Stack Management for Limit Hold’em Tournaments – Part II

I’m back with more limit hold’em tournament strategy. Last month, I wrote about avoiding variance as a shortstack. This time I’d like to cover a variety of nuances on a broader scale.

Limit Holdem Tournaments Versus Cash Games

Structurally, limit holdem tournaments are very similar to their cash-game sisters. The only notable differences are nothing being raked out of the pot (applies to all tournaments) and the small blind not always being half of the big blind because of level increases. In most live tournaments, there will be levels in which the small blind will be between one-third and two-thirds of the big blind.

Adjusting for Small Blind Size

Accounting for a different-sized blind is straightforward at first glance. When smaller, you should play tighter, when larger, you should play looser. However, there are subtle differences to consider. In late position, the change is a much larger consideration.

When you raise in early position, how much you win or lose in the long run is based on how your hand interacts with the entire table, resulting in more multiway pots. When you raise in late position, a larger percentage of your winrate is stealing the blinds and navigating heads-up pots where you’ve chopped up the small blind’s dead money two ways. Therefore, it’s not worth altering your range much in early position, but more crucial to adapt as it folds to you towards the button.

It’s also worth considering what hands you should become looser or tighter with. This partially depends on the small blind itself. If she adjusts by three-betting more, I add hands with showdown value to my range to prepare for heads-up confrontations. If she tends to call, I would rather increase my hand density with high implied-odds holdings such as suited connectors. Open-raising hands such as A-3 offsuit from the cutoff is much less attractive when the pot is frequently going to be three-handed.

When You Are the Small Blind

When the small blind is smaller, the obvious adjustment is to play tighter. When it is bigger, you should likewise play looser, but should that be via calling or reraising more? Many players adapt by flatting, even though they typically utilize a three-bet or fold strategy in other scenarios.

I prefer to widen my three-betting range and never call. I don’t think its horrendous to cold-call, but the immense odds I’m offering the big blind and how unbalanced my range would be make me cringe. It would be difficult to construct calling and reraising ranges which both have a variety of hands, so I avoid that problem by three-betting everything. There are situations that make calling more palatable, such as if there is a weak player in the big blind or if you heavily need to avoid variance. However, even in these situations, it’s worth considering the free information you are presenting to your opponents as the flop comes.

Play In Limit Holdem Tournaments

The most defining characteristic of limit hold’em tournaments is that players are much tighter than their cash-game selves. As levels increase, players become increasingly concerned with survival, making the money, pay jumps, and their final table prospects.
Unlike no-limit, or the stud games, there are no antes, so there are less incentives to contend for each pot. This results in more correct play, as rounders tend to be too loose in limit hold’em cash games, without amazing postflop skills to justify it. As professional Jimmy Fricke deduces, “while in no-limit hold’em tournaments, you are rewarded for your opponents playing either too tight or too loose, in limit hold’em tournaments, you’d just prefer them playing too loose.”

Bluff More, Value-Bet Less

Despite playing better, these adjustments leave themselves susceptible to other plays. The best ways to counter a weak-tight strategy are to bluff more and value-bet less. However, being selective improves this strategy — specifically, tight players are more likely to miss low and middle-card flops, which are excellent candidates to attack.

Here is an example of a strong bluff made better by a stressful tournament atmosphere:
A player raises in the lojack (seat acting before the hijack) and we defend Q J in the big blind. The flop comes 8 7 5 and we check-raise their continuation bet, planning on betting most turns. When we don’t turn a good bluff card like a four, six, nine, or ten, we often pick up a pair or backdoor-straight and/or flush draw, buffering our equity and minimizing the punishment for shoveling money in as an underdog.

This type of bluff can be attempted in a cash game, but shines here. In the pressure cooker that is a tournament, a tight opponent is likely to have big cards which miss this flop, having folded hands such as A-8 preflop. Even when they connect with the flop, they are also more likely to fold scary turn cards with hands such as A-7 suited, in the name of stack preservation.

Even though thin value-bets are a key weapon in the arsenal of expert limit hold’em players, they are less effective when the game is played as a tournament. Hands that would normally be a river value-bet, such as third pair, become value-cuts when opponents have defaulted to check/calling instead of betting themselves.

Adjusting Your Starting Hands

The implementation of these tactics is improved if we alter our preflop range. By planning to make fewer value-bets and more bluffs, showdown value is less of an asset and lack of showdown value less of a liability. The result is that suited connectors show improved play while showdown based holdings such as A-x are worse.

The chart below illustrates some reasonable additions and subtractions from a standard opening range, using the cutoff as an example. We remove some A-x and mediocre king hands while boosting our number of suited holdings.

Know When This Doesn’t Apply

These suggestions are generalizations. I’ve certainly played in tournaments where the advice here is worse than useless. For instance, some players are tight preflop and resolve never to fold postflop — trying to bluff them is counterproductive. Even though I have diagnosed their playing style correctly, the remedies prescribed in this article would be poisonous. No matter what strategies you come into a tournament with, it’s ultimately crucial to stay focused on the hands in front of you and play poker. ♠

Ben Yu attended Stanford University but knew even before finishing that he wanted to embark on a journey to become a one of the finest professional mixed-game players. He made his debut onto the tournament scene in 2010 with a second-place finish in the World Series of Poker $1,500 limit hold’em shootout and followed it up in 2011 by leading the WSOP with seven cashes across six different games.  In 2012, he moved to Rosarito, Mexico in order to continue playing online and was enthralled to perform well at the World Championship of Online Poker, including a final table appearance at the $10,300 poker 8-Game High Roller, and a cash in the main event.