Multi Table Tournament Strategy

Multi-table tournaments are one of the most exciting forms of poker because there is no other game in which you can win so much money with such a small investment. They require great patience because almost every tournament you enter will result in minutes or hours of work with little or no payoff whatsoever.

The times you do achieve a major tournament victory are rare indeed but those rare moments make all the trouble worth it. With some tournaments offering life-changing money for prizes, it's worthwhile to take a little time to learn proper tournament strategy.

Multi-table tournaments can be divided up into 5 major parts: Early Stages, Middle Stages, Late Stages, the Final Table and Heads Up Play. You will enter each stage with varying chip counts - sometimes you'll be doing great, other times you'll be running low and feeling desperate.

With that in mind, you'll want to remain flexible on the strategic guidelines presented in this strategy guide. You can't follow any one poker strategy robotically because there are just so many variables out there. This strategy guide wasn't designed to give you an effortless roadmap to victory. Instead, it will infuse within you the most important strategy concepts winning tournament players use to win tournaments no matter how their luck may be running.

Early Stages

The early stages of a multi-table tournament (MTT from now on) begin as soon as the cards are dealt and last until the blinds are about 50/100 or so. You will want to begin with a tight strategy and use the early stages to watch your opponents, get in the tournament groove and to conserve your chips.

Contrary to popular belief, the early stages of a tournament are not the times in which you should be splashing around and looking for big hands. Sure, if a big hand lands in your lap that's great, but you shouldn't be spending chips on speculative hands in the hopes of hitting something lucky.

You need to conserve your chips and play tight during the early stages because you'll need these chips later on in the tournament. A double-up right now is only worth about 1,000-1,500 chips and considering the fact that you will have to win every single chip in the tournament to take first place, this doesn't mean very much.

In addition to that, you will want to play tight during the early stages because most of your opponents are going to be playing extremely loose. If you sit back and wait for strong hands, you'll get paid off by all the loose, crazy players still in the tournament.

There's no point in doing any bluffing or getting too tricky yet because there are still too many loose players out there. The best strategy during the early stages is a very simple, straightforward strategy that consists of strong starting hands and betting when you hit something strong on the flop.

Middle Stages

The middle stages of a tournament will start to get a little more exciting. It's pretty easy to glide through the early stages without much thought but the middle stages will require more thought. If you haven't been lucky enough to double-up yet, you'll be starting to feel the pressure because the blinds will now be about 50/100, 75/150 or even higher.

When the blinds get equal to about 1/10th the size of your stack, you'll really need to start making some moves soon. You'll be feeling a little pressure right now but this is what you can expect in tournaments. The good news is that the blinds are now worth stealing and you'll be able to get away with it much of the time.

You'll have to choose your spots carefully but it's generally the best to steal the blinds when you are in late position and the table has folded around to you. Every once in a while you can try a big all-in move if a person or two has limped in the pot already but you always run the risk that one of those people has a big hand.

It's easy to get timid during the early stages but this is not the time to do it. You really need to step up the aggression here and start making some well-timed steals. There's no need to go absolutely crazy yet but you will want to keep your eyes peeled for good opportunities to steal pots.

The focus from here on out is going to be on stealing pots rather than hitting hands. In tournament play, you don't have the luxury of sitting around and waiting for strong hands. When strong hands come to you they should always be welcomed but you can't depend on them to get you by.

Late Stages

The late stage of the tournament begins right before the money (the bubble) and ends at the final table. This is the time in which you should really amp up the aggression. The blinds will be larger than ever and people will be sitting scared just hoping to last long enough to make the money.

You should take the opposite approach because simply making the money doesn't pay the bills. If you want to receive a big paycheck, you're going to have to place in one of the top 5 spots. Keeping that in mind, you will want to start putting lots of pressure on the players who have tightened up during the bubble.

These players are easy to steal from because they are scared and are very likely to fold. They know that all it takes is one wrong call and they'll be knocked out of the tournament with nothing to show for it. These opponents are perfect to steal from so steal from them as often as you can.

Only very rarely should you be the one calling an all-in play. It's ten times better to be the one pushing all-in because it forces your opponents to make the decision. Pushing all-in gives you the opportunity to win the pot without a showdown. Making a big call does not offer that same opportunity.

Once everyone makes it to the money, you'll see the play loosen up considerably. The players who were barely struggling to make the money are now happy to have made it this far and will be more willing to mix it up with you. You'll have to slow down on your stealing some but still keep your eyes open for soft spots.

Sometimes there will be a second bubble right before the final table. The players will tighten up once again, just hoping to make it to the final table. If you notice this happening, you can once again open up your game and get to work stealing the blinds.

The Final Table

Once you make it to the final table, you'll notice the play change considerably. A few of the players will be sitting dangerously low in chips, there will be a couple of players with huge chips stacks and everyone else will be sitting somewhere in the middle.

As a general rule, you'll want to steal the blinds from the players with the medium-sized stacks. These are the players who aren't yet desperate enough to make any big calls but they don't have enough chips to risk calling for the sake of knocking you out.

You'll want to pay close attention to each player, noting how they react to their blinds being stolen, how they try to steal and how they react to re-steals. You'll probably be able to identify a few people that represent easy steal targets.

After the most desperate players get knocked out, you'll be down to about 5-7 players and the play will mostly consist of raises and folds. Most of the players will be looking to steal blinds so there won't be a lot of all-in confrontations or post-flop play. Eventually, however, the game will works its way down to just 2 players.

Heads Up Play

The correct strategy for heads up play will vary largely based on the size of you and your opponent's stack sizes, the size of the blinds and how skilled you believe your opponent is.

Against skilled opponents, you're going to have a tough time. Luckily the blinds will be pushing both of you to make moves so you won't really be that much of an underdog. You'll both be stealing from each other a lot when playing from the small blind and folding a lot when playing from the big blind.

If the stacks are deep enough, you can steal your opponent's blinds without pushing all-in and you can also attempt re-steals by raising on top of your opponent's raises. It's risky doing so but if you can get away with the occasional re-steal, you'll be able to put a major dent in your opponent's chip stack.

If instead the stacks are shallow, the tournament will become more of a crapshoot with both of you going all-in relatively quickly and hoping for the best. There's not a whole lot you can do when the blinds are large compared to stack sizes except try to be the aggressive one and hope your opponent has a bad run of cards.