Multi Table Tournaments Strategy

Playing in multi table tournaments is a fun and exciting way to play poker online. They are designed the same way that the tournaments you see on television are and some of them have payouts almost as big. What you often don’t see on television are the early rounds of the tournament and all of the hard work and concentration it takes to consistently do well. Here is a list of the most important things you will need to concentrate on to do well in tournaments.

Early in the tournament play tight and only push with your best hands. Look for large advantages to take advantage of. Don’t hesitate to pass up small advantages in the early rounds. You will be able to find better opportunities later.

One mistake is all it takes to end your tournament. You must concentrate at every minute and learn as much from your opponents as possible. You never know when a tell you pick up early may win the whole tournament for you. See who is playing tight and who is playing like a maniac. Even when tables break, you may see some of the same players later.

Understand that a tournament is one large battle made up of many small battles. You don’t have to win many small battles, but your goal is to win the big one. Also determine what your goals are for the tournament before you start. Will you be happy with just getting into the money? Will a final table appearance please you or do you have to win to be happy? There is no shame, especially for newer players, to just want to get into the money. The first time you finish in the money at a big tournament you will probably be happy and sad at the same time. It will feel good to accomplish something, but you will be unhappy that you weren’t able to accomplish more.

Stealing blinds is not important at the early stages of a tournament, but it is very important later. This goes back to the advice about observing your opponents and their playing tendencies. Learn which ones you may be able to steal from and which ones that you will have to have the best hand every time you raise them.

If you have a poor run of cards or luck early in the tournament and find your stack of chips getting close to half of what you started with, start looking to push smaller advantages. Don’t let yourself get so short-stacked that an opponent won’t be able not to call. What I mean is that if you don’t have enough chips to hurt an opponent if they call and lose, then they won’t have any reason not to call. Many players call this fold equity. When you are pushing the small advantages, be prepared to back it up with your whole stack. Remember the three things that can happen when you move all in. The bad thing that can happen is you can be called and lose the pot. The other two things are good for you. Your opponent may fold, awarding you the pot immediately, or an opponent may call and you win a large pot.

Entire books have been written about tournament strategy. Because of space considerations, we can’t discuss every possibility here. But if you combine the advice above with solid tight/aggressive play, you will quickly find yourself doing well in tournaments of every size.