When you are in the late stages of a tournament you are usually feeling a sense of achievement because you are very close to making the money and getting a return for your investment.

1. Poker Tournament Late Stage Strategy Tactics
2. Poker Tournament Late Stage Strategy Games
3. Poker Tournament Late Stage Strategy 2019
4. Poker Tournament Late Stage Strategy 2020

The late stage of the tournament can be defined as the period leading up to the money bubble and after the money bubble up until the final table.

Turbo Poker Tournament Strategy. Turbo poker tournaments are becoming increasingly popular at online poker rooms. You can usually get a nice mix of turbo, super turbo and occasionally extreme turbo poker tournaments at the majority of the top online rooms. Late Stages Strategy for Poker Tournaments (This article is a follow up to ' Bubble Tournament Strategy ') The late stages of a tournament begins when the money bubble bursts, and ends when players reach the final table (or final few tables, if it is a really large tournament).

Exactly how long the period before the bubble will vary from tournament to tournament, but in general it will be from whenever there is a change in play from a number of players to being more conservative as they approach the bubble.

Keep Focus

At this point you have been playing in the tournament for a number of hours and it is important to maintain your focus and concentrate on the task at hand … and that is winning the whole tournament!

Remember what I said at the start of this guide, a good tournament player does not play to just scrape into the money, but is playing to win the tournament, or finish in the top 3 at the very least. This focus on the goal in hand will play a big part in how you approach the late stages of a tournament and in particular the bubble.

I’ve been playing Sit&Go’s and Multi-table Tournaments since 2005 and from experience the late stages always boils down to the same things for me. They are, maintaining my focus, patience and aggression.

By this stage in the tournament you’ve been playing for sometime. Of course that time depends on the number of players you started with but either way this is the latter part of the tournament. Some players tend to tire a little, some might start to play very aggressive to ‘finish’ the tournament and some might tighten right up. Its very important at this point to maintain your focus and play the cards you are dealt.

It is also probably the most important time in the tournament to accurately observe your opponents and how they are playing. This is the key time to notice patterns and weaknesses as they change their style now money is at stake and to exploit it.

Focus on your Key Performance Indicators

Just like in the middle stage of the tournament, it is very important to keep calculating your key performance indicators, Time to Play and Average Stack, to know exactly where you stand and for it to drive the way you play.

In the late stages blinds can start to really grow and it is very easy to go from a comfortable position to a critical chip stack in a short space of time. You have to recognise this quickly and change gears quickly before it is too late.

Shift the Pressure onto your Opponents

The gap concept is huge at this stage of the tournament. It takes a much better hand to call a bet than it does to raise or push with. Just like we talked about in the last article about putting good players under pressure to make them do all the thinking, the same can be said for all opponents in the late stages of a tournament.

Poker Tournament Late Stage Strategy Tactics

You must be the player that is putting your opponent under pressure and forcing him/her to work things out and make decisions. The more decisions and pressure put on an opponent, the more likely it is for them to make a mistake.

From experience there is usually a lot of all in bets and folding at this point. Why all in? Well firstly it’s because a number of players will be at a short or critical stack level and enter a pot with an all in because they would probably be pot committed anyhow and they may as well get maximum fold equity from the all-in bet.

The other reason is that it is always better to put your opponents to the test than to let them put you to the test. An all in bet cannot be topped, they cannot come back over the top and put you to an even bigger decision, the decision is firmly put on them. Do they want to call for most or all of their chips? Even if they think they are in the lead, are they really sure? Confident enough to stake their whole tournament on it?

I follow this principle during the late stage of any tournament I play. Key to this though is knowing your opponents but not underestimating their ability to shift gears as well. Most of the time, by the time you get to the later stages you’ve eliminated most of the gamblers and weaker players so you should assume the players left wont be falling for any ‘tricks’ and that they are players with at least some skill.

When the stacks at this point are relatively even it has been my experience that playing in the late stage of any tournament is all about focus and patience and ‘picking your spots’ which will provide you the best opportunities to win.

Remembering the gap concept will help you to pick your spots and perhaps steal some valuable blinds. If you double up at this point in the tournament your usually eliminating someone else getting you one step closer to the lights of the final table.

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Section Contents: Dominating the Late Stage of a Poker Tournament

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Multi-table poker tournaments (also known as MTT's for short) of all field sizes and buy-in levels can be found online 24 hours a day.

This article will cover basic multi-table tournament strategy at the various stages that a tournament will go through before the lucrative final table.

MTT prize pool structure.

We will start by looking at the key factor of how the prize pool in a multi-table online poker tournament is distributed – and the big influence this needs to have on your strategy in order to maximize your poker winnings over time. Next we go through the early, middle (including the bubble) and later stages of a poker tournament showing what factors influence your strategy at each point.

Tournament prize distribution is very ‘top heavy’. The players who reach the final table will split up to half of the total prizes between them – while those who make it into the first paying spots only will often win less than twice their initial buy-in. Even at the final table the top 3 paying places will give a disproportionately larger payout than the other places.

This has a large effect on tournament strategy for those players who are looking to maximize their long-term profits. Aggressive, positive play is rewarded at all stages of the tournament - by a shot at reaching the final table. Passive play during the later stages may enable you to sneak into the money positions – however this will not make up for just a few final table appearances when adding up profits at the end of the month or year.

Early stage tournament strategy.

In the very early stages of a poker tournament the game plays in a similar way to a cash game table. This is because the stack sizes are many times the size of the blinds, allowing betting on the flop, turn and river for many hands. ‘Deep Stacked’ play involves its own adjustments including favoring hands which can make hidden ‘monsters’ such as small pairs and suited connectors. Hands that are easily dominated such as Ace-Ten and King-Jack should generally be avoided at this stage.

Your strategy objective in the first few blind levels should be to accumulate chips from the weaker opponents who will still be in the tournament at this stage. At the same time you should avoid big ‘gambles’ for all of your chips if you feel that your skill advantage will have time to show over a larger number of small pots.

Poker Tournament Late Stage Strategy Games

One saying for the early stages of multi-table tournaments is that ‘you need to take the chips from the weak players before someone else does’ – after all they will be harder to take from a stronger opponent later down the line.

Poker Tournament Late Stage Strategy 2019

Transitioning from early to late stages.

As the blinds and antes get higher when compared to the average stacks your tournament strategy needs to adjust to new conditions. Since you must invest more chips to see a flop the value of the speculative hands played in the early stages goes down.

High cards however go up in value when you are the first to enter the pot. Since calling a raise in the middle stages requires investing a large proportion of your stack this should be avoided where possible. Your opponents are often in the same situation – meaning that you’re raising requirements can be ‘lighter’ than before, especially from late position.

Playing on the bubble.

The bubble is the stage of the tournament where just a few players need to be eliminated in order to reach the money paying places. At this stage the single most important factor affecting your strategy are stack sizes – both your own and those of your opponents.

Having a large stack at the bubble will allow you to pick up many pots uncontested – as players will be less likely to fight with a big stack when they risk busting out before the money. Other big stacks and very short stacks should be avoided here, as they are more likely to call you.

If you have a medium stack at the bubble then you can use the knowledge that bigger stacks are likely to steal pots to your advantage. If you are dealt a reasonably strong hand and expect the big stack to be ‘raising light’ you can have a positive expectation situation for a re-raise. Sure you will get unlucky and bust out sometimes – but your strategy for the whole tournament is to reach the final table and doubling up could give you a chance to do so, more than making up for losing the small ‘in the money’ payout.

After the bubble ‘bursts’ players will often loosen up considerably in an effort to accumulate enough chips to reach the final table. At this stage you need to choose your spots carefully. As with all forms of poker it is better to be the raiser rather than the caller.

MTT final table strategy.

The final table brings in yet another factor into your poker strategy thinking. Stack sizes are still very important, but now the payout structure – and your opponent’s strategy in relation to this come to the fore.

The presence of a very small stack is a good example of how this affects the dynamic of the final table. Medium stacks will see that one player is just 1 big blind away from busting and will tighten up to avoid going out before this player. This can lead to some great opportunities to pick up chips without too much risk.

Aggressive and positive poker are again the key elements to success at this stage of the poker tournament. The top three places will pay proportionately more than the rest – aim high by picking fights with those opponents who look like they would like to move up in the money. Big stacks and small stacks should again be avoided, the medium stacks are much more likely to fold to pressure at this stage.

MTT strategy evaluation.

In summary, tournament strategy involves adjusting to the various stages which a poker tournament will go through. At the same time your goal in every tournament should be to reach the final table. Busting on the bubble never feels good – however if for each time you bubble you reach another final table then your long-term profits will be better than that of opponents who tighten up in order to make the money.

Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.

Poker Tournament Late Stage Strategy 2020

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