Poker Blog

Tournament Mission – Get in the Money

In my last article, Poker Tournament Strategy – Part II, we touched on something I’d like to bring up again.

I’ve often walked into poker tournaments where that loud and boisterous fellow is bragging about being the sheriff. In fact, often times there are grinders there egging him on. Encouraging him to be the sheriff.

The reason for this is that the sheriff has a job in every game. Yes he steals a lot of pots, and even cashes now and then. He re-raises often when he thinks someone is bluffing, he’s the guy that will call your bet just to keep you honest.

Hallelujah for him! We need his chips. He gets them by overplaying a small pair, or a weak ace, and then hitting some amazing stuff, and getting the nits to put all their chips in. Understand me here, he gets rid of the nits, and then he donks off his chips.

The point here is that we do not want to be the sheriff, he’s going to play a big part in getting us into the money though. We want to wait until the sheriff has over-bet a few dozen pots, and hopefully taken a few people out of the game, narrowed the field for us, and we want to wait until we catch said sheriff, and smack him over the head with a big bag of NUTS.

Final Stages Tournament Play

During this later portion of the game we really have but one goal. Make money, first and foremost. So if your only goal here is to finish in the money, you can’t shove in all of your chips and risk your tournament stake with mediocre hands. That King Jack of Diamonds that Darvin Moon shoved in at the final table of the World Series of Poker, well that’s just not going to work consistently.

Basically, if you can find a reason to fold a hand here, unless you are severely short stacked (and we’ll cover short stack play later on in another series) fold’em up. Basically you are considered short stacked once you leave the green zone according to Dan Harrington’s M-Calculator. Personally I think at this stage of the tournament you should even consider the yellow zone as somewhat safe. Don’t start acting panicky yet.

As long as you’re comfortable with your stack size here, you really just coast. If the table tightens up, and no one is calling bets, make a few.

If however there’s plenty of action, watch the show for awhile. As the money gets closer, and the blinds get bigger, you’ll find that the action slows way down.

Now when this happens, and opportunity may present itself for you to do some stack building, and when there are free chips on table, who are we to turn them down.

Stealing the Blinds

Since we’re nearing the money, the blinds are of course easier to steal here. We’re playing smart and are not risking our own tournament life, but that has nothing to do with our willingness to take advantage of other players’ fears.

When playing poker tournaments, watch for weaker opponents, and the ones that know how to lay a hand down. Generally the ones that always bet a big ace will make a few calls if you have the chips to gamble with. I’ve found that calling pre-flop, just flat out calling, slows them down on the turn if they’ve missed. Now you’ve let them see four cards, so this can be risky if they’ve hit something, but you should have some idea what they’re drawing for here.

Making the Final Table in a Poker Tournament

If the turn bet is smaller than what you’d expect, or they check the turn. Cut into them deep. Make a large sized bet, if they missed it this late in the game, they’ll lay it down.

Your ultimate goal here is only to make final table, and to make the money. To be a winning tournament player, you need to be consistently making money. You don’t always need to win first, but you need to cash.

Once you’ve made the money, we’ll switch things up again, open up our game, and we’ll gamble a bit more. But we’ll talk about that in another edition.

In her previous article, Poker Tournament Strategy – Part I, LadyHoldem wrote about early tournament play. In this episode she continues with middle stage strategies for poker tournaments.

Once you’ve reached say the 4th or 5th blind level, even just stealing the blinds now and then can add valuable chips to your stack.

Something to keep in mind is that picking up the blinds once per revolution keeps you even. Don’t dwell on it, or feel overly compelled to obsessively make a stab at the blinds every revolution, but do keep it in mind. For instance, say you’re hanging in, waiting to wake up to a decent hand. The play is soft for a bit, so you pick up a couple mini-pots, and then the next revolution a new player comes to the table and changes the tables dynamic.

Players seem to be in the mood to get their money into the pot. This new comer to the table is pushing, and your table mates are bored and enjoying the action. Feel free to sit this spell out, floating along on the chips you gained from earlier steals.

In fact, whether or not you’re able to snag a few pots during the slow periods, one thing you want to avoid when playing a poker tournament is premature pressure to act.

Many players realized they’ve lost all their ‘big chips’, or they’ve lost half their stacks, or for whatever reason they’re playing with less chips than they would prefer to be playing with at some point. As long as you’re holding at least 10 big blinds, just wait.

Wait for a hand, or your blind, an opportunity to set a trap, wait for a real hand. Don’t shove at the site of an ace. More often than not that action will send you on your way to the rail, quite prematurely.

Patience is Key in Poker Tournaments

If you’ve ever played the 440 man tournaments on PokerStars, and cashed, you’ve probably realized that this entire tournament can be played in as few as four hands. A player can play that tournament folding nearly every hand that is raised before it gets to them, and then towards the middle of the game, play a hand or two doubling their chips, a couple strong plays at the last stretch, and first or second place is pretty much a given.

What’s to be learned here is patience. Fight it out with the bullies, only when you have the nuts. With that point made. Pots at this level when the blinds are steadily increasing really add some weight to your stack.

The time to gamble with lower suited gappers and the like is pretty much over. You might see a flop with a QK suited if the play at your table hasn’t been overly action packed. Aside from that, it’s a good idea to remain seriously particular. Strong hand selection is a MUST.

Once you opt to play a hand, dig in. But remember, a bad beat is a lot worse when you’re on you’re way out the door. There’s no river that you HAVE to see. Look for signs that you’re beat. Fold when it’s time, but until it’s time, shove on.