Playing Multi Table Tournaments

Online multi-table tournaments play is not only fun and educational, but can also be a great way to maximize your bankroll if you play them right.  Many sites offer low entry fee tournaments that pay out the top places at a mostly decent increase on your investment. 

For example, Full Tilt Poker has $1.25 tournaments with 45 people going on all the time.  They pay the top 6 places:  1st = $17.10, 2nd = $11.25, 3rd = $7.20, 4th = $4.50, 5th = $2.70, 6th = $2.25.  So if you win, you get a pretty good pay-off.  Even if you place 6th, you’ll get your money back with a buck to spare.

The key here is to make it to the final table and, hopefully, the top spot.  You need to play very straight forward, solid poker - especially early on.

Many novice players in multi-table tournaments will bet crazily in the first few rounds hoping to get someone out or get a caller on their pocket 2’s.  Be selective in what you call, and, in general, don’t play into the “all-in” mentality that can lose you in the long run.  You may find yourself very inactive for the first few rounds, and that’s OK.  Survival is the key here.  Try to make it to the first break with enough chips to make you a player.

However, if you have a premium hand, don’t be afraid to push in your chips.  If you want to be a contender for first place, you’re going to need a lot of chips.  If you play your premium hands aggressively and double up, you have a better chance of this happening.

Extract as much value from your premium hands as possible - Too many people overplay their premium hands because they're afraid their opponent will hit a bigger monster on them. They'll bet too much post-flop and push their opponent out of the pot - even with a monster. Use probabilities to your advantage to determine the odds of your opponent beating your hand. You need to trap with those big hands. Too often, people will raise too much with huge pockets causing everyone to fold.  If you do this, you won’t get the full value out of your great cards.  Bet sparingly and keep as many people in the pot as you can.

Well-times aggressiveness goes a LONG way. "Well-timed" means ALWAYS consider your position when you make a move. "Aggressiveness" means don't be afraid to push your good hands. If your hand is good enough to see a flop at this stage, it is then good enough to raise with. Hence, only play (raise) with premium hands from early position. The selection of hands to play (raise) does increase in late position. There's nothing worse later in the tourney than raising pre-flop in early position when the blinds are big with a hand like AT only to have someone slam over the top of you in late position.

Be sure to protect your chips in tournament play.  This means don't raise marginal hands out of position.  Putting your chips out there in early position with a hand like ATs is not protecting your chips. You're gambling that no one else has a better hand, or at least is afraid to attack back, with the entire table to act behind you. What do you do if they slam over the top of you? Fold and give up a large amount of chips? Or call and risk your tournament life on a hand that is more than likely dominated? Not a decision I'd like to make, so avoid putting yourself in this position.

You should never "just call" a large pre-flop raise. If your hand is good enough to call, then it is good enough to re-raise and put the pressure on the original raiser. If you don't feel comfortable re-raising with the hand, you should probably fold it. The only exception to this is if you want to slow play a big hand like AA or KK.

It may be correct to fold what seem to be good hands with a pre-flop raiser in front of you for the purpose of protecting your chips. For example, if player 1 in early position pre-flop raises a fairly large sum and player 2 in mid-position calls, do you really think your pocket tens or even pocket jacks will be good after the flop?

Since you have an early position raiser and a mid-position caller, the best case scenario for you is that your opponents only hold over cards to your tens. And even then, you'd have to hope for a board without any face cards to survive. So in this scenario, it may be best to fold your pocket tens for the sake of chip conservation.

Poker professional Chris Ferguson suggests the best way to play tournaments is to play consistent and tough.  He says, “ Stop trying to force things to happen. Just concentrate on playing solid poker, and let the chips fall where they may. 

Before you worry about adjusting for tournaments, concentrate on adjusting for the other players. The most important skill in poker is the ability to react to a wide range of opponents playing a wide range of styles. Players who can do this will thrive in both ring games and tournaments alike.  Many of the most costly tournament mistakes are the result of players over-adjusting for tournament play.

Your play shouldn't change much as the tournament progresses. Gear your play to take maximum advantage of your opponents, irrespective of how far along the tournament is.

Most players are too loose in the early stages of a tournament. Rather than become one of these players, adjust for their play instead:  Attempt to steal the blinds less often, call more raises, and re-raise more frequently. 

Likewise, when opponents typically tighten up later on, you should steal more often and be less inclined to get involved in opened pots. Again, this should be a reaction to the way your opponents are playing, not an action based on any particular stage of the tournament.”

Ferguson , however, does outline two times when adjustments may be warranted. 

1.   When you are just out of the money.

If you are short stacked, you need to be very careful when committing your chips, especially with a call.

If you have a large stack, look for opportunities to push the short and medium stacks around - especially the medium stacks. These players will be a lot less likely to want a confrontation with you, and it should be open season on their blinds and antes.

If you have a medium or small stack, you need to be a bit more careful. Remember, though, that the other players - even the larger stacks - don't want to tangle with you. They just want to steal from you without a fight. Be prepared to push them around a little, and even to push back occasionally when they try to bully you. This often turns into a game of Chicken between the bigger stacks to determine which large stack will let the other steal most of the blinds.

2.  At the final table

Very little adjustment is necessary until you are one player away from the final table. Here, again, you should tighten up slightly because this is the next point where the payout structure handsomely rewards outlasting other players.

Look for opportunities to push around the other players, and the smaller stacks in particular. This is good advice throughout the final table.

Many people might ask, what about heads up?

There are no more tournament adjustments necessary. You are essentially playing a winner take all freeze-out for the difference between first and second place.

He says, “Tournament adjustments should be subtle. It is rare that your play would be dramatically different in a tournament. When in doubt, just play your best game. And if you never adjust from that, you've got a great shot of winning, no matter what game you're playing. “

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