Poker Tournament Strategy Middle Stages

Understanding the Early, Middle, and Late Stages. Any player can win a poker tournament by simply getting the perfect cards at the right time, or when playing against awful poker players. All of us know that the best tournament poker strategy is aggression. This is especially true with an online poker tournament strategy. Tournament poker strategy has advanced in leaps and bounds over the past decade.And an 'old-school' style will no longer cut it at the poker tournament tables. In modern tournament poker playing styles, bet-sizing and the general approach to specific situations have all changed drastically.

Moving on from the early levels into the middle stage of multi-table tournaments, let's focus on some factors you need to keep in mind in order to increase your chances of making it even further and into the money.

By 'middle stage' we're referring to the period following the early levels — that is, after the antes have kicked in and after late registration has ended, but before you're in close enough proximity to the bubble for the prospect of making the money to exert any significant pressure just yet.

How you approach the middle stage of a multi-table tournament has a lot to do with how well you've managed to do during the early levels, which is usually affected by how you've been approaching the tournament thus far when balancing the need for chip accumulation and survival.

If you've been focusing on accumulating chips by being aggressive and occasionally taking risks in the hopes of building up a stack, you're likely either sitting above the average — perhaps even well above the average and among the leaders — or you might be especially short-stacked if those chances you've taken haven't worked out in your favor.

Meanwhile if your focus has been more about survival — that is, if you've been playing a mostly tight game and most avoiding risks thus far — you're probably right around the average or perhaps a little above or below it.

When discussing middle stage strategy, then, your approach will differ according to how your stack compares to those of your opponents, as well as how your stack looks in terms of its relative depth when compared to the blinds and antes.

Middle Stage Strategy: Big Stacks

If you've successfully chipped up during the tournament's early stages to a point where you have a significant advantage over others at your table — say you're the table's chip leader or among the top two — the middle stage becomes a period when you should use those chips to your advantage, in particular by pressuring those with medium stacks fearful of losing too many chips prior to the approaching bubble.

With a big stack (or a medium stack) you should be going for blind steals when tighter players are in the blinds, as this is a point in the tournament where the blinds and antes are big enough to be worth stealing. A simple 2x raise at a full-ring table only has to work half of the time to enable you to add chips to your stack, given the additional antes.

By the same token, big stacks can defend their blinds with a wider range, either by calling or (more often than not) reraising. Big stacks can also get away with calling others raises more often, looking for opportunities to trap those who are only raising with the using upper range of starting hands.

Big stacks can also absorb coin flips or 'priced in' all-ins versus the short stacks, although don't become overly eager to gamble just because you can afford to lose chips. The fact of the matter is, having chips means you don't have to gamble the way you do when short. Maintaining your above average stack as the tournament is approaching the bubble is worthwhile, as you can then open up and take advantage of bubble opportunities to build when the medium and short stacks really tighten up.

Middle Stack Strategy: Medium Stacks

Having a medium stack during the middle stage of a multi-table tournament can be challenging — even awkward — at times, as you have enough chips to keep 'playing poker' (with blind steals and resteals, preflop three-bets, continuation bets, and other postflop manuevers) but you are at risk of becoming short-stacked or being eliminated whenever vying for pots against larger-stacked opponents.

Like the big stacks you should be targeting tight players when they're in the blinds. Defending your blinds is important as well. As the middle stage begins and blind steals begin occurring more frequently, it can be worthwhile to three-bet in response the first time someone tries a late position blind steal against you, if only to establish for everyone else that you aren't going to be an easy target going forward.

Exercise caution in postflop situations with decent though not especially strong hands such as one-pair hands (including top pair, top kicker) and second-pair hands. The big stacks in particular — if they're following the advice given above and looking to trap medium stacks — can present a serioius danger should they play aggressively against you in postflop situations where you've made your pair but they may have better. (See 'Risky Business: Medium-Stacked in a Tournament's Middle Stage' for more discussion of this scenario.)

Meanwhile don't be afraid to value bet stronger hands (two-pair or better). Slow playing after flopping well generally isn't going to be a good idea except against the loosest opponents who'll tend to bet the hand for you. This can be an especially beneficial spot against bigger-stacked opponents who are on the passive side, willing to call your bets down because they have the chips to spare.

You should always be aware of others' stack sizes at any point in a tournament, but when medium-stacked during the middle stages may be the most important time to be so aware. Don't get caught battling for a pot preflop or postflop with a subpar holding versus either a bigger stack or a shorter stack who can do serious damage to your stack should the pot get especially big. It's a common mistake among MTT players to risk unnecessarily large percentage of their chips during the middle stage — say by calling a shorter-stack's all-in with a small pair, ace-queen or worse, or king-queen, or taking a similar gamble after flopping a flush or straight draw.

Middle Stack Strategy: Short Stacks

Let's make it clear — just because you might be below the average in a tournament, that doesn't necessarily mean you're 'short-stacked' or in the danger zone, chip-wise. Sometimes when playing online poker players become overly concerned about where they are in relation to an average stack (always displayed in the tournament lobby). Don't panic, even if you happen to be among the shortest stacks at your table in the middle stage of a tournament, especially if you still have 15 big blinds or more.

Slip down to 10 big blinds or less, however, and you'll need to be looking for those spots to double-up prior to the tournament reaching the pre-bubble stage. You don't have the chips simply to keep folding hand after hand, orbit after orbit. With medium-to-big pocket pairs and big aces, getting your stack in before the flop should be a priority, while sometimes you can open-push with less (e.g, big kings, lesser aces) such as when folded to in late position or the small blind.

Unless severely short (five BBs or less), be less inclined to reraise-shove with anything less than premium starting hands. With or , for instance, you wouldn't necessarily want to go to showdown against a player who has opened the pot if you could avoid it — if they call your reraise-push, they may well have you dominated.

It's possible sometimes as well to chip up with a short stack during the middle stage of a tournament without necessarily putting your entire stack in the middle, especially if there are tight players with medium stacks. You can get such players to fold to standard opening raises even if doing so leaves you only a short 6-8 BB stack behind. Knowing if they call they may well be 'priced in' to play for your entire stack, these players often will not wish to get involved.

Finally, don't forget the 'stop-and-go' play as an alternative to open-shoving a short stack.

Conclusion

Tournament poker rules don't change from level to level, but your strategy should as you move through the different stages of a tournament.

Keep in mind that the middle stages of multi-table tournaments are where differing stack sizes begin to matter greatly. Pay attention to who's got the big stacks, who's short, and who's in between, and also always be aware of where your stack places you as you negotiate your way deeper in an MTT.

Also in this series...

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Everyday players are sitting down at the tables and consistently making fundamental mistakes because of lack of knowledge, misinformation or failing to maintain focus.

Even just a small strategical adjustment in poker can potentially save you a huge amount in the long run.

In this article we will point out some of the best live and online poker tournament strategy tips you can use to improve your game as quickly as possible.

Tip 1: Play The Right Starting Hands

Whether it be lack of patience, or an unfamiliarity with opening ranges, many tournament poker players still open too wide. This is especially true when it comes to early and middle position opens, where there are still many opponents left to act behind who can be dealt a strong hand.

The problem is when called, wide openers are often at a range disadvantage. Often being dominated by their opponents, they are vulnerable to 3 bets since they frequently won't have a holding strong enough to continue under pressure.

Furthermore, although opening a hand like 7 ♠ 5♠ might at times not be a terrible strategy from early or middle position, speculative hands like suited connectors and gappers, as well as small pairs, work best with deep stacks behind.

These speculative hand types infrequently connect strongly with the flop, so those times they do you want to have deep stakes behind to have the potential to win a huge pot. Modern day tournament structures often only see deep stack play occur during the first few levels of play. This leads us into the next tournament poker tip, being stack size aware.

Learn which hands to open raise in MTT's - Watch lesson 6.1 from the Road to Success MTT Course. A power-packed 50 minute video below, just use one of the button options to unlock it and get instant access.

Tip 2: Be Stack Size Aware

Effective stack size plays a critical role in a tournament players success.

Having a deep stack, and therefore expanding an opening range to include a lot of speculative suited hands and small pairs is a tournament strategy that is going to be punished if a number of short stacks are yet to act behind. This most notably occurs in turbo tournaments where the average stack size is quite short.

Short stacks will be in push-or-fold mode. Being short, they don't have time to wait and will be looking to take any opportunity they can to move all-in. This high rate of all-ins will leave wide openers frequently being forced to relinquish their hands, without even having the opportunity to try to hit a nice flop. Problematic hands often include; J8s , KTo and weak Ax hands.

It's not just short-stacks that can cause a problem, aggressive players will be looking to attack wide-openers. This is especially true when a player opens with a vulnerable M8-M14 (20bb-35bb) stack. 3 bets get good leverage against this stack size, since continuing in the pot represents committing a significant portion of a players stack.

Wide openers would be wise not to commit a large percentage of their stack with marginal holdings, and so will be forced to fold, or face being in a high-risk situation. Staying aware of your own stacks utility, as well as anticipating how opponents will utilize their stacks, is an important tournament poker tip to keep in mind.

POKER TIP: If you are currently using BB to calculate stack size, here's a look at why using 'M' is a better MTT strategy.

Tip 3: Be Careful Overplaying In The Early Stages

As a stack gets deeper, the less willing a competent player will be to put their entire stack at risk since they have more to lose. It's rare to see good players all-in during the early stages of a tournament with hands like AKo or JJ preflop.

Smart players recognize that their counterparts aren't going to be risking their entire stack with weaker hands like AQo . Therefore, even a strong hand like AK could be at a significant equity disadvantage facing a deep stacked opponents all-in range. Could you fold QQ here?

Rather than putting in an extra raise, often times just calling with even very strong hands in the early stage of a poker tournament has great benefits.

• Allows your opponents to continue with hands they were folding to a re-raise that you have crushed.
• Disguises the strength of your hand and keeps you unpredictable.
• Prevents you from getting all-in facing a super strong range where often times you're crushed.

Tip 4: Continuation Bet Aggressively But Not Always

Players have learnt the value of c-betting, but it's a strategy that is often misapplied. Being the preflop aggressor shouldn't lead to a mandatory c-bet and double barrels.

This is especially true in multi-way pots yet players continue to make fruitless c-bets with weak holdings into multiple opponents.

Even in heads-up situations, key factors to consider include;

• How does the flop texture interact with players ranges?
• Who has the strongest range?
• Who has nut advantage (the biggest share of super strong hands)?
• How passive or aggressive is the opponent we're facing?
• How does the stack size/SPR allow us to operate on the flop and future streets?

The following hand illustrates the effect nut advantage can have on profitable continuation betting and how it applies to this tournament poker tip:

Tip 5: Be ICM Aware

The Independent Chip Model or ICM, is a great model players use to make more profitable decisions when deep in a tournament and especially at a final table.

Unlike in cash games, chip values fluctuate depending on the stage of the tournament and the competing opponents stack sizes. At it's most extreme, ICM strategy can make A♠A♣: an easy fold preflop.

Imagine a situation in a satellite where 9 players get a World Series of Poker entry and there's 10 remaining. The action folds around to a player with 100,000 in tournament chips who moves all in from the small blind. You're sitting in the big blind with A♠A♣: and also 100,000 in chips. You look around and see a few opponents with only 1000 chips left, which is the size of the current big blind. Obviously one of these short stacks is likely to bust very soon.

Obviously one of these short stacks is likely to bust very soon. Moreover the chance that they collectively out survive your 100,000 stack is extremely remote. You'd likely be a 99% chance to get a WSOP entry, so why would you call with your A♠A♣ and risk busting next around 20% of the time?

Aside from calling too wide in spots when the most profitable strategy is to proceed tightly, the opposite can also be true when it comes to pressuring your opponents. ICM allows players when they have the opportunity to assert pressure on there opponents stacks, to go ahead and do so liberally, since thinking opponents counter-strategy is to play a tight range of hands.

Here's an example of how drastically a hand range can change when the opportunity to assert pressure at a final table exists. 5 of the 6 remaining players at the Pokerstars Sunday Millions have 15bb's, whilst the UTG player has a short 2bb stack. Since the 15bb stacks wants to avoid busting out next and missing out on a large pay jump before the immanent bust out of the 2bb stack, the small blind can adjust their all-in range. Instead of the profitably 57% all-in range in normal play, they can move all-in with 100% of hands to apply pressure on the big blind.

Whilst the big blind should adjust their calling range from the regular 36% to just 10% of hands to account for the ICM effect in play.

The PokerNerve Road to Success course teaches players how to master ICM situations, which is key to tournament poker success since ICM comes into play as the prizes become significant. If there was only one tournament poker tip that you take away from this article, it's that you need to know ICM!

Tip 6: Bet The Appropriate Size

Strong players are capitalizing on their opponents tendencies to bet too big or too small in a number of different situations. With some similar considerations to that of continuation betting, when selecting a bet size important aspects include;

• Which player's range does the board texture favor?
• Who has the greatest nut saturation?
• How does SPR influence our betting strategy

There are many great articles online about bet sizing. You should be sure to check out ThePokerBank's and the Pokerology's to learn more about this tournament tip.

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Tip 7: Take Equity Realization Into Account

Possibly due to the popularity growth of Twitch, many poker players approach to big blind play has evolved. The current trend is to defend the big blind with virtually any 2 cards, as some top pros elect to do, and the justification for this is taking advantage of the excellent pot odds being offered.

While the inclusion of antes combined with commonly seeing a small open raise size does offer the big blind generous pot odds, this has led to a fundamental flaw in the way many players approach big blind play in poker tournaments. The key concept overlooked, is equity realization.

Equity realization reflects a players ability to take a certain hand, and win their share of the pot, frequently enough, to make it profitable in the long-term. Although some top pros have the ability to win their equity share of the pot even out of position, less skilled players rarely do. This leads to a large chip loss in the long run.

It is quite difficult to realize of your equity when out of position, with no initiative and a weak range. This means them glorious odds you are being offered aren't quite as good as you think!

The following article explains this crucial tournament poker tip in more detail; Equity Realization.

Tip 8: Don't Miss Double And Triple Barrel Opportunities

'One and done' is the plight of many aspiring tournament poker players. Everyday at the tables I see players missing profitable opportunities to double, or even triple barrel. Understanding what turn and river cards are advantageous to a players range, along with opponent tendencies, are crucial parts of a winning barreling formula.

The most common scenario at the table, is a heads-up pot where the big blind calls an open-raise. And this happens to be a great spot to barrel. Big blind defenders have a wide range, and it's important to pressure this wide range, especially on only partially connected board textures with one or multiple high cards.

RedChipPoker has a great article on spotting profitable double barrel opportunities which you can read here: THE +EV DOUBLE BARREL GUIDE

Tip 9: Check-Raise More Flops

The biggest difference between the current tournament population, and the future generation, will likely be their approach to check-raising the flop. This opportunity typically occurs in a heads-up pot, after defending the big blind verse an opponents raise.

Currently, MTT players only check-raise the flop in this situation around 7-8% of the time, when closer to 20% is a more optimal strategy. On certain flop textures, check-raising close to 25% of the time is an extremely profitable strategy. And if players are getting out of line with their c-bets, then check-raising at an even higher frequency could be a profitable exploit.

By giving up too easily on a wide range of board textures, or taking a more passive approach and simply calling, c-betting can be done with reckless abandon. However, by selecting a nice mix of check-raising hands, combining some strong hands with some good semi-bluffing candidates, a check-raiser can become tricky to play against and exploit the average players tendency to over c-bet.

POKER TIP: Applied correctly and check-raising becomes a super powerful weapon in your arsenal leading to more profitable poker results. But also think beyond the flop, there's plenty of check-raising opportunities you may be missing. This video demonstrates an interesting turn check-raise situation.

We discuss check raising strategy in more detail in our post over on unfeltedpoker.com.

Tip 10: Develop A Good 3betting Strategy

Whilst 3 betting aggressively is a strategy many players employ, especially in online poker circles, failure to apply optimal 3 betting strategies has certainly led to a lot of spewy poker. Simply attacking opponents who are suspected of opening wide doesn't cut it in the modern poker world.

Players have learnt to deal with 3 bets more profitably, by mixing in some calls with timely 4 bets. Moreover, the role stack size plays when it comes to 3 betting it still largely misunderstood by much of the poker community.

Sure there are certain stack sizes where 3 bets gain a lot of leverage, but how about the role blockers play? And when is 9♦7♦ a better 3 bet candidate than K♦T♠ ? These are just some of the considerations when it comes to a profitable 3 betting strategy. See how to design strong 3betting ranges in this article by Donkr.

Bonus Poker Strategy Tip: Avoid and Deal with Downswings

As a poker player you want to earn your money as easily and as stress-free as possible right? Well, understanding ROI, variance and bankroll management can help (see TopPokerValue's article on bankroll management).

All poker players at some point experience downswings. In some cases, this can affect their play, volume or state of mind.

You'll be miserable, hating poker, playing less and earning less per tournament as your play will suffer.

Along with finding ways that work for you to keep a positive mindset, taking pro-active steps can help keep you confident by knowing you are dealing with the situation like a professional whilst at the same time taking positive action to get back on track and winning.

What is ROI and variance?

Every tournament you enter has an EV associated with it. So if you enter a $10 tourney, as a good player maybe you have a 30% ROI, so you make $3. So it doesn't matter whether you brick that tourney or win it for $5000, you make $3 in the long run.

Now, of course, you don't make $3 each time. 80-85% of the time you lose that $10, some percentage of the time you win a little bit, and some very small percentage of the time you win a lot. How small those ‘small percentages’ are primarily depends on not only your skill edge, but also the field size which is an extremely important concept that is often ignored.

Variance is a factor of two things:

1) Your edge

2) The field size

Poker Tournament Strategy Middle Stages Pdf

Example 1)

You play the Hot $55 which has $30K guaranteed, every day for a year on Pokerstars. It has 1600 runners and you have a 5% ROI, because turbo ROIs are small. Your average yearly profit is $605 however you will lose money on the year 55% of the time.

Poker Tournament Strategy Middle Stages 4

Example 2)

You play a $20 tourney with $3K guaranteed on a softer site every day for a year. It has 200 runners and you have a 30% ROI, because it's a normal speed tourney and you’re against an easier field. Your average yearly profit is $2400 and in this case you lose money only 12% of the time.

A lot of people would look at those two tournaments and make a decision based on the buy-in and 1st place prize money as to which was better to play, and it would be grossly wrong. Once you accept all the above, you realise that the 'up top' number is largely meaningless.

Yes, on the same site bigger fields may mean a lot of fish have registered to play, but you'll find a lot of small field, soft, non-peak hour tournaments have a great pro-to-fish ratio and hence are great value. Of course once you consider other sites that have smaller fields, you'll often find they are a better choice than what might be running on Pokerstars.

So what can you do?

When players start losing money and along with that, confidence, not only does their game deteriorate but they often compound that problem by failing to make rational decisions. Often losing players, or players on a downswing, go 'bink chasing' and decide to take a shot to win all their money back in one tourney. Or load up some quick $82 hyper-turbos to try to turn it all around quickly.

People get overly fixated on what's 'up top' and wanting to score big in one tournament. That’s a sure-fire strategy to fuel a down swing. If your house got knocked down would you try to slap it back up in a week? Take that opportunity to rebuild a better, stronger house.

Make sure you're adding in some study and keep focused (see Sky's Matsuhashi How To Study Poker series), and stay fresh and positive as you approach each session. Be smart and get back into profit quicker instead of enduring a 6-12 month variance rollercoaster!

Closing Words On Tournament Poker Tips

Poker is a multi-faceted game which makes it fun but challenging. Challenge yourself to factor in the relevant concepts, and make more profitable decisions. Tighten up from the big blind, and in general around the table. This tip often quickly improves a new players results, or those that have a got a little sloppy with their play.

Calculate stack size using 'M'. Always be aware of your own, and your opponents stack sizes so you don't get yourself caught in awkward situations. One awkward situation that often comes up is when you hold an overpair to the board and an opponent puts the heat on you. Don't be afraid to make big lay downs to preserve your stack, especially in the early levels.

Be aware of your cbetting frequency. There's no need to waste tournament poker chips cbetting every time, especially when the pot is multi-way. Pick your spots to make profitable plays. Remember when it comes to the final table, regularly profitable playing ranges might alter due to the payouts. ICM is the key when it comes to those final big decisions.

Poker Tournament Strategy Middle Stages 3

Another key to success is knowing when to fire multiple bullets at your opponents. Barreling, especially against a wide big blind range can really help increase your non-showdown winnings. Finding ways to accumulate chips without always having the best hand is what top players do. This is why check-raising and having a good 3 betting strategy is so important. Correct use of these strategical concepts and the other tips outlines will get you winning more at the tables.

Now that you've acquired some great holdem tournament strategy tips to help you achieve MTT success, go out there an implement them!

One of the quickest way to improve your poker game is to take on a poker coaching, a course or join a poker training site; if that is something that interests you be sure to check out the PokerNerve road to Success Course for some advanced poker tournament strategy or you can check out HowToPlayPokerInfo's guide on poker training & poker courses to find the right option for you.

Any other poker tournament strategy tips? Leave them below in the comments, we would love to hear them!