No Limit Texas Hold’em Tournament Strategy

Tournaments are one of the most exciting formats of poker, with both the glory of being a Hold’em Champion and the cash reward that follows on offer. A small initial investment (known as the buy-in) can yield big rewards if you make it through to the final table, or even win the tournament.

It can take a long time to master the many facets of winning tournament play and this is a brief introduction into just a few of the strategies that can help you advance. Of course there are many different ways to skin a cat so be sure to think out your own lines (ways of playing situations) and techniques.

Early Strategy

So you’ve paid your buy-in, taken your seat and the first hand is being dealt. What should you do now?

Well, firstly it is important to be patient over the early levels. The blinds are small compared to the stack sizes, so you are under no pressure to play lots of hands just yet.

Typically, you will start the tournament with weaker players who have yet to be weeded out, so patiently waiting for decent hands such as big pairs and ace-king, ace-queen type hands is a perfectly viable strategy.

When you play pots, look to get value for your big hands whilst exercising caution when you have medium strength hands and face resistance. Pocket tens might look pretty but there’s no need to get married to these hands on risky flops or facing strong pre-flop resistance.

You should look to accumulate chips however so when the situation demands, you can take speculative shots with small portions of your stack with hands such as suited connectors (like 7d 8d) and small pocket pairs, looking to flop trips, straights and flushes.

Typically conditions are right for playing these sorts of hands when you are in later positions (hijack to button) and when many people are in the pot or when you believe your opponent to have a strong hand that will pay you off should you hit.

Middle Stages

If you reach the middle stages, when antes may also be introduced, you should loosen up the kinds of hands you play with, as stealing the blinds becomes more valuable – adding a much bigger % to your stack. Start raising more often from the hijack, cut-off and button at this stage with a wider range of hands.

Keep an eye on the other players at your table as well. Although you may be moved about from table to table during the tournament, you may well play with some players for a while, so observe them closely to see if you notice any patterns of behaviour.

Do they play big pairs in a certain way? Do they raise often from late position? Do they defend raises of their blinds much?

If you ask yourself these sorts of questions, you will get information that could be invaluable during a particular hand they play with you.

The Bubble Period

The bubble is the stage just before the payout spots and this is a key period in the tournament. Many players will be nervous and looking to go into lockdown mode, so they can secure some form of payout for all their work.

It’s a very natural human reaction to think like this, however if you want to give yourself the best chance of finishing in one of the big payout spots, you need to think differently.
Take advantage of other players tightness at this point. Small and medium stacks are especially vulnerable so raise their blinds more often than you would at other points of the tournament. Recognise when bigger stacks are doing the same as you (stealing blinds with weaker hands) and put them to the test with some re-steals.

This is a great stage to accumulate chips and although an aggressive approach will sometimes mean you finish on the rail without a payout, if you are smart during the bubble stage, you can set yourself up for many more wins.

The Final Table

Once you reach the final table, hopefully you will have gathered some information during the tournament about the tendencies of certain players. You should have a rough idea who the tight players and the looser players are and this information should colour your thinking about their ranges.

There are a few new skills that come into play on the final table that you should think about and adapt to as well.

Climbing the Money Ladder

In general you should try not to let the money spots influence you. Of course sometimes, it is advantageous to avoid a high variance situation whilst there are several people on the cusp of elimination but overall, you should be looking to finish in the top few spots, as much of the payout is concentrated here.

Understanding the table dynamic will help you to find good spots to chip up. If there is a very short stack, then other players you have out-chipped will often be wary of tangling with you before the short stack goes out, so use this to your advantage and put the pressure on stacks you feel might be vulnerable to pressure.

At the WSOP there are often players who fold hands as strong as aces on the bubble of the Main Event as they are so risk-aversive in these spots. Make sure to steamroll the blinds of players such as this and increase your chances of winning.

Shorthanded Play

As well as the blinds increasing, as players are knocked out, you will be playing more and more shorthanded poker. Many players will be in the groove of playing full tables, so again be aware you need to loosen your raising standards as there are fewer players to get through to steal the blinds. The blinds will go through you more regularly as well, so it’s important to keep your chip stack ticking over and avoid being in a situation where you become so short you lose all fold equity.

Adjusting to increasing shorthanded play is something many players find difficult so if you can work on this aspect (and getting practice playing shorter-handed MTTs or Cash Games can’t hurt) then you will gain a big advantage over these players.

Hopefully once you start to develop some of the skills above, you will begin to show some good tournament results. Be patient though. There is a lot of variance in individual tournaments and it can take many tries before you start to show results. If you keep your eyes open, your brain switched on and play some good poker though, it won’t be long before you win your first MTT and enjoy the thrill that comes with being a champion.