There are several profitable ways to play a MTT. This article will introduce you to the conservative approach. This is the most suitable approach for beginners.
The conservative approach has the following traits:

* very few, but very strong, starting hands are played
* when you play, you play aggressively
* you avoid marginal situations

Your goal is to survive as long as possible. As a beginner, your goal shouldn't be trying to amass a large number of chips or trying to knock opponents out of the tournament early in the tournament. No tournament is won in the early phase - but quite a few are lost.

There are three phases in a multi-table tournament (MTT): the early phase - with relatively small blinds in relation to stack sizes, and the middle and late phases - where the blinds are noticeable, if not substantial.

This article will show you how to play conservatively in the early phase of a tournament. We will look at classic freeze out tournaments. Turbos, satellites and tournaments with rebuys often require a somewhat different approach, but the strategy you will learn in this article will help you in such tournaments, as well.
Your plan in the early phase

You should always have a plan of action before you start a tournament. Taking the conservative approach means not taking any big risks and playing very disciplined poker. You choose your starting hands carefully and are happy building up your stack 'slowly but surely.' You aren't looking to force anything. Good starting hands always come; be patient and wait for opportunity to knock.

The early phase's main characteristic is the small size of the blinds in relation to the size of the stacks at the table. In the early phase you have between 50 and 100 BBs in your stack.

Your strategy is basically to only get involved when you clearly have the best hand. No tough decisions!

This means you only enter the hand with cards that are likely to give you the best hand once the community cards have been dealt, and hands that are easy to play on all four streets without having to think too hard.
How should you play before the flop?

You can find a Starting Hands Chart (SHC) for the early phase below. The chart shows you all starting hands that are profitable, as well as how to play them. By following the chart, you will automatically create situations, in which you are likely to have the best hand, most of the time.

Use the SHC for the early phase when you have more than 50 big blinds in your stack.

Charts are a way of simplifying the game. A lot factors influence your decisions, especially in MTTs. Consider this chart as a good friend you can count on. As you gain experience, you will learn to start thinking beyond the basics and will recognize situations in which you can stray from the guidelines found in the charts.

* you are involved in very few hands
* when you are involved, your hand is usually favored to win
* playing after the flop is easy: if you hit, you have a very strong hand.
* you win a lot of small pots, but no large ones
* your opponents will respect your bets/raises

Never forget the difference between raising first in and entering the hand after an opponent has already raised. You need a much stronger hand to get involved after an opponent raises in front of you, especially if the raise is coming from an early position.
How large should your raises be?

With some hands you should raise before the flop. There are a few guidelines to follow when you do raise:

* Your basic raise should be 4 big blinds. Always raise 4 big blinds when no one has entered the hand in front of you.
* For every player that has called in front of you, add 1 additional big blind to your basic 4 big blind raise.
* If one opponent has already raised in front of you, you raise 3 times the amount of his raise.
* If more than one raise was made in front of you, you raise 3 times the amount of the last raise.
* For every player that has called a raise in front of you, you increase your basic re-raise by the amount of the last raise. For example, you raise 4 times the amount of the original raise after one opponent calls in front of you, 5 times the amount after two opponents call in front of you, etc.
* If raising according to these guidelines would cost you more than half your stack, simply go all-in.

These guidelines have proven themselves time and again. Your raise should never be too small; the last thing you want is to give your opponent a good price. On the other hand, it can't be too large, either, or you will scare away opponents with weaker hands and only get calls from opponents with better hands.

* When no one has raised: 4 big blinds + 1 big blind per limper
* One opponent has raised: 3 * size of his raise + 1 * size of his raise per caller
* If your raise would cost more than half your stack: Go all-in.

It's actually not as much math as you might think at first. Once you've played a few sessions according to these rules they will automatically become an inherent part of your game.

How should you play after the flop?

Your actions before the flop determine your options (and thereby actions) after the flop. Now that the flop has been revealed it's time to analyze the strength of your hand and to estimate the strength of your opponents' hands. Your position also strongly influences how you play your hand. You can control the pot and the action much better when you are in position than when you are out of position.
The basics

The following factors very important, you should always have them in the back of your mind:

* Are you in a raised pot or an unraised pot?
* Are you in position or out of position?
* Were you the pre-flop aggressor or was it your opponent?
* Are you heads up or in a multi-way pot?

Always ask yourself these questions before you start planning how to play your hand.
Your hand

After setting up this basis for creating a plan, you have to look at how you got into the situation you are in on the flop. Here are a few specific thoughts to keep in mind:

* What kind of hand do you have?
* Did you hit the board?
* Is the board draw heavy or dry?
* What kind of hand do you think your opponent might have?
* What type(s) of opponent(s) are you facing?

Since your pre-flop play heavily influences the answer to the question, "What kind of hand do you have?", the question to ask on the flop is predominately: How strong is your hand on this board?

When you play marginal hands you often end up in situations in which you can't really tell where you stand with your hand. An overpair of aces always puts you in a good position; saying the same about middle pair isn't so easy.

After considering these factors you then have to decide if:

* your opponent is likely to have hit the board
* your opponent might have a weak/strong draw
* you can get your opponent to fold a medium made hand or a draw
* you are still ahead with your hand

How should you continue playing as the pre-flop aggressor?
Aggression is an important aspect in poker. There are several reasons why you shouldn't be overly aggressive early in a tournament however. You generally won't know anything about your opponents and don't know if they are fish or sharks. You don't know what kinds of hands they play and how often they fold to a continuation bet.

Sometimes it can be better to play a bit weaker and wait for a better opportunity. Examples 5 and 7 show two situations in which you could consider whether or not it's worth contibetting, or even refrain from contibetting altogether.

Many players know the famous book series Harrington on Hold’em. This article will discuss a concept Harrington presents, which presents an easy system for defining your position in a multi-table tournament (MTT). This system is called the M-factor, Magriel's M, often simply called "M" by many players, and is based on the following formula:

M = stack / (SB + BB + Antes)

This formula indicates how many orbits you could survive without playing a single hand. The formula, as seen above, simply divides your stack size by the amount of chips in the pot before any action takes place. This approach gives you a better impression of where your stack stands in a MTT and uses the small blind and antes in addition than just defining your position in terms of BBs (as you might in SNGs).

Never look at your M as an isolated value, but rather in relationship to the other players' M. Whereas you should play slightly more aggressive with an M of 8 when the other players have an average M of 7, your play will change when the average M is 30 to your M of 8.

Short-handed tournaments (3 to 6 players) require an adjusted M, called the effective M, shown by the following formula:

Effective M = M * (players / 10)

The effective M is better suited when short-handed because the orbits whip around much faster, thus accelerating the rate by which your already dwindling chip stack falls. Theoretically, the M and effective M are the same thing. In full ring MTTs, the Effective M is just null as 10 players/10 = 1 and simply reveals a reflexive calculation.

Harrington defined 5 critical zones and also outlined corresponding strategy depending on your M.

* Green zone: M > = 20
* Yellow zone: 10 < M < 20
* Orange zone: 5 < M < = 10
* Red zone: 1 < = M < = 5
* Dead zone: M < 1

The following paragraphs explain how and why you should play in each zone.

How do you play in the Green Zone?

Much of your tournament life will be spent in the Green Zone. This phase allows basically every move and variants of moves that can increase your chip stack. You can decide to be conservative, aggressive, or even super-aggressive in this phase. Harrington advises not taking uncalculated risks in order to stay in this zone as long as possible.

You can play like in a normal full-ring No Limit game, but somewhat tighter. When you find yourself in marginal situations, folding is often better than trying to exploit a minimal edge. The most profound difference between a MTT and a cash game is that the former proceeds with a finite number of chips and the latter allows a theoretically infinite amount of rebuys. You can't buy yourself a new stack in a tournament.

A good way to increase your stack is via the smooth call. Even with a somewhat speculative hand, smooth calling in position versus a tight raiser in early position is a good idea for the following reasons. You can pretty safely limit his range to QQ+ (JJ+ perhaps) and AK, which means you can know where you stand with your hand quite well on the flop. The fewest of players will play for pot control (let alone fold) with a big overpair out of position.

Good hands to smooth call with are pocket pairs and suited connectors, hands like 55 or 67s. Such hands will have the requisite pot odds (particularly implied odds) to move forward. The rule of thumb found from a cash game is that both you and your opponent should have at least 15 times the amount of the call (20x is even better) remaining in the effective stacks. Of course, you should be sure not to overplay your monster hands when in early position.

How do you play in the Yellow Zone?

When your M is between 10 and 20, you have entered the Yellow Zone. Harrington no longer recommends conservative play; he recommends aggressive or even super-aggressive play instead. You need to loosen up your range a little and make looser calls and raises. Small pairs and suited connectors should be thrown away. He recommends small ball moves, meaning you decide to push or fold at the first hint of oppositional resistance.

You can steal raise with a 3-bet push in this phase, meaning you go all in to force the original aggressor to fold. Pocket pairs and suited connectors are best suited for such a move, since they have the best equity against the very tight calling ranges your opponents will have.

Finding the perfect spot for a 3-bet is certainly one of the toughest things a MTT player has to do. Look for the right conditions when introducing this move into your repertoire. First, keep your opponents' raising ranges in mind - the looser, the better. Loose raisers do tend to be loose callers, which doesn't speak for fold equity. On the other hand, you will usually have better equity when a loose raiser calls.

The next thing to consider: the size of your opponent's stack and the likelihood that he will call. An opponent with 7 M won't be able to fold after raising, no matter what two cards he may have (barring inexperience). Deep stacks also tend to call, since they have enough chips in reserve if they do lose. You should target opponents with stacks roughly as large as yours.

Try to accumulate chips from late position and the blinds when your M is between 10 and 20.

The very best places to steal from will be from late position and you can still play hands when in position. By using 3-bets in small and mid size MTTs, you can make steals very profitable. You can even 3-bet all-in from a blind position as a steal-raise.

How do you play in the Red Zone?

According to Harrington, your only and best option in this phase is to be the first to push in the pot. It is recommended that all pairs, suited connectors, and face cards be played in this stage - hands that have half decent equity.

He also views not going all-in with AA as a mistake; it's simply too obvious after you have been playing push or fold. Stick to you strategy and hope opponents fold when you have a weak hand and call when you have a strong one.

Harrington also points out the danger of being eaten up by the blinds. A push that doesn't get called can increase your stack by up to 25% - you would lose that same amount every round you don't push.

You will see a lot of players in the Red Zone who fold themselves into bankruptcy. This can make sense when you're just short of the money or a few spots from the final table, but it is wrong at any other point in the tournament.

You basically have nothing left to lose when you are in the Red Zone. You got there by losing a hand, or because you couldn't catch a playable hand. Your goal is to play aggressively and double up to the Orange Zone, or end your misery and call it a day.

Whoa this is excellent information.

I struggle with mtt's, so i only play 9 or 6 max.

but i know that the real money is won on mtt's.

I´ll put these tips to good use.

Thank you sir

TYhis is veru helpfull.


Do you have a guide for turbo and DoN tables?

I've read interesting posts! Consideration should be!

no thank

edit:double post

ricsike007 posted
no thank

Why. It's a cool article.

Yeah. It's a shame he never put some more.

Nice share.

verry helpfull thx

I have no problem playing good. However, I seem to fail when it comes to money count. When I have a lot of chips I don't play well. I end up losing my chips quickly. Is there any advice for when your stack is high?

nice

thank for these advices

JhooksJ posted
TYhis is veru helpfull.


Do you have a guide for turbo and DoN tables?

turbo = lottery !
don : keep your chips for the bubble