For many poker players, especially beginners, multi-table tournaments (MTT’s) can be very intimidating, due to the fact that there are so many tables. However, many people believe that the way to poker glory and life changing money lies not with cash games or sit-and-go’s but with these massive full-field tournaments. Events such as the WSOP, WPT and EPT have large fields but for thousands of players, these MTT’s can also be found in many, if not all online poker rooms. Of course, nobody just strolls into one of these events and stumbles blindly to victory. The best players, online and live, have a definite plan for the event, including strategies for playing individual hands, exploiting predictable opportunities and dodging the inevitable traps that reoccur in full-field tournaments. This article aims to provide you with key tips and strategies that will give you the knowledge and self confidence to play in these tournaments.
A certain percentage of players will come into MTT’s completely ill-equipped to succeed or even play at all well. Some of the reasons for this is they’re lack of experience or knowledge. Possibly they are only playing to have fun or to learn. This is perfectly ok, however, for us this means there is plenty of loose or ‘dead’ money floating around for us to exploit and especially in the early stages of tournaments it is beneficial if you:

1. Grab all that dead money you can before someone else decides to, and
2. Try and dodge the strong players and challenge the weak ones.

If you can take some of this loose money available it will keep it away from some of the stronger players at the table. If these solid players take an early lead it will be much harder for you to wrestle the money away from them later. Make raises and re-raises (within reason). Force your weak opponents to make hard decisions because more often than not, they will not have the savvy to make these tough decisions correctly. You won’t be the only one using this strategy of course, but if you use common sense to decide which players should be attacked and which ones to be avoided you shouldn't’t be under too much pressure and you should be well equipped to compete in the tournaments middle phase.
The key thing about the middle phase of MTT’s is not really about making the right moves but attempting to avoid making the wrong ones. At this stage, it is more than likely most poor players have been eliminated and the general level of skill and knowledge is higher than when the event started. At this moment, you cannot afford to make careless moves or plays or you could be punished severely. Some key errors you should try and avoid are:

1. Monitor your opponents stack size
2. Don’t forget your overall tournament position, and
3. Don’t pick unnecessary fights when you don’t need to.

Your own chip stack, relative to the size of the blinds will tell you what sort of shape you are in within the tournament. For a general rule, if you can survive less than 5 orbits until the blinds and antes bust you then you are in bad shape and you should look for a favourable spot to move all in to try and double up. If you have between 5-10 orbits, you have an adequate stack size and look for hands to drive and try to be selective when being aggressive and with 11 or more orbits, you should be in a strong position and attempt to take control and dominate. In the middle stages of any MTT, your opponents stack sizes will vary from strong and formidable to short and vulnerable. All these stacks will respond to raises differently so you need to pay attention to these stacks or you could end up in a world of hurt.
When the money bubble comes in full-field tournaments, players sort themselves into two groups:

1. Players desperate to get past the bubble and receive a pay day, any pay day. And
2. Players who are there to win

A lot of players when they get to the final stages of tournaments tend to tighten up and aim to survive through the bubble to earn themselves a pay day. It might be their first tournament or they want to win something, anything , so the have something to show for their efforts at the end. Others quite possibly have qualified through a satellite so the ratio between their buy-in to their possible winnings could look quite attractive to them. If you are one of these players and would settle for a small pay day your A lot of players when they get to the final stages of tournaments tend to tighten up and aim to survive through the bubble to earn themselves a pay day. It might be their first tournament or they want to win something, anything , so the have something to show for their efforts at the end. Others quite possibly have qualified through a satellite so the ratio between their buy-in to their possible winnings could look quite attractive to them. If you are one of these players and would settle for a small pay day your strategy is simple at this point. Measure your stack against the blinds and see how far you can get without getting involved too much at all. If the numbers add up and it seems you can play very little and make it to the money, by all means follow this route. You won’t make a significant amount of money but you could meet your goal and survive to get a pay day. However, if you are playing to win it is now the time to be aggressive. Take control of the table and use your growing chip stack to take advantage of these timid players in their survival mode. Bully these players (within reason) and send out the right signals that you mean business and are determined to be the winner. There are a few pitfalls, like when your pocket kings run into aces for example. On the whole though, if you back up your big stack with strong moves and bully behaviour, you will put yourself in a good position to be there at the end, with the big money coming your way.
In conclusion, if you follow this simple poker strategy your success in MTT‘s could improve: Attack weak money early, avoid unnecessary confrontations with bigger stacks or better players, know your chip stack in relation to the blinds, latter stages - identify who wants to hang on and bully and identify who wants to win and evade them at certain times and pick your spots carefully. Finally, be fearless. If you are afraid to lose, you will never win. Good luck!

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