If you’re playing in the late stages of a tournament, you’ve outlasted several opponents and are already in the money. At this point, however, cashing isn’t enough so you need to make a push for the final table. Your strategy during this stage will largely depend on the size of your stack. The blinds and antes will be placing a ton of pressure on most players, making steal and re-steal opportunities massively important.
You should also be aware of how many rounds of blinds you have in your stack. If the blinds are 1,000/2,000 and you have 10,000 chips, you can only play a few rounds before you’re on the rail. Whenever you’re down to less than 10 big blinds, you’re in a dangerous spot and should be looking for opportunities to go all-in. Of course, if you’re the big stack, you can look to put pressure on the short stacks to help make a run for first prize.
In either case, you can see that the final table is within reach. To help get you there, follow the strategies below where I explain the differences between playing a short stack, an average stack and a big stack. Good luck and I’ll see you at the final table!
MTT LATE STAGE STRATEGY: PLAYING THE SHORT STACK
If you’ve reached the late stages short on chips, meaning 10 big blinds or less, the strategy is really fairly simple because you only have two options, and that’s go all-in or fold. When it’s folded to you in late position, you should be going all-in to steal the blinds and antes. You can double up when called but you will take it down preflop much more often, making this the most effective way to build up your stack. Sitting around and waiting for premium hands that rarely come will have you on the rail, so be aggressive and look to steal at every opportunity.
You can also go all-in after other players have limped with the hopes of picking up more dead money preflop. This is a fine play to make in late position or from the blinds. Speaking of the blinds, if everyone folds to you in the small blind, you should be going all-in with a very high frequency because the big blind will be folding with a very high frequency as well. As far as hole cards go, you should be shipping your stack preflop with all pocket pairs and pretty much any two face cards.
MTT LATE STAGE STRATEGY: PLAYING THE AVERAGE STACK
If you have an average stack during the late stages of an MTT, your decisions won’t be nearly as cut and dry. With an average stack, you open for value as well as steal and re-steal preflop while still having some maneuverability postflop. If you play too tight, the blinds and antes will eat away at your stack and you’ll be in push/fold mode before you know it.
As for all-in situations, you should look to ship it in favorable situations. This means going all-in on a likely coin flip with an effective stack is not the best situation but going all-in with a short stack is. This is because short stacks will be shoving with many more marginal hands, meaning you’ll be a favorite equity-wise more often than not – even with a wide calling range. And if you lose, you’ll still have chips in play. If you’re facing an all-in from a short stack, you should be calling with all pocket pairs and big broadway cards.
MTT LATE STAGE STRATEGY: PLAYING THE BIG STACK
Playing a big stack, or better yet, having the chip lead, is a great feeling with the final table just within reach. Your strategy here is generally the same as the average stack, except you have the power to increase your aggression and bully the average stacked players. You will generally want to avoid big confrontations with any other big stacks unless you’re a big favorite.
Depending on the format of the tournament, you can vary your aggression. For example, if you are the chip leader in a satellite where only the final table players get the prize, then you can obviously afford to take a more passive approach. In a typical MTT however, you should be looking to pad your stack at every opportunity to go for the win. Just be cautious when playing other big stacks and avoid gambling away your tournament life when you’ve come this far.
BRING ON THE FINAL TABLE!
By now, you should know how to play the late stages in MTTs and varying your strategy according to the size of your stack. In the next few lessons, you will learn how to play the final table all the way down to heads up. You’ve made it this far, let’s go win this thing!
