I could write a whole library’s worth of books dealing with poker MTT strategy. The situations that can arise in a poker tournament are almost infinite, so there’s no shortage of spots to analyze. That said, there are a couple of key points every player should know about MTT strategy that I’ll outline quickly here.
Playing a solid MTT game comes down to adaptation. You’ve got to be able to adapt — to the game structure, to the different blind levels, and to your opponents. If you can play a dynamic game that takes these three factors into account, you can win poker tournaments.
Let’s analyze these factors one by one, and see how mastering them can help our game tremendously.
Factor 1: Adapting to Game Structures
I’m always amazed at how players will play a turbo MTT just the same as they would a regular MTT, or play a bounty tournament the same as they would a freezeout. What a huge mistake!
The structure of whatever tournament you’re playing will always change the optimal strategy you should play. So if you want to play a +EV game, you’ve got to adapt your tactics to suit the structure.
Turbo tournaments have shorter levels, and thus devalue your stack very quickly. This means it’s correct to play a bit looser at all levels of the game; at least looser than you would in a regular speed tournament.
Bounty tournaments pay out extra when you knock out a specific person. So it makes a lot of sense to gun for that person’s stack. Because you’ll have a bit of added equity in the game by virtue of the bounty, your preflop hand threshold vs. the mark should decrease. If a player with an M of 7 pushes from middle position in a regular freezeout during the 4th level, and your M is around 12-15, it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense to call. But if there’s a bounty of 5x the tournament buy-in on that player’s head, calling is probably correct.
Always adapt to the structure of the tournament you’re playing. Playing a single game across every type of game is a recipe for disaster.
Factor 2: Adapting to Blind Levels
I could have also titled this factor “adapting to your blind/stack ratio”, but it’s easier to conceptualize if you just think in terms of blind levels. The concept is simple: as the blinds in a tournament get bigger, relative stacks generally become smaller, and thus playing a looser game becomes correct.
Imagine you’re playing a regular freezeout with a $10+1 buy-in, and it’s the 2nd level — blinds are 20/40. Your stack is 1500, and your opponents’ stacks range from a low of 1200 to a high of 1700.
In this example, you’re in no danger of being blinded out. Your stack can handle around 25 orbits without your even playing a hand. So you can afford to wait for decent holdings — either premium hands, or some well-disguised speculative hands like suited connectors. It’s actually a mistake to play loose when your stack is so large relative to the blinds!
Now imagine that it’s the same tournament, but it’s now the 5th level — blinds are 100/200. Your stack is still 1500. The stacks at your table range from a low of 1400 to a high of 7000, with the average stack being around 4500.
In this scenario, it makes sense to open up your starting requirements, and to start shoving hands you wouldn’t even have considered playing in earlier rounds. You’re at risk of being blinded out (only 5 orbits until you’re broke), and you can pick up some pots because you’ve got some fold equity. So it becomes correct to push your stack into the middle with hands like A-5 and K-8; hands you wouldn’t even raise if the blinds were 10/20.
Adapting your play to the blind level is critical to playing a solid MTT strategy. To sum up the above with a slogan: big stack and small blinds, play tight; small stack and big blinds, loosen up.
Factor 3: Adapting to Opponents
This factor isn’t only applicable to MTT strategy; it’s a cornerstone in any game of poker you’ll play. You’ve always got to adapt your strategy to the strategies your opponents are using. That way, you can exploit their mistakes, and maximize your winnings.
In a tournament, you’ll want to keep an eye out for players who call too much. A loose-passive player will be either your worst enemy or your best friend, depending on how well you adapt.
Consider the following: you’ve got a marginal hand and there’s a player in front of you who never folds preflop. You want to try and steal the blinds preflop. Should you raise?
No! Not unless you want to engage in an extremely thin-value situation in which you’ll have no idea where you stand.
Against loose-passive types, which are pretty common in early tournament levels, you’ll want to tighten up your game. You know they’re going to call with anything, so you might as well raise, raise, raise when you’ve got the nuts.
At the other end of the spectrum are players who play way too tight. These are the guys who will only enter pots with the top 10% of their hands, even on the bubble. This strategy of maximum tightness is pretty obviously terrible, and you can probably guess how to exploit it: loosen up!
You can steal blinds and pots from nits with ease. Play small ball with these guys. Throw out little raises whenever there are nits in front of you, and watch them fold; it’s no way to double-up, but your stack will grow steadily and without much risk.
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