Online Poker Tournament Strategy

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A lot of players struggle to close out tournaments. I get asked all the time about how to close the gap, and it turns out that these players have a lot of is. Gripsed Poker Training Presents Online Poker Tournaments Strategy: 5 Tips for Winning Big While Playing Small Stakes. July 17, 2020 Matthew Pitt. 18 Become a winning poker player for free in just.

Jan 13, 2021 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. Winning poker means working on a game where you really need it. This can help you: setting realistic and achievable goals, poker theory. Analysis of the game using special software, individual or group training with a trainer (Cash; MTT; SnG), tilt tolerance.

Poker tournaments are not the same as they were 10 years ago; in fact, the modern tourney does involve more strategic fundamentals, which is why we are sharing our go-to online Poker tournaments strategy and winning tips to help players reach the final table.

Many new Poker players today make the same basic mistakes, largely because of a lack of skill and knowledge –while other players flop due to a lack of focus.

While the surge in popularity of online casinos in Australia has meant that Aussies can practice their online gambling and Poker skills more often thanks to free games, there are still strategic adjustments that can be made to maximise hand potentials.

Check out these six tips and Poker strategy tips.

  1. Play The Right Starting Hands

Many tournament players open up with the wrong hand, especially in the early rounds when a strong hand is still able to be drawn.

This is a problem when called because players that open wide with the wrong hand find themselves at a range disadvantage, thus being open to 3 bets because they rarely have a strong enough holding.

Learn which hands to open raise in multi-table tournaments. Speculative hands like suited connectors, small pairs, and gappers work their best with a deep stack behind.

  1. Be Aware Of Stack Size

During all stages of a tournament, effective stack size has a crucial role in determining whether a player will see success.

With a deep stack, expanding on the opening range and including a number of speculative suit hands and low pairs will just about always be punished if there are plenty of short stacks that are yet to act behind.

Short stacks ideally are in push or fold mode because they are not blessed with having ample time to wait and therefore have to move.

Online Poker Tournament Tips

With a number of all-ins, wide openers will usually be forced to relinquish their hands, even without getting a chance to try a nice flop.

Online poker tournament strategy

For wide opener players, we recommend not committing large portions of their stack with marginal holdings. A player must stay aware of the utility that their stack brings, as well as considering how the opponent will use their stack.

  1. Don’t Overplay Early

When a stack gets deep, a competent player will be less interested in putting their entire stack at risk – because there is more to lose.

What smart players do is recognise the opportunity that other players are going to risk their stack with a predominantly weaker hand.

Consider not opting for the added raise and sit, calling it with very strong hands in early stages has its benefits too as it disguises hand-strength.

  1. Don’t Always Bet Aggressively

C-betting is a strategy which offers great value but for the most part, is not implemented properly by players.

Being a preflop aggressor should never become a c-bet or double barrel. Players commonly make poor c-bets with weak holdings in multi-way pots.

Consider which player has the strongest range, as well as the biggest share of strong hands and the playstyle of the opponent – are they passive or aggressive?

  1. Bet Appropriately
Online Poker Tournament Strategy

A great online Poker player is one that capitalises on a player who tends to either bet too big or too small in a multitude of situations.

When you select a bet size, consider which player’s range does a favour for the board texture and who has the best nut saturation.

  1. Consider Equity Realisation

Players approach big blind play differently in modern online Poker tournaments.

With the current trend, players seek to defend a big blind with just about any two cards, because of the great pot odds that are offered.

Although antes being mixed with small open raise sizing affords great pot odds in the big blind, it tends to create a flaw in how Poker players approach the play they make – called equity realisation.

This equity realisation impacts a player’s certain hand and wins their share of the pot, enough to make it profitable over a period of time.

However, it is worth noting that with a weak range and no initiative it can be very hard to consider equity realisation.

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Poker Tournament Strategy

Whether you’re playing micro stakes tournaments or the Sunday Million – you need to know what you’re doing to have a chance at winning. That seems obvious right? But trust me, there are too many players entering tournaments with no clue. That’s great news for you though cos it mean’s poker is not dead, despite what you hear. This article is going to give you with eight poker tournament strategy tips that can be used to increase your ITM rate, final tables and wins.

Online Poker Tournament Strategy

Online Poker Tournament Strategy

1: Don’t Stop Stealing the Blinds

Tournament poker regs seem to nit it up and count on making it deep with premium hands. Don’t be one of them. Stay active, keep stealing the blinds from late position and don’t give up. A lot of poker sites are advocating the slow down approach but that’s what your opponents want. Regs are playing too many tables, not paying enough attention and missing profitable spots to steal the blinds. Tournament poker will always reward those who are able to consistently steal blinds and keep their stack alive. The fact that people are defending their blinds loosely should not make you fold more often in late position. Why? You have position. You have the advantage in a hand, even if your hand is weaker. Never forget that.

2: Pre-Flop Bet Sizing

Consistency is very important when it comes to raising pre-flop. It’s fine if you want to make it 2.5x then stick with that. Please don’t change it based on hand strength. It’s 2020 and even the most basic of poker players will notice and instantly tag you. If you are a poker training video membership member, you’ll know my preference re’ pre-flop bet sizing but I will re-iterate it here non-members.

Early Position Min Raise

When I’m raising from early position, I lack information on the rest of the table. I want to open raise if I play but I also want to steal cheaply and/or keep the pot smaller against my opponents that flat in position. I also have no problem with it folding to the big blind and them calling a min raise. In fact, I welcome it. I will have position, a better hand and have increased the pot a little. My hand range is likely to be stronger than theirs and I have the pre-flop aggression.

Middle Position 2.2x

No Limit Holdem Tournament Strategy

With fewer opponents behind us, I am happy to increase the sizing a bit and play a slightly bigger pot against the blinds. I don’t want to raise too much as I am still potentially acting first post-flop if someone in position calls. I am also dissuading the blinds to call which is no bad thing in tournaments. I am likely to have a wider range from here so I have no problem with them just folding.

Late Position 2.5x

This may seem counter intuitive to some. Why raise more with a wider range? I want to play bigger pots when I have positional advantage. Sure, sometimes I will be light but sometimes I will be strong too. I want to charge the blinds more than the minimum to play against my wider range. By making it 2.5x I am also protecting myself against 3 bet bluffs a little more. Consider a min raise from the button. The big blind is far more likely to 3 bet bluff that than a bigger raise.

Notice that my pre-flop raise size changes based on position NOT on hand strength. I am staying logically consistent raising 2.5x from late position with A-A, 7-8 and K-6s.

3: Defend The Big Blind

Everyone and their dog are loving the small ball approach these days. The standard small raise is popular and with good reason – it works. One of the results of this is that you have to defend your big blind more. It means calling raises with hands you won’t necessarily want to but pot odds and solid poker tournament strategy dictate you must. Let’s look at a quick example to illustrate this.
Blinds – 600/1,200 (antes 120)
Player A- 42,500
You – 36,900

It folds to Player A on the button. He is a capable tournament player. He raises to 2,500. The small blind folds and the action is on you. Before even looking at your hand, let’s do some quick poker maths.

The pot is 5,380 (1,080 antes + 1,800 in blinds + 2,500 raise).
It costs 1,300 to call the raise.
We need 24.2% equity to call (1,300/5,380).

As you can see, we need defend pretty wide in this spot. Few matchups in Texas Hold’em have hands greater than 76% equity. There are additional factors like effective stack sizes and calibre of opponent to consider of course. But a capable player will defend wide here as we can ill afford to fold many hands when we offered these odds. If you win the pot greater than 1 in 4 times post-flop, it’s profitable to defend.

4: 3 Bet with 30 bbs +

Tournament poker is often playing shorter stacks and less “poker” playing but that doesn’t mean you must play shove or fold poker. You don’t want to 3 bet bluff with short effective stacks cos it means the 4 bet from your opponent will always be all in. With slightly deeper stacks though (30 bbs+), you can afford to 3 bet bluff and take away a lot of pots. Poker tournament strategy is usually to attack short stacks. Screw that, 3 bet bluff the bigger stacks. I find that the big stacks are just as protective as the shorter stacks, if not more. It also means you can potentially get the last bet in if they decide to 4 bet. Good spots for 3 betting are when the raise has come from middle or late position.

Online Poker Betting

CAUTION – Avoid 3 bet bluffing when they are raising from under the gun or UTG +1 as their range is likely to be tighter.

Online Poker Tournament Strategy 2020

5:Learn Continuation Bet Strategy

This article is dedicated to poker tournament strategy, not continuation betting but the fact is, c betting is an important part of tournament poker. You need to understand which boards favour your perceived range and what favours your opponent. A lot of players waste chips throwing out foolish continuation bets. You need to appreciate board texture, number of opponents and stack sizes when choosing whether to continuation bet or not. If you want more help with continuation betting, take a look at our course. It’s the most in depth c-bet course anywhere.

6: Isolate the Limper(s)

An oldie but goody – the iso raise. Raising over a limper or limpers is still a very profitable play. It’s crazy to think there are still players that adopt this limp in mentality, but it’s great for us. If people want to try and limp into the pot with pocket 3s or A-9 offsuit, that’s fine, we will take their blinds all day. In some scenarios, it may seem prudent to over-limp but most of the time, just raise it 4x and win it. If they call, you can often just win it with a flop bet anyway. It’s a great way to build a stack in tournament poker and is also good for your table image. This might help you get paid later in the tournament.

7: Practice Heads Up Poker

Many tournaments end in deals being done but what if yours doesn’t? What if you’re against a tough player or someone unwilling to deal. You need to know how to play 1 on 1. After all, if you want to win the tournament you have to beat the last opponent. Heads up is a great poker format. Some basic heads up tips are below:

  • Raise every button
  • Bet most flops
  • Check raise more
  • Bluff catch 2nd pair down
  • Stay on top of your opponent, don’t let up
  • Don’t show bluffs

8: Join Poker Training Video Membership

I hope you enjoyed this article on poker tournament strategy tips for 2021 and beyond. A final tip is a little plug for our training videos. If you enjoyed this article and would like to learn more, you can. By joining as a member you can gain access to almost 1,000 minutes of poker training videos. I give more tips, secrets and advice beyond this article. You can see how I play tournaments, cash games, SNGs and strategy lectures designed to help members make money.

The price of membership is only £49.99 for 1 year. You can join by clicking below or clicking the banner below for information. Once you’ve paid for membership, you will be sent your personal login details within 24 hours.

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