I am struggling to consistently make it to the final table and was hoping to get some advice on how to improve my tournament strategy.
Specifically, I am looking for tips on managing my stack size throughout the tournament and making the right decisions during the various stages. Any suggestions on key strategies or common mistakes to avoid would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve been playing the game for a few months now. I really started from scratch, but as I kept playing, I improved and, of course, started winning. I’d love to get to know the game strategies better and further develop my skills. Who knows, maybe even play with someone more experienced than me. I don’t have a lot of confidence yet, but it’s worth a try, right? It’s a pleasure to meet all of you in this community. If anyone could teach me more about game skills and how to apply pressure on the opponent to force them into difficult decisions during the game, your advice would be greatly appreciated.
I also highly recommend watching Doug Polk’s free YouTube videos where he analyzes hands from live-streamed cash games and tournaments in detail.
I went from a mildly winning player to having a considerable edge in most low-stakes cash games and tournaments just by watching (literally every video Doug has posted) and learning to think more like a pro I still don’t EXECUTE like a pro, but… baby steps, right?
Doug Polk, J Little, Upswing Poker, Negreanu’s video’s, Harrington on Hold Em, Supersystem by Doyle, are extremely good resources to study, use, go by.
I can’t offer the same level as strategy advice as @Younguru, but I do wonder what your expectations are? Top level tournament pro’s usually only make it to the money about 15% of the time. For the top players on Replay, I think it’s more like 25% (because there’s a bigger gap in skill level of the fields), but they’re still going to make a final table a lot less often than not. You might actually be doing better than you think.
I barely made it to the half hour mark in several of these! And I don’t think I was punting, either. Twice I got involved in early flips that I lost. Once I played a combo draw aggressively and bricked out. Another couple times I just had a series of hands where I was ahead on the flop/turn, bet a decent chunk of my stack, and ended up losing on the river.
One of the toughest things about MTTs is that it can be hard to accurately self-assess, because variance is really high when you are competing against 25 or even 75 other people, no matter how skilled you are. I often review hands that I felt bad about in the moment and later realize that I played more or less fine (of course, the reverse also happens lol).
My main advice if you are having a tough time with tournaments is to keep at it! It can take quite a few reps to really start figuring out your strategy, and getting a sense of how the field is playing (which also matters a lot). Focus on making better decisions every time you play and try not to sweat the results; eventually you’ll break through, I promise