Early Stage MTT Tournament Strategy

Many people think that you have to rush out of the gates and build up a huge stack early in a tournament to do well. Although it’s always nice to build a huge stack early, it’s not entirely necessary. Instead, you should follow the “slow but steady” mantra when playing in the early stages of a multi-table tournament (MTT).

The early stages of an MTT are characterized by big stack sizes, lots of players left and small blinds. This is the stage in which you’ll see the wildest play and the quickest knockouts.

Interestingly, this is the point in the tournament in which you should play the tightest. You would think that the early stages would be the best time to play loose because you have lots of chips and the blinds are small. That’s seems to make sense but it’s actually incorrect.

Here’s Why:

One of the basic rules in poker is to play tight when your table is playing loose and to play loose when your table is playing tight. In the early stages of an MTT, you don’t help yourself at all by playing loose when all of your opponents are playing loose.

Instead, you should play a very tight, very straightforward poker game in the early stages. There’s no point to get crazy with bluffs and lose a lot of chips by playing marginal hands. You’ll win the most chips by waiting for strong hands and then betting when you get them.

In addition to that, you’ll need to conserve chips in the beginning of the tournament. You will need every chip you have when the blinds start getting bigger and it becomes time to steal some pots. Don’t worry; you’ll have plenty of opportunities to play wild poker later on in the tournament.

Early Stage MTT Hand Selection

Your selection of starting hands should be the tightest during the early stages of a tournament. You shouldn’t become a complete tightwad but you will definitely want to play tighter than usual.

The biggest factor you should take into consideration when choosing your hands is your position at the poker table. In early and middle position, you will want to only play the very best hands you get.

Early / Middle Position Hands: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, AK

You really shouldn’t be playing many more hands than those when in early and middle position. When you do get one of these hands, you will want to come in with a raise and bet them hard after the flop if you have what looks like the best hand on the board.

In late position, you can open up your range of hands a bit. You can play all small pocket pairs from late position in order to hit sets. Here’s the strategy I use when playing small pocket pairs in late position:

1. If people have already entered the pot, you can limp in with your small pocket pairs behind them.
2. If you’re the first one in the pot, you can raise with your pocket pairs.
3. If someone has already raised, you should fold your small pocket pairs.

Late Position Hands: All pocket pairs, AK, AQ, KQs, TJs

In the early stages, you should be willing to play overpairs for your entire stack unless one of three factors exists:

1. The flop texture is ugly
2. Your opponent is noticeably tight
3. Both you and your opponent have large stacks

It’s scary going all-in with just an overpair but the early stages of a tournament are wild. Your average opponent will have something weaker like top pair, a draw or something else random. Every once in a while you’ll run into some kind of hidden monster but that’s just how it goes.

Summary

Play tight, play with selective aggression and stay patient. The early stages of an MTT are supposed to be somewhat boring – you’ll be able to get in the middle of the action soon enough. Just stay patient for now.

Continue to Middle Stage MTT Strategy

Top Poker Sites for MTTs:

1. PokerStars – PokerStars has been the best poker site for MTTs for years. You won’t find more tournaments anywhere else.

2. Full Tilt Poker – Full Tilt comes in a close second place to PokerStars. You’ll find tournaments running 24/7 here.

3. PartyPoker – PartyPoker is a popular destination for non-US players. There are lots of big tournaments here and lots of opportunities to win big money.