poker tournament

Basic strategy for Texas Holdem multi-table-tournaments (MTT)

Introduction

Multi-table-tournaments (MTTs), tournaments with a minimum of 20 players at two tables, strongly differ in two manners from all the other alternatives of Texas Holdem.
Firstly, the amount of money which you can win in proportion to your bet/commitment is enormous. Especially at MTTs in which more than hundred or sometimes even more than a thousand players participate it is possible to make a huge sum from a relatively small amount. a fantastic example is the tale of Chris Moneymaker (his real name). With $40 he bought himself into two satellite tournaments, won a ticket to the head tournament of the WSOP 2003 (world championship poker) and eventually won the first price of $2.500.000. He is a professional poker player ever since. Who doesn't want that? This possibility is probably the reason for the large popularity of MTTs nowadays.
The other difference of MTTs compared to any other form of poker is that the chance of actually winning something is way smaller regardless of how well you play. The reason for this is that luck becomes a much more influential factor when participating at tournaments of this scope. For example, at the end of the tournament all chips will be thrown in the pot before the flop, which results in a sort of head-or-coin game. Furthermore, you'll need a large bankroll in case you only want to play MTT's (minimum hundred times the buy-in). Statistically it must be possible to end up in the prices once in every fifty times you participate in a MTT. This however can still be profitable. Still, in general your hourly return will be lower compared to playing other variances of poker. Keep in mind that MTT's always last terribly long. You can easily play many hours and end up falling outside the prices. On the other hand, when you are lucky and for example you've won a pretty large MTT with a buy-in of $100, you've ended up earning an annual salary in a day!!!

Strategy

For a good strategy for an MTT you should distinguish three phases in the tournament:

1. The beginning of the tournament

For MTTs you should use a totally different strategy compared to playing at ordinary tables. In MTTs bluffing is way less effective. This is because in general the quantity of chips of the players in proportion to the pot is way lower. Besides that, and this is very important to realize, in general the positive value of an increase of your number of chips is lower than the negative value of a fall of your number of chips with the same quantity. Or in other words: an increase of 2000 to 3000 chips has a less positive impact on your winning chances than a decrease to 1000 has on your chances to lose. It is therefore wise to avoid gambling as much as possible. Also trying to draw for a large part of your stack (number of chips owned) with marginal odds is not recommended. In a tournament with many participants it is often more a question of surviving (as long as possible until you fall into the prices) then of winning.
In the beginning phase of MTT you must only try to win large pots with only good hands against bad players. This is usually no problem, given that there are always a lot of very aggressive, reckless players participating in MTTs. You can roughly play the same hands as we have discussed in the basic strategy for basic Texas Holdem. Once again we strongly discourage bluffing!

2. Halfway the tournament

During the tournament the blinds become increasingly higher and therefore it becomes more and more significant to win them. You should apply the principle that it is much easier to raise with a weak hand then it is to call with a strong hand. Use this as a strategy! However do pay attention to players with very large stacks. Those players sometimes have the strategy to call as many hands possible to eliminate opponents from the tournament. In this phase of the tournament it is more then ever a question of surviving. You have to steal blinds, otherwise the blinds will put an early end to your tournament. Try to avoid confrontations unless you're very sure about your hand. Take into account that at this stage loosing once can be enough to cause elimination from the tournament.
If you have a large stack things are different. In that case it could be a good idea to abuse the surviving techniques of the other players. Put your opponents under pressure by raising a lot and by making them choose between folding or all-in. They risk elimination of the tournament whereas you only risk one part of your stack. However, do not raise everything because you will then be too predictable. Also be very aware of bad players who will call anything.

3. The end of the tournament

At the end of the tournament all decisions are taken before the flop. It will be a matter of going all-in or fold. The heads or tails game has begun. For players with a low stack it can now be sensible to go all-in with reasonable or even bad hands. If you fold you might lose too much anyway and if you go all-in you have two winning opportunities: you win because everyone else folds, or you win because eventually you turn out to have the best hand. At this stage you can expect very strange situations to appear (e.g.: people who go all-in with AA, are called by J2 and lose from the J2). In case you have a reasonable or large stack it is therefore best to make use of the situation. If you have an a, you have an advantage against all players with two different cards without an a. If you have a pocket pair, you have a small advantage against all players without a pocket pair and you have an enormous advantage or disadvantage against all players who also have a pocket pair (when two pocket pairs go all-in against each other, the highest pocket pair has a chance of winning 4 to 1!!). Therefore, if you have an a or a pocket pair at this stage you should go all-in, especially when you have a small stack. You can then no longer afford to have your blinds stolen anyway. The chance is absolutely there that you will lose, however you will then in any case also have the chance to win the blinds.

h2]Re-buy tournamentsFor re-buy-tournaments you need a different strategy than for normal (freeze-out) tournaments where you cannot get extra chips. We'll start with the 4 golden rules of re-buy-tournaments:

1. At the start of the game immediately re-buy.
2. If you're still playing when the break comes, always add on, unless your stack is so big that it would hardly make a difference.
3. Make sure you have enough cash to do a few re-buys and an add on.
4. Prepare yourself for some extremely bad beats during the re-buy period.

It's important to switch to another strategy during the re-buy period of a tournament.
Your strategy should be directly linked to the amount of the buy-in of the tournament.

Re-buy tournaments with a buy-in of $10+1 (re-buys and add on excluded)

On a few poker-sites there are many people playing, like the daily $3+0.30 re-buy ($10K guaranteed) on PokerStars with an average of 2500 players , making the rewards very interesting.
a first place with a win of $5000 is more a rule than an exception!

These tournaments are filled with a large group of total idiots and a small group of good players that will do very well during the tournament.
In the ideal scenario: you'll have a few players that will go all-in every time hoping to win a big pot.
You don't have to play every hand you have, just wait for a nice pocket-pair (99+), AK or AQ and then go all-in.

Your goal is to get as big a stack as possible at minimal cost. Try not to re-buy more than 2 or 3 times.
If you do re-buy, do a double one so you'll have a double stack, just as you did at the beginning of the game. If many players at your table go all-in, it's not a bad idea to call if you have high suited connectors (78s, 910s, 10Js, QJs, and KQs) in order to get a big pot.
If you have built up a large stack play more conservatively to keep it. In the worst case scenario you don't double and will have a stack of 5000 chips (or you get fed up by a few bad beats and quit). Always add-on unless you have 3 times the chips than what is average because it will do nothing to improve your odds.

Re-buy tournaments with a buy-in of $20+2 to $50+5 (re-buys and add on excluded)

Because the buy-in is higher players will generally play more conservatively, although occasionally you'll see the odd re-buy-maniac at your table.
More "real" poker will now be played, usually waiting for the flop.

Bluffing during the re-buy phase doesn't do you much good because players will probably go all-in or call with a large range of hands. Especially flushes and straight draws are popular hands for the large profit they bring.
The higher the buy-in the more these tournaments will start to look like normal tournaments and you'll see less players.

Re-buy tournaments with a buy-in of $100+9 or more (Possible re-buys and add on excluded)

In these tournaments huge amounts of money can be won if you make it to first place.
On the other hand they can cost you a lot of money, if you don't make the cut.
Many players will not re-buy or add on and become "dead money".
Don't make that mistake! Otherwise you may just as well shove your money where the sun doesn't shine.
Your odds will be virtually reduced to nothing.

Kill Everyone, Advanced strategies for No Limit Holdem poker tournaments and sit-n-go´s

Authors: Lee Nelson, Tysen Streib and Steve Heston
Comments: Bertrand Grospellier
Publisher: Huntington press
Length: 370 pages
Date: 2009
Price: $23 (amazon.com)



This book, as stated in the title, is about “Advanced strategies for No Limit Holdem Poker tournaments and sit-n-go´s.”
One if the authors, Lee Nelson, is also one of the co-authors of “Kill Phil”, the revolutionary poker manual edited in 2005 by Huntington Press. Blair Rodman, the other co-author of Kill Phill, has moved to the Blackjack games but was still involved in reviewing the manuscript of Kill Everyone.
Besides the authors, the book also contains notes by the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure 2008 winner and player of the year Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier.
The book is an expanded version of Kill Phill and it promises to be just as revolutionary and a must-have.

The content is divided into four mayor parts:

• 
  
• Early stage play: With some guidelines for accumulating chips, and a state of the art analysis of new and old school poker strategies.
  
• Endgame play: With concepts ranging from basic endgame strategy to specific strategies for different types of tournaments, prize pools, shorthanded and heads-up play and professional sit-n-go´s strategy
  
• Other topics: Topics covered include adjustments to recent changes in NLH tournaments, the role of luck, how to play against better players, how to get ready for a tournament and more...
  
• Online shorthanded no limit Holdem cash games: An interesting approach for cash games in general. Covering the differences between the different stages of a tournament and a cash game both for big stacks and short stacks

The book also contains six appendixes:

• 
  
• Appendix I: Equilibrium solution for moving in far from the money
  
• Appendix II: Equilibrium calling strategy for far from the money
  
• Appendix III: Assumed rank order for pushing hands.
  
• Appendix IV: Assumed rank order for calling hands.
  
• Appendix V: Limitations of ICM
  
• Appendix VI: Resources

In this book, the authors assumes you know basic stuff like pot odds, implied odds, etc. but you don`t have to be a pro to understand the concepts.
It is a valuable and up-to-date tool for every player wanting to improve his tournament skills, giving clear strategies for playing the different stages of a tournament, from big multi table live events to online tournaments and one table sit-n-go's.