Poker Strategy: MTT
We teach you how to make the final table and lock up a big score.
Poker tournaments present the opportunity to achieve a big payday for a reasonably sized investment. Everyone’s chances of winning aren’t equal though: Those who know what they’re doing will take home the lion’s share of the prize pool. There are plenty of factors you need to take into account when debating your plays in an MTT, including stack size, the number of players remaining, and the payout structure. We’ll show you how to consider these elements, in conjunction with the cards you hold, to make decisions with positive expected value. The articles below are pretty informative whether you’re a freeroller or someone who pays thousands of dollars to enter major tourney events.
Featured MTT Articles
Higher Stakes MTT Strategy
There are big differences between low-stakes MTTs and tournaments at higher levels. In larger tourneys, there are fewer loose-passive players and more tight-aggressive opponents. It’s important to be able to mix up your ranges a bit so that you can’t be easily read.
Win MTT Poker 08 – Bankroll Management
As any poker player does, you will suffer your share of bad beats in tournaments. It’s important to have a proper bankroll management strategy and sufficient emotional fortitude to survive to see the long-term rewards of your superior play. Always evaluate your draws carefully.
chardrian’s True Value of AK
AK is, without a doubt, an excellent hand. It is ahead or flipping against every hand except AA and KK. Nevertheless, you should exercise caution with AK if there are multiple raises in front of you. If there are folds, limpers or a single raise in front of you, you should absolutely play it.
Playing the Small Blind in an MTT Part 1
When it’s folded to your SB in a poker tournament, you ought to be shoving pretty wide if your stack is small. You need to consider how often the big blind will fold, how often he will call and win, and how often he will call and you will win to be able to calculate if it’s profitable to go all in.
Thoughts on Small Pairs in MTTs
There are only a few situations in poker tournaments where small pocket pairs are valuable. You can try to set-mine if stacks are deep. If stacks are short, you may be able to go all-in with small pocket pairs and still have good equity against typical calling ranges.
Most Recent MTT Articles
Win MTT Poker 12 – Poker Secrets and Tilt
Point 36: A Really Big Secret, ssshhhhhhhhhh There is a whole load of people who play like me on the internet. Tight/aggressive/with a little BS mixed in. And here one thing we almost never do, reraise without the nuts or near nuts. If you are playing with me and see...
2005 WSOP Main Event – Michael1123’s Recap
Michael1123 had a great main event in the 2005 WSOP. He knocked out legendary Barry Greenstein and finished in the money! This post will basically be a detailed account of my run in the Main Event of the WSOP, along with all the hands and table compositions that I can...
Win MTT Poker 09 – Big Hands, Stealing Pots
Point number 27: A Common Mistake - Overbetting a Good Hand This is a mistake many of you may have not considered because you usually win the hand. Let me set it up for you with an example, I was in the big blind a couple days ago with AQs, blinds are 50 100. There...
Analyzing some WSOP Main Event Hands
World Series of Poker action sees some talented players square off against each other. By examining the televised hands, we can often gain insights into excellent plays and boneheaded mistakes that the pros make. It’s very important to extract as much value as you can with your monsters.
Win MTT Poker 16 – Building Your Stack
Point 48 (of a planned 30): Middle Tourney Play: How to Build a Stack One of the most frustrating things in tournament poker is playing your way to mid way with the blinds ascending and you simply have no cards to play. The frustration builds as the blinds go up and...
Apply Yourself at Learning Poker
Whenever you read poker strategy guides or books, you must be prepared to study them carefully. Merely skimming the contents will not advance your game very much at all. You should always consider the strategic implications of anything you read to get the maximum value from it.
Win MTT Poker 10 – Developing Skills
Point 30: Artificial Intelligence Can Be Deadly On this site and others, there has been a lot of talk about what style to play, what hands to play, what situations to play in, etc. All of this serves as a mock up of real play, similar to building a model suitable for...
Andy Holt’s Guide to Satellite Poker Tournaments
Satellite poker tournaments can be very profitable, but they require strategic adjustments from normal tournament play. You don’t want to risk your stack early on because survival is more important than chip accumulation. This changes later on in the tournament.
Win MTT Poker 14 – Final Table, Heads Up
Point 42: Heads Up The most frequent question I get asked is how do I play heads up. This is truly a difficult part of the game for most people because they have so little experience. All most all their poker play is based on tables with large fields. I haven't even...
Poker Tournament Skills
We can all agree that there are many skills you need to win consistently at MTTs. Many of us have enough experience to form an opinion on which skill is the most valuable and important. Here are a few skills that I think are extremely important in becoming a top MTT...
Win MTT Poker 03 – Tilt, Patience
Point 9: Thou Shalt Not Steal From the Wounded. Anyone every notice that when you are losing you can't wait to play again and when you are winning you are just looking for a polite way to hit the door and bank those winnings. That is common to all investment that...
Win MTT Poker 06 – Ace on Turn, When to Fold
Point 18: Ace on the Turn and Chips to Burn. This situation comes up about a couple of times per tourney. You have a hand where you have a late position bettor or raiser on the flop. You call the see the turn and here comes the big over card to the board. You check to...
Win MTT Poker 02 – Be a Big Picture Person
Point 6 Be a Big Picture Person. As I am writing this today, I have failed to place in the last 16 MTT's I have played. Not 1 dollar, nothing, natta, zippo. Not a very good feeling. I did get and 2 and a 6th on Sunday that paid quite nicely, but those emotions do not...
soupie’s Win MTT Poker
I recently found this site and thought I would post a few thoughts. I play on Party, Paradise, and Stars in the largest MTT no limit tourneys available after 6:00 pm PST most nights under this name. I especially like the 8:00 pearl and 6:00 R&A on Paradise, the...
Playing the Small Blind in an MTT Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, we looked at how to calculate your expected value (EV) for pushing all in from the small blind against the big blind. In Part 2, we'll take a look at what to do with very short stacks. There are a few factors that compliment the EV...
