Poker Articles

Ian Johns is a World Series of Poker bracelet winner and an instructor for CardRunners.com.

Limit hold'em tournaments are really quite intriguing. This is largely because they’re thought about and discussed so much less frequently than no-limit tournaments.  That leaves a lot of room for each individual to interpret under-studied situations in many different lights.

For many no-limit hold'em tournament situations, the best players have come to some sort of agreement on the optimal play from a theoretical standpoint. I believe this is because they have been explored, discussed, and written about extensively. On the other hand, not only books but even Internet forums have largely ignored limit hold'em tournaments. 

I am going to delve into some basic and some complicated situations that come up in limit hold'em tournaments.  The majority of the time you are looking at very standard limit hold'em play, but there are certainly times when you need to adjust for tournament considerations.

Early on in a tournament, I believe that the optimal strategy is the one that you would employ in a ten-handed ring game. If the table is playing loose, you want to play a little looser and try to make some big hands. If it’s a $5,000 buy-in and you recognize six or seven of your opponents as tough players, you want to tighten up your standards and play as you would in a tight and tough ring game. The first couple levels, while you still have plenty of chips in relation to the blinds, should be played in this fashion.  Your goal is to move along in the tournament and put yourself in good situations to steadily increase your stack. Obviously, if the deck is hitting you in the face or you feel as though your opposition is playing overly tight, the correct strategy is to ride the wave and try to build up as many chips as possible.

In the middle stages, some of those tournament considerations begin to come into play. The number one thing to focus on is not allowing yourself to get to the point where you’re no longer a factor in the tournament.  This does not mean going crazy with any hand and trying to win a pot that you have no shot of winning. This does, however, mean that you can throw in an extra raise here or there to try to pick up a pot that someone else may not be tied to.  Remember, they’re as concerned with preserving chips as you are. A good example of this concept is a hand I played in the $5,000 World Championship of Limit Hold'em at the World Series this year.

I was dealt K9 offsuit in the cutoff seat and we were in the middle stages, something like 300-600 blinds (600-1200 limit). I had about 6000 in my stack, and they all folded to me. I made the standard steal-raise in this spot and the button folded, but now the small blind three-bet me. Obviously, when faced with a three-bet, K9 offsuit is not in very good shape. So, once the big blind folded, instead of calling and trying to hit a flop where I’d never know where I stood, I opted to four-bet preflop. I was hoping that either the small blind was on a resteal with a marginal holding like A7 or that the flop would come really bad for him and he would assume that I had committed myself by four-betting. He might then throw away a hand like 99 if the flop came with high cards.  Well, I four-bet, he called, the flop came AQ4, and he checked and folded. Had I called, I would have been forced to lay the hand down on the flop and would have been in dire straits.  I went on to cash in that event, and although that was a small pot, winning it changed the whole dynamic of my tournament.

Another focus in the middle stages is when you have a good stack. This is where opinions differ so much in limit hold'em tournaments among players I respect.  Some will say that you should try to hammer on the table and run up a huge chip stack. The major downside to doing this is that sometimes you will run into hands or have others playing back at you. Rarely will you have the goods, so you’re siphoning off chips while trying to run up a big stack. This can put you into desperation mode fairly quickly when the limits are big relative to the stacks. 

Other players, myself included, prefer to sit back, play their strong hands, and maybe pick up a pot here and there that nobody seems to want.  Both strategies are viable, and the biggest deciding factor as to which you should employ is how the table is playing and responding to you.  If they are playing super-tight and respecting your raises, then open it up. If you keep getting three-bet when you enter a pot, then try to show up with the goods the next time you open.

Things often change when you get close to the money. This is when you can really crush a table, especially if you are playing with inexperienced or weak players.  They are not looking for big confrontations at this point, so instead of fighting back or peeling when they normally would, they will let you have tons of little pots. Use position and pay very close attention to find out who and where the best spots are to pick up this dead money.  This ability is vital to making a deep run.

Once the money bubble bursts, I initially like to tighten back up and take a bit of a break.  Don’t fold any monster hands, of course, but just try to re-establish that tight image; you’ll be able to put it to good use later. As you establish your solid image, people will be going bust, and the remaining players will be noticing your “playing style.”  I put that in quotes because our “style” is going to do a 180-degree spin once we get to five- or six-handed play and down to the final table bubble. Then it’s back to hammering away and trying to pick up chips for the final push. 

If you find yourself short-stacked or just not in a comfortable position at this stage of the tournament, remember what I noted earlier about being short-stacked.  It’s definitely okay to make an aggressive move at a pot to try to keep yourself from a completely desperate situation. For example, three-betting a small blind open-raise from your big blind with a hand that you would normally call or even fold with can work great. You’re making a cheap play, and it’s going to be a pretty high-percentage one. The reason for this is that your opposition is going to be playing very snug on the flop, because they don’t want to bleed chips and because you appear to be committing yourself.

Once you’re at the final table, put all of your strategic and player-specific knowledge to work.  Start tight and aggressive, open up a little when you’re down to six or seven players, maybe tighten back up again, then spring on them for the kill once you’re three- or four-handed. 

You always want to be keeping the opposition guessing in a tournament setting.  Sticking to any one strategy for too long will almost certainly be your demise.  Playing too fast will have you bleeding chips everywhere, and playing too tight will surely blind you off.  Don’t be afraid to stick your neck out there if you think it’s the time you can win a pot.  Winning key pots is very important in limit hold’em tournaments; the trick is identifying them and finding the best way to convert the opportunities. If you win all the key pots in a limit hold’em tournament, you’re going to do just fine.