Late Tournament Strategy

Once you get a bit deeper into a tournament is when you really start to see your road to the final table appearing in front of you. With a solid early tournament strategy you can set yourself up with a padded stack of chips that can handle a beating and ride into the pay out. A good late tournament strategy is very important in not blowing it just before you make it into the money.

1. Be Weary of Deep Stacks – When you see that your opponent has enough chips to put you all in you should avoid playing against them unless you have a really strong hand. These players run the most risk to you because they can eliminate your chances of making it into the pay out. You don't want to necessarily shut down against them, but definitely slow down. Make sure that you are playing against players who are close to your stack size or smaller. You never want to risk your survival unless you truly have to.

2. Be Weary of Short Stacks – This sounds a little repetitive, but it is just as important that you keep track of the short stacks at your table. You never want to open up light with a hand where a short stack is still in. Short stacks are normally looking for the largest pot they can move all in on to fight back into the game. You have to make sure that you are ready to call an all in by the short stack if you are going to make the raise. Otherwise you should fold your hand and wait for a better one.

3. Don't Bubble – So many articles talk about players loosening up on the button anymore that tons of players are doing it now, so it is much harder to steal blinds on the bubble anymore. Players begin to get caught in situations where they are both trying to steal the blinds at the same time and both will end up taking it much too far with an all in. You don't want to raise a weak hand on the bubble in a situation where someone is just going to raise you in order to attempt stealing a slightly larger pot.

4. Watch Your Progress – This might sound ignorant since you should always focus on making the correct play and not how much money you might make, but it is very profitable by earning a little more in a few tournaments. You should always keep track of how many players are left. Normally the prizes will be given out in different amounts to different chunks of winners. For example 27-10 get $100. If you were short stacked with a few other short stacks and there are only 11 players left, you are better off just dying out to blinds hoping for your opponents to lose first. This is a good way to squeeze a little extra value out of making it into the money.

Poker Stars and Full Tilt are the top sites for tournament poker