop when you are strong and immediately betting the turn. Being unpredictable will pay dividends when you hit your hands. And remember its OK to get caught bluffing every once in a while. Later Stages In the later stages of a multi-table tournament creates for an atmosphere where you need to be aware of all hands played at all times watching how players are playing in various positions and looking for hands shown. The level of aggressiveness at this stage of the tournament depends on your chip stack and how fast the table is playing. However, generally you will need to be more aggressive than you were in the earlier stages of the tournament unless the table is playing fast of which you can pick your spots. Playing your chip stack Chips are King in poker, but in a tournament maintaining and increasing your chip stack is all too important. As the tournament progresses the amount of your stack plays an integral role in how you enter pots and ultimately how you finish in the tournament. No matter what stage in the tournament you are playing in you have to know where your chips stack stands with the blinds as well as to the other players in the tournament. If you get to be in a chip position where you have less than 10 X’s the big blind you really only have one move…All-IN! Just pick a hand and that doesn’t mean waiting on AA’s. pushing with 78 isn’t a bad idea. However, if you have been playing in a tournament for hours on end and are getting close to being in the money it is up to personal discretion to whether you push with your AJ or low pair but not recommended. Tournament play always will have a some kind of lobby board whether you are playing online or live that shows lowest chip stack, average chip stack and highest chip stack. This is important because if you are somewhere around average chip stack then you are comfortable in you chip position. However, keep in mind although you are average you won’t win the tournament in average chip position. If you have a chip stack less than average means you could find yourself in a an all in mode soon if you don’t either start catching hands or start position betting. If you are fortunate enough to get into a large chip stack position in any level of the tournament it does allow you to put pressure on the other players. However, just because you have a big chip stack doesn’t make you invincible. It is all too often seen players with big chip stacks become donators to the other players because they don’t lay down hands. So don’t get reckless at any stage with any chip stack. |