Jonathan Little's Top 10 Tournament Tips
After writing numerous books and teaching thousands of poker players over the last decade or so, one of the questions I get asked most often is, "What are your best tips for poker tournaments?"
While it's incredibly hard to pick just a few best pieces of advice, here are my current top 10 tournament tips:
Tournament Tip #1
Always put your opponent on a RANGE OF HANDS rather than a specific hand.
Tournament Tip #2:
You MUST get well out of your comfort zone and blatantly exploit your opponents' weaknesses if you want to become a big winner.
Tournament Tip #3
When the effective stack is greater than 40 BBs, try to play lots of pots in position, especially when you think you can get heads-up against opponents who play poorly postflop.
Tournament Tip #4
Value bet when you think you have the best hand most of the time AND you think your opponent will call with most of his range.
Tournament Tip #5
Be less inclined to value bet when losing will leave you with a significantly less profitable stack.
Tournament Tip #6
Against players who play too many hands too passively:
- Value bet them relentlessly.
- Fold to them when they apply significant pressure.
- Bluff them on later streets when they have a marginal hand AND you think they will fold.
Tournament Tip #7
Against players who play too many hands too aggressively:
- Realize they often have marginal hands even when they apply pressure.
- They will usually fold if you apply aggression.
- If you induce them to bluff, do not fold decently strong holdings.
- Bluff them on scary boards.
Tournament Tip #8
Against players who play too few hands too passively:
- Relentlessly steal their blinds.
- Fold to their aggression.
Tournament Tip #9
Against players who play too few hands too aggressively:
- They are usually not capable of folding hands they perceive as strong.
- Play hands with huge implied odds.
- Do not stack off with hands worse than top pair, top kicker.
- Relentlessly steal their blinds.
Tournament Tip #10
Against players who play well:
- If your opponent thinks you're tight, bluff a lot.
- If your opponent thinks you're wild, play tightly.
- Apply aggression in intelligent spots.
- Fold when it is clear they want to put money in the pot.
- It is usually smart to avoid them and focus on the weak players.
If you enjoyed these tips, I actually put together a two-page poker tournament cheat sheet which contains:
- 43 of my best tournament tips
- 6 things you should focus on BEFORE a tournament
- 11 things you should focus on DURING a tournament
- 6 things you should focus on AFTER a tournament
While my cheat sheet is no substitute for working on your game away from the table, it's a great tool to review before you play a tournament or during every break.
If you'd like a copy of my tournament cheat sheet, you can get it at http://floattheturn.com/cheatsheet/.
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,400,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
