Tournament Poker Multi-Table Strategy

A multi-table tournament is one in which players are distributed among different tables. As players are eliminated, the remaining ones are moved around to keep the balance. More and more tables are taken out as the playing field grows smaller until a "final table" is left, the final championship game.

Sounds simple? Not quite. Tournament poker happens in stages: early, middle and late. The quality of play changes as the event progresses. In the early stage, you are up against fishes who don't know what they are doing. In the middle stage, you play against those who half-know what they are doing, plus the really great players. The final stage is when all the fish have been eliminated and only the worthy players (and maybe a few lucky amateurs) are left. Each stage calls for a unique approach.

Early Stage

At the onset of a tournament, you have all kinds of fish swimming about. What you want is for these chumps to eliminate one another; if not, you will do it for them. The key here is patience and selectiveness. Play only the very best cards. Fold most of the time. This strategy is multi-purpose: It establishes a tight table reputation for you (needed for later stages); it saves your money; and it helps kill the fishes.

Play high pairs. Sometimes you may want to play lesser hands, but do this only if you are in very good position—and then not too often. You are not up against the best players yet, and these folks will eliminate themselves even without your help. Don't make it harder than it has to be.

Middle Stage

By the middle stage of a tournament, most of the fishes have bowed out. You are left with a mix of mostly good and mediocre players and some fish still. Now you can play with a style similar to what you may be used to in ring games. You will play with more hands now though you will still be selective.

If you played your game well in the early tables, you should have created a tight table image for yourself by now. When you bet, the others will respect you more often than not. This lets you play weaker hands from late position, bluff and steal some blinds.

Your goal here is to win as many chips a you can. Why? Because you will need it in the final stage. The more chips you have in the final, the better you can play. So you have to play looser now and gamble more.

Late Stage

In the final stage of tournament poker, it is the money and not the cards that dictate upon the game.

If you have the numbers, you can play it slow and watch the others panic. Let them slug it out. You have the money so why rush? But if some schmuck bets to you and you have a good hand, flex your poker muscle and knock them out. You can easily bully the short stacked players. Make them go all-in if you have a good hand. Use your stack to control the table.

If you're the one short-stacked, play boldly. Bluff stone cold if you have to. Don't be careless, but now is the time to take risks. You are at the end so play with anything you have and pray your bluff works.