MTT Strategy, Best Poker Tournaments Guide, Best MTT Sites

General Poker Strategy

mosesbet — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:00:55 +0000

Learn Poker Strategy

On our site you’ll find a range of poker strategy articles for beginners to experienced poker players. These are designed to educate and turn readers into profitable, successful poker players.

For SNG or multi-table tournament strategy, click MTT Strategy to see our full list.

Poker Basics

Poker Tips

Poker Mathematics & Formulas

How to Bluff

Advanced Strategy

Playing Pocket Pairs

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Why Should I Waste My Time Learning Poker Strategy?

Bad players lose money. 80% of online poker players lose money specifically. These are the kind of players who go into poker rooms with the attitude they don’t need strategy, they’ll be fine. Clearly this isn’t the case. No matter how many times you hear poker is a game of luck, there is in fact a phenomenal amount of skill and strategy involved to become a profitable player in the game. Knowing this strategy and applying it to your game will earn you money in poker. Neglecting it for times sake can guarantee you losing it all. For more information on how much new poker players can make online, we suggest reading our article How Much Money do Poker Players Make?

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Tournaments vs Cash Games

mosesbet — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:12:47 +0000

Why Tourneys are Better than Ca$h Games Although this is perhaps bias central when it comes to rating tournaments over cash games, the following article will tell you why playing tournaments trumps cash games. Phil Hellmuth, the world's greatest tournament player with 11 WSOP Bracelets Firstly, let’s look at the history of online poker to begin with. The Moneymaker effect of 2003 is heavily regarded to have given birth to online poker as we know it today. Chris Moneymaker’s hero to zero display of American nostalgia, where he went from cheap-ass online qualifier to 7 million dollar WSOP winner, gave much-needed exposure to poker in the medium of titanic proportions. Proliferating the rules and excitement of poker across the world, so many people were talking about the victory. It brought so many newbies into the game, and enhanced speculation about poker so much that it arguably did for online poker what Newton did for science. It can be argued then that gaudy live tournament such as the WSOP and WPT, with all the massive attraction, media exposure and exciting personalities they eschew, is what’s spreading the online poker bug today. Next, for the player, we have the massive fortunes a single tourney pay day can give you. Let’s look at Peter Eastgate and Joe Cada for a second. Both these guys took down the WSOP before they even turned 23. And since then, their victories have propelled them into the lucrative world of magazine exposure and media sponsorships – Joe Cada currently plays for Team PokerStars, and even briefly appeared on an episode of David Letterman. In both their respective wins they won just less under $10 million each. OK so now down to the fundamentals. In many online poker sites (and you won’t have to look far to find them), guaranteed poker tournaments give entrants much greater value of money for playing than cash games. Think about it, in a cash game, your value comes from being better than your opponent, and being able to exploit that difference in skill through thousands of hands worth of time. In guaranteed prizepool tournaments with a killer overlay, however, the value from these tourneys comes immediately after registering. If a $10 tournament only has 100 players, and the guaranteed prizepool is worth $2000, you’re effectively entering a $20 buy-in value tournament for half the prize! Theoretically you’ve made yourself $10 just by registering. Nowadays, most online poker rooms make their biggest and most expensive tournament available to players too – through satellites. Party Poker for example, runs Satellites for as little as $1 to new players, in order to grind themselves a seat to the $1 Million Monthly. Playing in these kinds of giant tournaments also gives short-changed players the chance to play opposite their favorite poker pros. In no way, shape or form can you get a cheap seat to sit across Ivey, Dwan or Patrik Antonius on the Full Tilt’s $100/$200 cash tables. Through satellite MTTs and special promotional tournaments, at some rooms however you can! My last point builds around the awesomeness and brilliance of freerolls. Seriously, online poker rooms allow you to enter tournaments FOR FREE and with real money prizes. Oh My God! Really? Seriously, I mean, if you can name me a site that gives you free money on a regular basis to play in cash games, I’d love to hear it. On the other hand, I can show you right here where to find freeroll tournaments with real prizes for players. So… next time you decide to sit down in a dry cash game, where you know the maximum you can realistically win is 2-3 big blinds per hour, try entering some kind of promotional tourney or guaranteed prizepool instead. At the end of the day, you could find yourself pocketing more than a hundred times your online bankroll in the space of a few hours!

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mosesbet — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:00:55 +0000

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Bluffing in Poker Tournaments

mosesbet — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:37:16 +0000

Beginners Guide to Bluffing in Tournaments:

Bluffing is an important component in tournaments; many players are either bad at it, or just don’t bluff enough. This page provides some tips on tournament bluffing and some practices.

About Bluffing in Poker Tournaments

The purpose of bluffing in a tournament is to get valuable chips to keep up with the rising blinds. Bluffing is an essential part of every tournament you play, especially in the middle and later stages of a tournament. In my opinion, you shouldn’t be bluffing in the early stages of start of any tournament. The risks involved are too big (because you have a small stack), and most players will only be entering pots with premium hands, which makes fold equity smaller.

The rules for bluffing in a tournament are simple. Try and bluff pots with good value, with minimal risk, the least chops required, at the right table position, with a strong table image, and most importantly against a bluffable opponent.

Best Opponentss to Bluff Against

Tight players are the best category of players to bluff against. Tight players restrict the hands they play, and limit the number of chips they’re willing to put into the pot. This is also true when they’re on the blinds, so remember stealing blinds from a tight player payoff better. Even if they have a good read on you, they’ll unlikely to risk their chips without a strong hand.

This is what I find funny about bluffing against tight players, even if you’re bluffing overtly, and showing your bluff every time your table folds, most TAGs (tight aggressive players) still won’t call. Obviously this depends on the quality/stakes of tournaments involved, but as a rule you should focus bluffing on tight players wherever you are.

Worst Opponents to Bluff Against in a Tournament

Suffice to say if tight players are the best opponents to bluff against, then loose opponents are the worst types. The biggest problem with loose players is that they have a tendency to be unbluffable (especially big stacks). By definition, a loose player will call pre-flop hands with a greater starting range and will also play aggressively into the flop. This makes the fold equity of a bluff smaller. Another disadvantage bluffing against a loose opponent is assessing whether you’re in front or behind. LAGs are predictably unpredictable, so knowing your opponent’s strength is very hard without 3 barreling (3 raises in a row). You’re never going to work out a LAG opponent’s hand with just one pre-flop raise – hence bluffing against a loose tournament player is more costly. It is certainly not impossible to bluff against loose players in a tournament; it simply makes it harder.

Tournament Hands to Bluff With

My first rule is to bluff with live cards that have many outs or decent implied odds. Live cards are very important when bluffing, because if you decide to bluff with something like K5 in a tournament it’s very likely you’re kicker will be beaten. Live cards simply give you more outs and implied odds. Betting the pot with 56 for example will be better than betting with A10, because even though A10 has a higher absolute strength, the potential of winning with a pair of 5s or 6s is greater than winning with an A (because you’re likely be dominated by a better kicker such as AJ).

It is also paramount in tournament bluffing to either do it right, the whole way, or not bother at all. A triple barrel bluff will be ten times more successful than a pre-raise raise and check/call to river. It’s also very likely an opponent who calls your bluff on the flop has nothing (probs 20%), so this is the main reason for acting strongly when you bluff.

Playing Different Stacks in Tournaments

mosesbet — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:04:47 +0000

Playing Stacks Differently in Tournaments

You should always change the way you play in tournaments depending on your stack size. Big stack sizes can cover more variance and bad beats, and will get called less preflop in comparison to small stacks in MTTs. Thus there is a big different in how you should play. The following article provides some more information on playing different tournament stack sizes.

When you play in a satellite, you should always change your playing style according to the size of your stack. Always remember that you must play differently having different stacks. Lets try to specify some traits of these.

Big Stack Strategy

We start with the best situation: being big-stacked. Having a big stack is a massive advantage in turning points – think of it as a vantage point for you and your sniper. You can make calls without worrying about your tournament life; yet you can also sit our hands knowing you can wait for a great hand to move on.

The key to playing with a big stack is being aggressive, yet not aimlessly giving chips away. Although it’s true you can afford to play a looser game, don’t. This is vital for big stacks in tournaments, because none the less a badly played hand can still harm your chip stack in the long term. Deep stack players in MTTs can play a larger number of hands than others because of the implied odds. You can play looser preflop (and by all means you should be blind-stealing), however don’t let yourself throw away chips once you miss your flop.

When confronting an aggressive player, the best strategy is to be check-calling. If you’re up against a tight-aggressive MTT player (TAG), try entering pots with either a big pair or high suited connectors. It’s also good not to raise preflop with AK in such positions, as this is precisely the type of simple trap you want to set against a TAG. When playing AK (big slick) without raising preflop against TAG, if you miss it’s an easy fold; yet if you hit the flop with top pair your opponent won’t believe you.

Medium Stack

Medium stacks are between 30-50 BBs. If you have enough chips to play three or four hands to the river (making a bet on each round), you’ll have a medium stack. Incidentally, this is probably one of the hardest stacks to build a sound strategy around, because although you’re in an average/safe position, a single badly played hand or spot of bad beat can turn you into a short stack.

The way you should play a small stack in a tournament then is TAG. Focus on your top 80% of hands preflop, and be prepared to let pots go which bet preflop and then missed. Avoid confrontations with big stacks unless you have a great hand, and be constantly prepared to take advantage of your position and hands with massive implied odds.

Small Stack Strategy

Most people will happily define a small stack as anything less than 30 or 10 BBs. Small stack MTT strategy is perhaps the easiest out of all the situations covered, because your strategy is ABC all-in or fold. With a small stack size, you should never be flat-calling to see the flop. You won’t be able to cover the variance of missing, so you should always be either going all-in preflop (as early as possible), or folding. Unfortunately, depending on the exact size of your stack and your opponents, you won’t be getting much fold equity out of your pushes. However this is irrelevant overall, because it’s your only option. Don’t feel bad about going all in with 88 UTG pre-flop and losing against KK – you played it as good as possible.

Your all-in hand as a small stack should include your top 70% of hands (or if your stack is below 10xBBs, your top 50% of hands). These will include any two face cards, pockets or high suited connectors.

As I mentioned in an article here, AK is one of the best hands to possibly play. This is because going all-in preflop guarantees that you will see all 5 community cards – giving you a 60% chance of making a pair. The odds are also improved by the fact that most players who call a small stack assume they have nothing better than rag-ace. This means you’ll be dominating your opponents hand ranges most of the time.

Satellite Tournament Strategy

mosesbet — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:04:12 +0000

Satellite Tournament Strategy:

Satellite tournaments are important in online poker because it is how many of the major live poker circuit players get their seat from. Every poker room nowadays offers great satellites to live tournaments for low cost buy-ins. Party Poker schedules satellites to the WSOP, EPT and WPT (along with their own hybrid “steps” system and $1 satellites to the Monthly $1 Million; and even Full Tilt Poker runs their own FTOPS (Full Tilt Online Poker Series) with satellites to all the major events.

Types of Satellite Tournaments

Winner Takes All Satellite: A winner-takes all satellite means only one prize or “seat” is available to the winner. 2^nd or 3^rd place may get their money back or a small payoff.

Low Buy-in Satellites: Satellite tournaments with a buy-in of less than $30. In low buy-in tournaments with direct live tournament seats, the competition and numbers will be extremely high – potentially almost like lottery. This is why the buy-ins are set so low; however it also makes the payoffs of getting lucky extremely high.

High Buy-in Satellites: Generally around $200+ for buy-in. These tournaments are the best for high stakes/professional players; because they afford direct entry to live events at good odds (sometimes 1 out of every 20 will get a seat). Although the buy-in puts off most amateur players, these games are one of the most popular for players with deep bankrolls. Competition level tends to be very high.

Winner Takes All Satellite Strategy

In this tournament you’re aim is to come first. This makes you have to play much more aggressively than a normal tournament, particularly towards the later stages. Bad satellite players in these type of MTTs often play too conservatively hoping the competition will effectively eliminate each other. Unfortunately this strategy will turn you into a fish in winner-takes-all satellite tournaments, because at the end of the day the winner will be the person who accumulates chips the fastest and most successfully. Winner takes all satellite MTTs are renowned with regards to the payoffs of playing aggressively. These tournaments require much more luck because of the fields/one-prize than standard tournaments.

Low Buy-in Satellites

All I can say is that need to be extremely well stacked to get a seat in these tournaments. In a low buy-in satellite, perhaps 1 out of 80 players will go through, which normally means you’re aim is to make it to the final table. This requires you to get to the top places in the chip lead as early as possible in a tournament. Everyone is aware of big chip stacks and tend to avoid challenging them. Small stacks on the other hands are constantly shafted and targeted. A lot of players in these games fall into the category of what I call the TAG player. He’ll probably make it to where the “bubble” in a regular freeze out tournament will be, but from here on he’ll be disadvantaged because of all the larger stacks at this level (who played much more aggressively and riskier to get there).

High Buy-in Satellites

The same basic strategy of a low buy-in satellite tournament serves well. The biggest change is that you no longer need to get into the top 10 to get paid off –realistically you might only need to get into the top 40. This makes shooting for a prize much easier in these games statistically (albeit with far superior competition). In all, try to keep an average/above average stack, and don’t make suicidal moves (patience is key). If you can increase you stack size to a healthy position as the blinds and antes get big, you’re in a good position to receive prizes in these games.

Find the Best Poker Tournaments at Carbon Poker!

mosesbet — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:27:41 +0000

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Best Value Tournaments & Overlays: Carbon Poker attracts most its players by offering incomparable value-added tournaments. Looking at last week’s Sunday $50,000 Guaranteed there were only 340 entrants, creating a massive overlay of $10,000+!!! Massive guaranteed prizepool tournaments with small buy-ins run around the clock, and cater to all players with structures including MTT add-ons, re-buys and deep stack events.

Small/Mid-Stakes Players: Most of the guaranteed daily tournaments at Carbon are aimed at the $0 -$30 buy-in. Tournaments like the $3,000 daily ($11 buy-in) and $250 Guaranteed ($11) are prime examples. These also offer the biggest tournament overlays you’ll beleive.

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Most Common MTT Player Mistakes

mosesbet — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:32:28 +0000

Top New MTT Player Mistakes:

If you play many MTTs in your life, you’ll notice the bad players tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. You can tell who’s bad at MTTs on your table when you see them make these mistakes, so even experienced players can take something from this article.

Top MTT Beginner Mistakes

“The 10 Plagues of Beginner Poker Tournament Mistakes”

Bad Players See Too Many Flops

Playing too loose and seeing the flop too many times is the biggest mistake bad MTT players make. Although it’s ok to call the flop in the early stages when the blinds are small; you certainly have to restrict your play and keep tighter starting hands as the blinds and antes get bigger. When you see players with a 10xBB stack calling the flop rather than shoving, you know they’re not Phil Ivey.

Bad MTT Players Play Too Many Dead Hands Pre-flop

Following on from the above, bad players get themselves into trouble calling to see the flop with Rag-Aces such as A7 off suit and high cards like QJ. Ultimately these dig holes for themselves, and when you flat call to see a flop with QJ or K8, the reverse implied odds of hitting your pair are horrible. Because you’re most likely beaten with a better kicker (non-live hand), these hands are prime suspect for newbie MTT players.

Calling Draws with Bad Pot Odds

This is the same mistake new poker players make in cash games too. Although you have to be aggressive in tournaments, weak players don’t understand that calling with a draw for bad pot-odds just because they “had outs” is poor. It’s amazing how many bad players do this, even at the highest buy-in levels. They might see a professional raising with a drawing hand and think to themselves “if Negreanu can raise this hand than I can call with it”.

Bad Players Don’t Steal/Defend Blinds

An important part of MTT strategy, particularly in the middle and later stages of a tournament is to steal or defend your blinds. Doing this occasionally allows you to build your stack, and it usually works effectively when you’re in the right position. Bad MTT players on the other hand will make the mistake of playing too tight in the middle stages, and will be too easy to push off a blind from a 4xBB raise from the button.

Putting Their Tournament life On the Line With F*ck All

Honestly, this one cracks me up. Bad MTT players who make it so far, only to pull off a completely unsuccessful bluff where they shoved their stack in too early, out of position, and in hands with big stacks. A lot of new players will just shove their stack with QJ off suit during a round of 3betting between big stacks because they think it’s good value. The value from shoving should come from either implied odds, fold equity or pot value. Even when they miss the flop, bad MTT players have a tendency to panic and shove their stack all in on the turn or river.

Bad Players Who Slow Play AA, KK or AK

It’s a funny, no sorry hilarious moment when you see Mr AA get busted by a flush or straight with 3-5 off suit. A lot of new players make tournament mistakes by not raising preflop with premium hands to get rid of limpers. It’s not unlucky to lose to a bad hand after the flop if you didn’t raise preflop – after all you probably gave him the odds + implied odds to call. Slow playing or small ball strategy in tournaments doesn’t work so well with premium hands. Their value is almost always in the preflop pots.

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Poker Site Tournament Reviews

mosesbet — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:06:58 +0000

Poker Site Tournament Reviews

Follow the links below to find a thorough review of the various stakes of tournaments offered at these particular rooms. Obviously some poker sites provide tournaments better catered to your MTT bankroll then others. See below for a full guide to the tournaments offered.

Poker Room Tournament Reviews:

Titan Poker Tournaments

Carbon Poker Tournaments

Party Poker Tournaments

Full Tilt Poker Tournaments

For more information on the above poker rooms please read the the room reviews under the “Best MTT Site” Menu.

Titan Poker Tournaments

mosesbet — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:44:14 +0000

High Stakes Tournaments at Titan Poker – Sign up to Titan Poker with a 100% up to $500 Bonus!

Along with running their own high stakes poker series – the European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP) with a $2.5 million prize pool – Titan Poker does extremely well to cater to high stakes players from outside the US. Also running their own major satellites to the Irish Open and Aussie Millions, the main high stakes event at Titan is the $250k Guaranteed which runs every Sunday at 19:00 GMT with an entry fee of $320. A number of daily high stakes VIP tournaments can also be found here.

Mid Stakes Tournaments at Titan Poker

Titan Poker provides its fair share of daily mid stakes tournaments, however beware the majority of their MTTs are focused on the $1 – $30 buy-in range. Daily tournaments with a $30+ buy-in for mid-stakes players include the $5,000 DeepStack ($33 buy-in), the $250,000 GP Stage 1 Satellite ($32+3), the $7,500 Freezeout ($55) and the $50k Re-buy ($55 buy-in). Special tournaments on tuesdays also include the Super Tuesday $40,000 GP Rebuys ($100+9), and on Wednesdays there’s the cool $20,000 GP Rebuy ($100+9).

Low Stakes Tournaments at Titan Poker

Titan is without a doubt the best poker site for small stakes tournament players (below $30 buy-ins). Most of the tournaments run at Titan are focused at the $1 – $30 buy-in range – perfect for the majority of players. Titan runs these kind of tournaments practically every 30 minutes throughout the week. For example, Daily Guaranteed Tournaments at Titan include the $12,500 Freezeout ($5.50 buy-in), the $1000 GP Freezeout ($6.60), the $7,500 GP ($5+.50) and the $4000 GP ($10+1) Freezeout. Freerolls at Titan include the $50 and $100 dailies, not to mention new player deposit freerolls.

Titan Online Poker

MTT Strategy, Best Poker Tournaments Guide, Best MTT Sites

General Poker Strategy

Tournaments vs Cash Games

Why Tourneys are Better than Ca$h Games

Exclusive Tournament Deals

$11 Tourney Carbon Poker Promotion!

Titan Poker Free Poker Odds Calculator!

Bluffing in Poker Tournaments

Playing Different Stacks in Tournaments

Satellite Tournament Strategy

Find the Best Poker Tournaments at Carbon Poker!

Most Common MTT Player Mistakes

Poker Site Tournament Reviews

Titan Poker Tournaments