The Ultimate Guide to Poker Casino Tournaments
In this section, we’ll answer these questions as well as look at some practical examples to help you gain an edge in poker tournaments. Think of your approach to poker tournament strategy like a probing effect. This will shift the leverage from your stack to theirs and take away a lot of the threat of your stack. Some people may confuse this with ICM (independent chip modules), but I’d like to clarify a key distinction. For the expert poker tournament strategy section, I’m going to share with you something that my colleagues and I discuss, but that’s rarely talked about when discussing poker tournament strategy. The logic being that ranges are wide and it’s very probable the opener missed this flop; moreover, your pair outs are likely live vs. the CO’s wide range, plus you have a backdoor straight and flush draw. When this happens you’ll bet the river trying to represent a Qx hand in hopes that he’ll fold. While it’s true that you will have plenty of equity vs. his range, you are really calling in hopes that he checks the turn so that you can bet and steal the pot, a play which you will realize a decent percentage of the time. You should aim to exploit tight opponents by min-raising (to 2 big blinds) from late position, in an attempt to steal the blinds. Also, shove narrower when you are closer to the money, or when ICM dictates that the risks are too high (more on this in the next section). Shove wide when you’re against loose openers, who have medium stack sizes and open in late position; most assuredly, they have wider ranges and will be crippled if they call your all-in and lose. You should aim to adjust the following variables, depending on your opponents, the field, the payout structure, and many additional factors. Ideally these hands will include overcards and backdoor flush draws, but depending on the situation and your opponent, you may be able to open up your game even further and profitably float with more marginal hands. If you feel like you have a postflop advantage over your opponent, you can afford to defend even wider. As you can see from the screenshot above, even 94s, a typical garbage hand, has 30% equity vs. a narrow preflop opening range; therefore, it’s a clear defend. The key point, here, is that the equity you need to justify calling is a mere 18%!

Poker Tournaments vs Cash Games

• Look for spots to open-raise from late position to take down the blinds, particularly against tight players.
• Online poker tournaments offer unbeatable convenience and volume.
• More players mean tighter play and more multi-way pots.
• Preflop, the standard open-raise size is 2-2.5x the big blind.
• But it’s much more common today for players to make smaller wagers of around a quarter to half the pot.
• As a poker tournament progresses and stack depths become shallower, smaller bets become just as effective while carrying less risk.
• Any connected or suited cards are acceptable for defending your Big Blind.

For more practical implementations on how rake affects your poker game, and the exact system I use to optimize my bankroll for risk/reward, while maximizing my hourly, please check out my course, Four Step Poker Mastery. It’s important to think about all the costs of playing poker, before making a decision about what or where to play. If he were to travel for cash games, his ROI would shrink proportionally as well. At a conservative 27 hands per hour, he will win $40.50 in cash games, including rake. Once you’ve decided on the right game, you’ll need to think about the basic tournament poker strategy. And if you opt for the internet, you’ll want to focus on the poker sites, which are full of fish. We’ll talk more about the differences between live poker tournaments and online ones later. But your game selection is just as crucial in poker tournaments, too. Before we delve into the nitty gritty of poker strategies, there’s an important factor to consider first.

Antes

• My complete 8-week program that shows you how to think like a pro, master decision-making, grow your confidence and win consistently.
• Try experimenting with different formats to find what suits your game.
• With a big blind stack depth, the focus becomes less on postflop play and more on finding spots to reshove.
• Poker tournaments follow a specific structure, with rising blinds that cut stack sizes and payouts that are heavily weighted towards the top spots.
• The most common situation to do this is when they open preflop, where you can put them to a very tough decision by 3-betting.
• As a short stack, you are at risk of being knocked out by nearly everyone at your table; consequently, you should look for good spots to go all-in, ideally when you have some fold equity.
• Every elimination on the final table triggers a significant pay jump.

Of course, the main consideration is that you’re up against a better standard of player. Should your online poker tournament strategy look different from that of your live game? Take out the hands that don’t bloodywin casino flop well and that you’d never want to risk your entire stack with, such as A-To.

Basic Poker Tournament Strategy

She is risking 25% of her stack, but the Villain is risking his entire stack, since he should shove or fold with that stack size. In other words, use the “Big 5” in the “Preflop Guide” to determine how to adjust your preflop opening ranges, depending on your unique situation. Just like a chess player thinks multiple moves ahead, before moving a piece, you’ll want to be fully ready to implement this multi-faceted plan before deciding to open preflop. You can widen your shoving range, if your opponent is very likely to fold or you get a strong read. When called (usually from the big blind), bet 2.5 big blinds postflop (or 1/3 of the pot), as a continuation bet for a second attempt to steal the pot.

Increasing Blinds Reduces Stack Sizes

Similar to the bubble, your approach will depend on stack sizes. There’s no need to overly focus on survival here, as pay jumps are usually very small until you reach the final table. Once the bubble bursts and the remaining players have made the money, your poker tournament strategy should switch back to gaining chips. Few players will be able to put a dent in your stack, allowing you to run riot over the table without risking a bustout. If you have a very short stack, then you have a lot to gain from making money. I recorded it while playing on Phenom Poker, so you’ll see the concepts in action against real opponents. For most people who play tournaments with a buy-in of $1,000 or less, where you expect the field to be very soft, I would advise forfeiting small edges and wait for better, more advantageous spots. Tournament life value is basing your in-game decisions, not merely on the expectation (EV) of your individual decision, but, rather, on how that play affects your tournament life as a whole. While this may be obvious in certain spots, such as when you have second pair or a straight draw, you need to open your range up even further to defend properly vs. continuation bets.