Your Guide to Making Online Poker Profitable

Multi-Table Tournament Games

Later Stages

After the first break, normal and re-buy tournaments will become basically the same game, the only exception being that in a re-buy tournament, you will often have a much larger stack size in relation to the blinds, which means seeing flops will be relatively cheap early on.  In either case, play will tighten up considerably compared to the first period.  You now need to see where you stand in relation to the whole tournament, and determine if you are a big stack, a medium stack, or a small stack  A big stack would be defined as being in the top 25% of all players, a small stack would be in the bottom 25%, and a medium stack is anywhere in between.

As a tournament progresses, being able to track the play of your opponents is critical.  How many hands do they play?  How often do they pre-flop raise?  How aggressive are they post-flop?  It can be difficult to track these things yourself.  One way to keep track is to use a software that tracks these important stats for you.  The one that ProfitablePoker.net recommends is HoldemPirate.

If you are a big stack, you have a big advantage.  You can limp in to see flops with marginal hands much more easily than others, with the hope of hitting a big hand.  You can also bully the table whenever you sense weakness - this can be quite effective on a tight table where the other players are reluctant to chase a hand with only so-so cards.  Obviously, bullying works much better when you're up against a small stack, so pay attention to the stack size of your opponents before trying to steal the pot with a bluff or semi-bluff.  As a big stack you can also afford to just sit back and wait until you hit big hands, since the blinds are relatively cheap, and then you can set traps for your opponents.  A combination of these strategies is probably the best course - bully at times, trap other times, and avoid hands where it appears you won't win.  Keep in mind that if you're a big stack, you can afford to sit back and not play at all and still make it far, so don't take crazy chances and give away your chips.

If you are a medium or small stack, you need to look around the table and make note of the other players' stack sizes, their style of play, and your position in the betting.  These 3 factors are nearly as important as the cards you have.  For instance, it will be more difficult (and more expensive) to bluff out a big stack than a small stack.  A big stack may call a small bet just so he can see another card, while a small stack may not.  With the blinds being high, and getting higher, your position becomes more and more important, because you can't afford to throw away chips.  For example, suppose you have KQ unsuited.  You might be willing to call the big blind to see a flop, but not call a raise.  If you are in early position, unless the table has been very tight pre-flop, you run the risk of being raised and having to fold, thus giving away valuable chips.  The smaller your stack, the tighter you will need to play in order to protect your remaining chips.  You will need to be very selective in the hands you play - if you're in a hand, you need to be "in it to win it."  This means that if you see a flop, you need to decide if you think you're winning or not - if you think you're winning, bet a sizeable amount and take down the pot, you can't afford to let someone draw out on you, otherwise you should get out and wait for the next good hand.

As a tournament goes on, being tight-aggressive (the first term represents your pre-flop strategy, the 2nd term is your post-flop strategy) is the way to play.  The only exception would be is if you're a big stack, when you can be looser in the flops you pay to see.  You will also need to start raising pre-flop more often in the later stages of the tournament.  In fact, the farther you get in a tournament, the more the pre-flop raise becomes your friend.  Quite often, hands will never make it to the flop - whoever raises first (or whoever re-raises with a big amount) will win.  Stealing blinds becomes more and more valuable as the tournament progresses, because you will win a decent amount with the blinds being fairly high, and you lessen the risk of being beaten by a marginal hand (since they will fold to a pre-flop raise).

Proceed on to Multi-Table Tournament Strategies - Page 3