Basic strategy in single table tournaments
Here is the outline of my strategy for playing these tournaments keeping in mind that conditions change and my strategy might change as a result. In general I play $20-30 ones along with various freerolls to bigger tournaments (say $36+3 into WSOP on Party). Anyway ....
a) Play pretty conservatively early on. The idea here is if a hand doesn't hit you in the face you usually can get within the top 5-6 without even playing a hand and still having a stack of about $600 (from $800) or $800 (from $1000).
If you get a hand like AA/KK play them very strongly ... I raise about 4-6 times the big blind and if I am facing a raise I usually push all-in. The idea here is that you don't want to try to induce action on your hand you want to get it headsup or just win the pot at this point in the tournament. While doubling up is nice it is pretty meaningless at this point if you can't keep your lead for when you are 3 handed. Any smart player would not play back at you with a bet that big without a major hand (AA) but online they do all the time. Many times have I made that all-in bet to be called by hands as weak as AQ and KT.
b) When it gets down to 5-6 players you need to find a hand to double-up. Often I can ge to about 4 handed without winning any pots, but you do need to find one. You want to find a situation where you are a favourite (or likely a favourite). You can also pickup the blinds pretty easily because people have pegged you as very tight. In general I can move my stack up to close to the average by picking up blinds and still not winning a hand.
c) Confrontation - at some point you are going to get into a confrontation. There are times when I make my $200-300 raise and get re-raised and have to muck ... Eventually you need a hand to double-up and get into the lead or close to it. Really here is the spot you need to find a major hand or get "lucky".
By "lucky" i mean winning a coin flip or something similar. The last tournament I played had me re-raising all-in against someone who had made a small preflop raise with TT. He called and my AQ had to win the race (which it did). At this point I had about 3k in chips which put me into the lead with 4 people left. Naturally if I lose that one I am out ... Often I can find a hand where I am a bigger favourite (I had AT vs. JT in another one and lost) but the idea is this is the key hand.
d) Using your stack - now I really start to get aggressive and pickup blinds. I am raising with hands like K6 and usually winning them. Again I have established a tight image, and my "key hand" has only helped me there. 4 handed is great because often people want to avoid being the next out so they can get into the money. Usually my stack will increase slightly here (maybe 3500) as the small stacks hang on.
In my tournament last night I ran it up until I ended up with a confrontation vs. a small stack. I raised with A6 and he went all-in. I know I am a dog here but my stack can afford it and it is important to get the player out of the tournament. I called and I hit a 6 to beat his AQ.
e) Headsup - when you get headsup usually I am either an equal stack (or slightly higher) or a slightly smaller stack. This is often because the other stacks choose to play against each other rather than me (very tight player). Often the will consolidate and we will start playing headsup.
To be honest this is the part that I think skill becomes involved. I have played a lot of different styles headsup. Sometimes I am against a conservative player and I can pickup his blind a lot. In other spots I am up against an aggressive player and I need to match his aggressiveness. Sometimes I am against someone that plays the flop poorly so I can try to get into pots so I can outplay him from then on.
My last tournament was against an aggressive sort and it was at the last level (9) where the blinds were either 250-500 or maybe 300-600. Anyway with only 8k in chips there wasn't any flops (i mean none). In general the guy on the button went all-in and the other guy folded. It happened quite a few times until I went all-in with Q9 and he called with 64s. He flopped a straight and he doubled up (3000 vs 5000 now). Back and forth again until I went all-in with J9 and he called with A7. This time I made a straight and it was (5000 vs 300).
In the end I went all-in with Q9 and he called with 65. All big cards brought me the victory.
The key here against a very aggressive person is to try to get your money in with the best of it (as best as possible). For example, I would fold 65 but I would play K4. I want some high card strength to give me the best chance. My opponent would play small suited connectors and this was his demise (although he did double up with one of them). Again skill is thrown out the window to some degress against an overly aggressive player like this ... but you should still be somewhere around a 60-70% favourite to win.
good luck!
.kw
a) Play pretty conservatively early on. The idea here is if a hand doesn't hit you in the face you usually can get within the top 5-6 without even playing a hand and still having a stack of about $600 (from $800) or $800 (from $1000).
If you get a hand like AA/KK play them very strongly ... I raise about 4-6 times the big blind and if I am facing a raise I usually push all-in. The idea here is that you don't want to try to induce action on your hand you want to get it headsup or just win the pot at this point in the tournament. While doubling up is nice it is pretty meaningless at this point if you can't keep your lead for when you are 3 handed. Any smart player would not play back at you with a bet that big without a major hand (AA) but online they do all the time. Many times have I made that all-in bet to be called by hands as weak as AQ and KT.
b) When it gets down to 5-6 players you need to find a hand to double-up. Often I can ge to about 4 handed without winning any pots, but you do need to find one. You want to find a situation where you are a favourite (or likely a favourite). You can also pickup the blinds pretty easily because people have pegged you as very tight. In general I can move my stack up to close to the average by picking up blinds and still not winning a hand.
c) Confrontation - at some point you are going to get into a confrontation. There are times when I make my $200-300 raise and get re-raised and have to muck ... Eventually you need a hand to double-up and get into the lead or close to it. Really here is the spot you need to find a major hand or get "lucky".
By "lucky" i mean winning a coin flip or something similar. The last tournament I played had me re-raising all-in against someone who had made a small preflop raise with TT. He called and my AQ had to win the race (which it did). At this point I had about 3k in chips which put me into the lead with 4 people left. Naturally if I lose that one I am out ... Often I can find a hand where I am a bigger favourite (I had AT vs. JT in another one and lost) but the idea is this is the key hand.
d) Using your stack - now I really start to get aggressive and pickup blinds. I am raising with hands like K6 and usually winning them. Again I have established a tight image, and my "key hand" has only helped me there. 4 handed is great because often people want to avoid being the next out so they can get into the money. Usually my stack will increase slightly here (maybe 3500) as the small stacks hang on.
In my tournament last night I ran it up until I ended up with a confrontation vs. a small stack. I raised with A6 and he went all-in. I know I am a dog here but my stack can afford it and it is important to get the player out of the tournament. I called and I hit a 6 to beat his AQ.
e) Headsup - when you get headsup usually I am either an equal stack (or slightly higher) or a slightly smaller stack. This is often because the other stacks choose to play against each other rather than me (very tight player). Often the will consolidate and we will start playing headsup.
To be honest this is the part that I think skill becomes involved. I have played a lot of different styles headsup. Sometimes I am against a conservative player and I can pickup his blind a lot. In other spots I am up against an aggressive player and I need to match his aggressiveness. Sometimes I am against someone that plays the flop poorly so I can try to get into pots so I can outplay him from then on.
My last tournament was against an aggressive sort and it was at the last level (9) where the blinds were either 250-500 or maybe 300-600. Anyway with only 8k in chips there wasn't any flops (i mean none). In general the guy on the button went all-in and the other guy folded. It happened quite a few times until I went all-in with Q9 and he called with 64s. He flopped a straight and he doubled up (3000 vs 5000 now). Back and forth again until I went all-in with J9 and he called with A7. This time I made a straight and it was (5000 vs 300).
In the end I went all-in with Q9 and he called with 65. All big cards brought me the victory.
The key here against a very aggressive person is to try to get your money in with the best of it (as best as possible). For example, I would fold 65 but I would play K4. I want some high card strength to give me the best chance. My opponent would play small suited connectors and this was his demise (although he did double up with one of them). Again skill is thrown out the window to some degress against an overly aggressive player like this ... but you should still be somewhere around a 60-70% favourite to win.
good luck!
.kw
Comments
I generally follow a similar strategy outline for SNG's.
The fundamental idea (I think) is to always be in a different gear than your opponents.
In the early stages, your (bad) opponents are calling incorrectly too much. You play tighter. Not just for the reason that you're doing the opposite of them for its own sake, but because it's the right thing to do in terms of the sizes of the pots.
During the middle stages, you get more aggressive & attempt more steals. Again, you'll find most of your (bad) opponents doing the opposite and playing incorrectly tight when the blinds go up. In the middle stages, you really want to be in there with the "chronic limpers", who are unwilling to enter a raised pot when the blinds are big. You want to make the survivalists slowly bleed dry.
As for heads-up, it's often not very different than a crapshoot (I have roughly the same amount of 1st place finishes as 2nd), but a player style read on your opponent at this point is *extremely* helpful.
I think your point about high card strength is also right on. When you are playing pots heads-up when a good chunk (or all) of the chips are going in pre-flop, drawing hands like suited connectors are complete cheese.
ScottyZ