Multitable Tournamens… The big paydays. Your very own WSOP sitting in the comfort of your own home. You remember the bad beats you take for days and
weeks afterwards. You don’t forget the hand that was to make or break you. And that’s why we all love them. The chance of the big score! One big cash and your ready for Vegas, the fun , the heartbreak, the hours, the sweat , the tears and the glory.
Well if you’re the kind of player who feels you don’t get enough luck in the MTT’s, then you probably get as good as successful players. The only difference being is that they make their own luck. There are many things you can change about your game to improve yourself in these games. Any article I write is only my theory, you can take it for what its worth to you. If you can take 5% into what you already know then I’m doing my job. I want to explain stage by stage my multitable tournaments strategy.
I have been pretty successful in MTT’s both live and online, and my Official Poker Rankings stats are around 91% R.O.I. (return on investment) from around 400-500 MTT’s on PokerStars. I’m only going to give 60% of what I feel I know, if you like what you read then make sure to get involved with the free poker coaching courses on offer from poker-scholarship.com.
EARLY PLAY
Pointless getting involved in anything for the 1st hour especially, unless you have the nuts DO NOT put your money in with flush draws or K-K, Q-Q. No no no, it’s a long haul and you win nothing in the 1st hour. You want to get yourself around the bubble always because then you can play on peoples feelings, emotions etc. I have folded trips at this stage, A-A post flop to a scary flop and a maniac betting madly. I’m talking about a 7-8 hour MTT game, anything from 1000- 3000 players, so it’s a long haul. My theory here is get yourself settled and focused and fold, fold, fold!
MIDDLE PLAY
O.k. Assuming we are past the 1st 2 breaks so we are into the 3rd hour, now we’ve only been playing standard poker, playing our big hands and folding everything else. Now we have an image as tight if we have been on the table long enough, then this is where we can step up a level. So any PP (pocket pair) I have in my hand I’m opening up with, if somebody has already opened the pot for 3xbb, I’m re-raising with any PP. I’m taking control from this point with every meaningful hand, anywhere in position. I will only open from seat 4 onwards if it’s folded to me and I hold any hand worth noting (2-2 to A-A) (A-10 to A-K) (K-10 to K-Q) (Q-10 to Q-J). This is the stage where everybody starts to tighten up, the big stacks ease off and the short stacks wait for hands, but we aint playing our stacks, we are playing position and always taking control of anything we do.
LATE PLAY
The blinds and antes are vital, you must be stealing these to stay ahead of the game, 3-betting people with anything you deem worthy of playing, 4-bets, crazy bets, just gotta get physical. But everything coincides with each other. Your bets must reflect the stacks around you, your own stack, if you raise and the BB has 3BB’s in his stack, your not stealing your being silly, as he has to call once the pot is huge.
Just controlled continuous aggression till you reach the Final Table, then you stop and it becomes a 1 table game. You re-evaluate and see what the players are playing like and then pick them off 1 by 1.
Like I said I have a lot more on this, this is a general idea and strategy plan that I use myself.
So make sure you sign up for some free poker coaching, get in touch with Marios and I look forward to working with you all.
Jimmy
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Another good read Jimmy.
Thanks Jim, appreciate it !
Really good article.
Great introduction.
“The only difference being is that they make their own luck” – I’d say the only difference is that losing players think they don’t deserve it, while the winners go along with reality.
Great read though.
reraising with any Pocket Pair is basically building a bigger pot knowing that 7 out of 8 times you will not make your Set. in other words, you are generally building a pot for your opponents, not yourself. unless your opponents are very weak, this is very bad play IMO
Im not re-raising wih any pocket pair to build any pot or hit my set(although that would be nice).
Im taking control of the hand by re-raising, im being the aggressor, its not whether i hit the flop its whether my opponent hits the flop, thats if they stay in the hand preflop.
ita completely w jims comment above. you can find out the true strength of the raisrs hand by reraising. they may overestimate your hand by you reraising esp if you have been playing ultra tight the first few levels of the the tournament at a table that has not been broken. you have spent a long time creating a tight aggressive table image and eventually you have to start taking advantage of it.