Looking to improve your game? Here is my MTT strategy

Hello all, i have to decided to combine a moneymaking strategy of my own hoping to help some of you who just can't quite get into the money with the way you are playing now. I would suggest printing this out and using it as a reference while you play. It really helps! I originally used this to help a group of friends so if you see some names in there don't mind them.

One of the most important factors in making a decision in online MTT play is stack sizes. Combining stack sizes with positional analysis that is based on the individual read of each player at your table can pretty much help you make flawless decisions, at least preflop. I’ve probably been cognizant of this fact at its deeper levels of understanding for about the past 3 months or so, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those 3 months have been my most profitable stretch of MTT play online. There was once a time when I just based everything on Harrington’s “m” zones, but with regard to online tournament poker I think they are a bit outdated (due to the fact that better players are constantly adjusting and trying moves that most weren’t using when Harrington’s books were published) and need to be brushed up on a bit. I think the most important of these areas that need to be “cleaned up” is the M zone of 10-19. Harrington advocates that during this time you “lose the ability to play conservative poker” and must “loosen up your opening requirements considerably.” In my opinion this is a very exploitable fallacy. I think the following adjustments need to be made for 1) the speed of an online tournament’s blind structure and 2) the fact that the majority of online players at the medium-higher stakes are more sophisticated as far as move making than your average live tournament player:

Zone 1, an M of 20 +, generally meaning you have 30 or more big blinds in your stack- For obvious reasons, this is the ideal place to be during any level of a tournament. When I am in Zone 1 during a period where there are no antes in the starting pot, I elect to play super-conservative and wait for strong-premium starting hands before opening up a pot. I’ll generally limp my small pocket pairs from early position, raise with them from middle-late, and just fold my suited connectors from early. Once the antes kick in, I’m raising every time a hand looks “pretty.” If I’m dealt 7-5 hearts from the 2 hole and my image is pretty tight, I’m opening for a raise. More often than not I’ll get one caller who will then check fold the flop to my c-bet, allowin g me to increase my stack and accumulate chips without showing down. Other times, I’ll flop a monster and stack someone. Occasionally, I’ll get raised by the guy who flopped a set (or sometimes a draw), and I’ll have to fold. Overall, the strategy is massively +EV. I’m not going to get too fancy and try any 3-betting or 4-betting allin on a flop bluff or anything like that when I’m very deep stacked.

Zone 2- an M of 8-19, generally meaning you have 14-40 big blinds in your stack- This “M” zone is the one I think needs to be modified the most. Harrington only says that you “lose the ability to play conservative poker,” but doesn’t really elaborate on how to not play conservatively while in this zone. I think its most important to look at your stack in this zone as more a function of how many big blinds you have, and not your M level. An M of 15-19 is drastically different than an M of 10-14. The breakdown of how you “should” accumulate during this level is as follows:

25 big blinds or more- Personally, I’m playing the exact same way that I’m playing in Zone 1. With antes, I’m opening plenty of hands, c-betting, etc, etc. This is also a GREAT time to bust somebody by cold calling out of the blinds or late position with AA. Ideally playing against someone in the next two zones, you can cold call and check the flop, allowing them to double barrel or triple barrel allin vs your disguised AA.

14-24 big blinds- This stack size is the most awkward one to play in a NLHE tournament. During this phase of “not being able to play conservatively,” you actually need to play much, much tighter than normal when it comes to opening for a raise. Your stack is very vulnerable, as you are in a place where you don’t need to commit your entire stack in a marginal situation, meaning its too easy for you to fold to a reraise when you open with a marginal hand. We can’t commit our whole stack calling a 3-bet or even a 3-bet allin, meaning if we’re raised off of our hand we just stuck about 20% of our chips in the middle and folded without seeing a flop. Not a good place to be. This is the stage where we have what should be referred to as a “repop stack.” We are playing tighter preflop with our starting hand selection for open raises, but we should be very liberal with our hand ranges and opponent selection for the very powerful 3-bet allin. This is the stage of the tourney where your note-taking on your opponents or your pokeroffice/pokertracker program really comes in handy. Pick the 2 or 3 players to your right who are aggressive (I like to look for the guys who are raising 15% or more preflop) and who have decent stacks (not stacks similar to yours, as if they are decent they understand they shouldn’t be opening too much) and reraise them allin whenever they raise from middle-late position. Your cards don’t really matter, the only thing that matters is that the majority of hands in the top 15% of hands that they are raising wi th can’t call an allin for that many chips when they still have plenty of chips in their stack. Sometimes you’ll get called by the monster and look like a donk, sometimes you’ll get called by AK and have two lives, sometimes you’ll suck out and people will call you a donkey (BTW I’ve found that the more times I get called a donkey by people in the chatbox the more times I’m cashing for $1K plus, and every time I look the person calling me a donkey up on OPR they are big losing players…….very funny to me). Its also very important to pay attention to your own image when this play is made, as playing too loose (remember, even if you’ve been dealt some monsters over the last couple of revolutions, if they weren’t turned faceup your opponents just think you are playing loose and don’t know you had AA and KK 4 times like Turk gets dealt LOL). I learned this lesson the hard way on Friday night with 36 people left in the Nightly Hundred Grand, as I repopped allin with 7-3 hearts vs. a LAG player who insta (and I do mean INSTA) called me with K-J offsuit. Too many Heinekens will sometimes lead to using this play a little bit too much LOL.

It is important to note that during the stack size of 14-24 big blinds you are open folding all small pairs from the first 3 positions, and you are pretty much raising and willing to commit your stack with a hand like Ace-Queen. Ace-Jack should be folded from early as well, but when raising from late position you will have a tough decision if reraised from the blinds…….your read must be player dependent…..if a good LAG player 3 bets you allin you probably have to call, if Crazy Jimmy 3 bets you allin please fold quickly. Same with the small pairs. Call vs. LAGs and pray to win a race, fold vs. tight players as you are likely drawing to two outs. These are the most difficult decisions in the whole tournament.


Zone 3- an M of less than 8, meaning you have 13 bb’s or less- You really only have one play at this point in time, and that’s to pick a hand and go with it. How you go with it will vary based on exactly how many big blinds you have. I’ll elaborate below:

11-13 big blinds- If I pick up a pocket pair from early position, I’ll generally throw my standard opening raise out there with the intent of calling a shove. Why is this you ask? Well, if I open raise 13 bb’s allin with 6-6 from early position, I’m only getting called by pocket pairs higher than mine or two big overcards. If I put out a standard raise, I may be able to induce a mistake by one of my opponents, who may reraise allin with 5-5 not realizing I’m auto-calling any shove. This is also the main reason why you don’t EVER jam a hand like Ace-Jack from UTG. I mean who’s calling a 13bb allin raise from UTG? Only hands that crush Ace-Jack, right? This is the prime example of why starting hand “strength” doesn’t matter, but stack size and position do. If I’m fortunate enough to pick up AA or KK, I’m also using a standard raise and praying for a shove.

10 big blinds or less- If it folds to me in the hijack seat or later, I’m generally raising allin with any two cards. The success rate of getting your opponents to fold from this late position is high enough to justify the play when your stack is this desperate. I’m also open shoving all pocket pairs from all positions, and pretty much any two paint cards from all positions. OK, here’s the kicker- If I pick up AA or KK in this situation, what do I do? The answer is I still open push allin. The majority of your opponents, even at the lowest stakes are sophisticated enough to realize how wide your pushing range is when you have a stack this small. They, in turn, will call you light. If you limp in or put a small raise out there, you’ve bas ically announced to the entire table how large your hand is, and subsequently lose your ability to get them to make a mistake. Remember, winning at poker is all about inducing mistakes from your opponents, and in my opinion the best way to get a caller here is to use the “desperate” shove move. I’m not trying to call out Turk here but I saw him limp from early position with 10bbs in his stack late in the $8 rebuy yesterday and I immediately sent him a text message saying “that is a horrible limp with AA.” He did have AA, and got no real action, but did have to survive a dangerous flop of 3 diamonds. I also recall in our tournament of champions at the house Turk button limped AA with both myself and Keith Shimono in the blinds. This was a terrible mistake as a button raise would’ve been viewed by us as a steal attempt, whereas the limp shaded us out. I didn’t raise him and I had A-6 out of the small blind, and Keith (who had less than 10 bb’s hims elf at the time) said out loud “this is where I’m supposed to raise you allin, right?” Keith had 7-7, and DID NOT PUSH HIS HAND ALLIN because it was so obvious Turk held AA. So remember, if you are in a steal position, make your big hand LOOK LIKE A STEAL. 7-7 and A-6 are autoshoves if Turk puts in a raise there.


CALLING RANGES- The last thing to mention would be adjusting your calling ranges to where your opponents fit in the above stack size categories. If villain has less than 10 bb’s and raises from the 3 seat allin, and I’m sitting in late position or the blinds with a hand like Ace-Ten, its an automatic call, because my opponents RANGE is so wide. I’d be more inclined to fold hands like 3-3 and 4-4 to his push as best case scenario for those hands is a race, but Ace-Ten dominates his range and will be up against a hand like A-5 more often than not (or racing vs. his smaller pai r). By the same token, if I raise from late position with a hand like A-J and someone with a 15 bb stack reshoves on me allin from the blinds, I’m pretty inclined to call as his stack size screams “re-steal,” making his range once again fairly wide. There are also times when you will be priced in to make a call (like when you are getting 2-1 preflop to an allin) and you should be calling there with any two. An even more sophisticated version of this play is to look for an opportunity where a short stack open pushes allin and is cold called by another player…….here if I’m getting 2-1 on a call I’m going to actually isolate and reraise with ANY TWO CARDS to get the cold caller to fold, allowing me to get heads-up with the allin player, giving me phenomenal odds to hit my hand with all the dead money out there (the “dead money squeeze” play). The only time I won’t do this is at a final table where knocking the player out results in a significant pay increase/eq uity increase or in a satellite where the same concept applies. By the way, the dead money squeeze play is a sure-fire way to get yourself called a donkey when you turn up your 9-4 offsuit and get berated by 6 players at the table who have no idea why you did what you just did.