Tournament play is all the rage these days and there is a good reason for that. Frankly you can win a lot of money in a relatively short period of time if you know what you are doing. In today’s tournament world there are basically two types of tournaments you can choose from, the multi table tournament and the sit-n-go. Both offer great payouts but clearly multi table tournaments are where the big money is at. This article will discuss what types of strategies you should use as you progress through the tournament to have the best chance at winning!

Early tournament strategy

At the beginning of the tournament you should have one goal and that is to build your stack and become a force for the rest of the tournament. How you do this will seem a bit interesting because while you need to be ultra aggressive and play to win, you also need to be very selective in the starting hands you play. See, the opening rounds of the tournament are where you need to balance highly aggressive play with extremely selective starting hand requirements. They can be very contradictive concepts but you need to stick to them. Something else to keep in mind is that while you want to be aggressive and build your stack you also need to be protective of your stack. Try to avoid crippling all in situations early on unless you truly have a power hand.

Middle tournament strategy

As the tournament progresses to the middle rounds you can ease up your starting hand requirements a bit. What will happen now is the field of the tournament will start to thin and you will need to start picking off better and better players. By this point you have built a nice stack though aggressive yet very selective hand play. People will eventually catch onto this that is why you need to start adding some extra hands to the mix and varying your play. Your ability to change gears and keep opponents guessing are what will get you through the middle rounds of the tournament and hopefully onto the final table. While you certainly had to be keenly aware of your opponents in the early rounds, be very cognizant of the fact that the middle rounds will hold clearly better players. Make sure you study and analyze your opponents carefully.

Late tournament strategy

If you have made it to the late rounds of the tournament then you clearly are doing something right. Unfortunately at this point the blinds and antes might be very high. What this means is that the game will now play much differently. You will need to play many hands and find ways to win with them or pick off the blinds. In the late rounds blind stealing will become very important. What you will need to do is time your aggressive pre flop play to times of weakness for your opposition. Even late in the tournament you should be able to get reads on opponents when they are weak. If you are in middle to late position, these are perfect times to steal blinds with less than favorable hands. Additionally, you are going to need to make hands like K8 off suit and 64 suited work late in the tournament. If you have set your opponents up properly with deception and by varying your play, then this shouldn’t be a problem.

Just remember that the progression in tournament play is from selective and aggressive in the beginning to a more loose cannon type approach in the middle to the end. While you aren’t playing like a loose cannon, you have to get your opponents to think that is what you are so that you can make tactful moves at the right time without them every knowing you planned it all along.