Live Mtt Strategy
Table Of Contents
While his brother Jaime might have been taking the plaudits following his deep run in the partypoker MILLIONS Online Main Event, fellow partypoker Twitch streamer Matt Staples has also been enjoying the latest major festival on partypoker.
Founded by high-stakes pro Matt Berkey, Solve For Why TV is a poker training site unlike any other. We will teach you how to think about the game and equip you with all the necessary tools to set you on the path towards poker domination. I have so much experience online MTT’s that playing tight isn’t a problem, but in live tournaments I tend to overvalue my tourney life and play far too conservatively. I’m going to focus on loosening up my live MTT game for the Colossus. I envision myself playing maybe a 20/18 game instead of my usual live tight 12/10 game. Equity Kid - Constantly talks strategy at the table after every hand, usually to himself, as no one else is really eager to talk to him. Drops words like 'equity' and 'range' so everyone at the table will know how smart he is. Provides an unsolicited live blog of his thought process to the whole table after every hand he plays.
Two Plus Two Online Poker Strategy Magazine Publisher Note Mason Malmuth March 2021. One of the themes in my writing concerning the success of poker in the future is that for poker, as a game, to be successful there needs to be a proper balance of luck and skill. This advanced tournament article is meant for those players who are already familiar with playing tournament poker and specifically no limit MTT games. The concepts covered in this guide will refer to advanced terms and concepts like folding equity, position, image and implied value.
Matt says he's been playing as many events as his bankroll will allow, and that he's aiming to capitalize on the series and stream as much as of it as he can.
'The audience love the MILLIONS,' Staples told PokerNews. 'Anytime I get to play big prize pools and big buy-ins everyone gets hyped. It certainly makes it a little different than the everyday grind.'
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Satellites Galore Still in the Client
With the festival wrapping up next week, there is still time to jump into any of the tournaments left on the schedule. Matt says that he has been eyeing up some of the satellites that partypoker have released into the client, offering players the chance to win their way in for less.
'There have been so many great tournaments with great structures that allow for lots of play and feel special. Of course to play some people will go through the satellite route but partypoker offers plenty of ways to qualify for low price points.'
Matt says that major festivals are of paramount importance for Twitch streamers as they help to break up the monotony of the daily grind.
'Poker tournaments on Twitch can start to get very repetitive with the same schedule every day and the same prize pools. This makes it feel like you are showing up and watching a special event that you don't want to miss.'
Can @MattStaplesPKR win a @partypoker 5-way all-in with pocket aces? The Magic 8-Ball says 'Maybe'.
— PokerNews (@PokerNews)With streamers having to find a balance between entertaining, and grinding, Matt says that it's something that for him at least, comes naturally.
'There are those big spots and moments where I focus much more on the gameplay aspect, and then if things are relaxed and not much action is happening then that is a great time to answer lots of questions and relieve some focus from the tables.
With his brother running deep, and fellow partypoker Ambassador Dzmitry Urbanovich finishing fourth in the Main Event, Matt says that everyone on the team is pumped when someone else manages to get a big score.
'Of course everyone wants to be that person with the success, but there's no rivalry. The only rivalry comes from streamers fighting for Twitch viewers which is always very competitive during a series.'
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Remaining partypoker MILLIONS Online Schedule
| Date | Start Time (GMT) | # | Event | Buy-in | Guarantee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday, March 4, 2021 | 19:05 | #23 | MILLIONS Mix-Max - 2 Day Event | $3,200 | $300,000 |
| Thursday, March 4, 2021 | 19:05 | #24 | MILLIONS 6-Max Omaha High Roller | $5,200 | $200,000 |
| Friday, March 5, 2021 | 19:05 | #25 | MILLIONS Closer Day 1A [PKO] | $1,050 | $500,000 |
| Saturday, March 6, 2021 | 19:05 | #25 | MILLIONS Closer Day 1B [PKO] | $1,050 | $500,000 |
| Sunday, March 7, 2021 | 15:05 | #25 | MILLIONS Closer Day 1C [PKO] | $1,050 | $500,000 |
| Sunday, March 7, 2021 | 19:05 | #25 | MILLIONS Closer Final Day [PKO] | - | $500,000 |
| Sunday, March 7, 2021 | 19:05 | #26 | MILLIONS High Roller | $10,300 | $1,000,000 |
| Sunday, March 7, 2021 | 21:05 | #27 | MILLIONS High Roller Turbo | $5,200 | $200,000 |
| Monday, March 8, 2021 | 19:05 | #28 | MILLIONS Mega High Roller Day 1 | $102,000 | $3,000,000 |
| Tuesday, March 9, 2021 | 19:05 | #28 | MILLIONS Mega High Roller Final Day | - | $3,000,000 |
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The middle stage is characterised by the decreasing relation of the stack size to the blinds and the ante, and the late stage you have to be ready to live or die by the hole cards in front of you. In contrast to the early stage, the game in the middle and late phases have much less in common with the classic cash game. The average stack is often only around 30 BBs. Decisive here is playing the right game for the various stack sizes.
Starting hand selection
Starting hand selection in the middle phase is quite different from that of the early phase. Because the average stack is now only around 30 BBs, the implied odds are no longer adequate for many speculative hands – such as small pairs (22-66) and suited connectors – to call.
There are other ways of playing these hands. One way would be to 3-bet both types of hand instead of just calling. The advantages of this are that the aggression could push weak or even fairly good hands out of the pot before the flop, and again after the flop with a c-bet representing a strong hand. The disadvantage is that we will risk a lot of chips at a crucial stage with a weak hand.
An alternative way of playing speculative hands would be to call in position and, should we not hit, fashion a bluff attempt if our opponent looks to have missed also, as it should have a good chance of succeeding against certain players.
However, there is strong argument for simply folding speculative hands and concentrating on those hands that increase in value in the middle phase: middle to high pairs and aces with high kickers. These hands are strong enough for a preflop all-in, and they can also be played well post-flop if we didn’t go all-in beforehand.
Why should you steal the blinds?
As the size of the blinds increases, stealing them automatically becomes more interesting. The extra fee paid per hand substantially increases the number of chips we need per orbit.
Example 1: Blinds: 100/200, no ante. Every player has to pay 300 chips in blinds per orbit.
Example 2: Nine players, blinds: 100/200, ante: 25. Every player has to pay 525 chips in blinds and ante per orbit.
This amount we pay per orbit is identical to the number of chips already in the pot before the action has even started. By comparison with the previous example without an ante, this is an increase of around 70%! Stealing the blinds is thus much more lucrative.
We must now adjust our strategy so that we attack the blinds more aggressively than the other players. In order to keep our stack constant, we have to win the blinds and the ante only once per orbit on average. And if we manage to do it twice, we’ll be up one orbit!
Live Mtt Strategy Definition
Tips for stealing the blinds
The classic blind steal is a raise from the late position, best of all from the button. The position is important for two reasons: firstly, because we have position on both blinds and secondly, because there are fewer players after us who could be holding a premium hand.
If we attack the blinds with a weak hand from a middle position, we are disadvantaged for two reasons: we’re out of position to any callers, and other players could also 3-bet and force us to fold.
The small blind is also suitable for stealing the blinds, but we would have the decisive disadvantage of not having position post-flop. Stealing from the small blind requires caution, and it may be wise to continue folding weak hands, limp marginal hands and raising strong hands – or potentially just call if the player to our left is an aggressive player.
What is important for us in the small blind is that we raise more than normal, which again is dependent on position, and that we’re only playing against the big blind. With a normal raise, the big blind would have such good pot odds (considering the added antes) that they could call with a large variety of hands. For this reason, we should bend our established bet-sizing rules and raise to at least 4 BBs.
The strength of our own hand is important for a blind steal but not decisive. We can attack the blinds with a wide variety of hands, especially in late position. These include all Broadway combinations, pairs, suited connectors (also with a gap) and good suited king-queen combinations.
Decisive for a blind steal is that no other player is in the hand ahead of us. When another player has already called, we need a considerably stronger starting hand if all players ahead of us have folded. This is because an open raise often wins the hand before the flop, so the strength of our own hand itself is irrelevant. However, if another player has already called, that player will generally also call a raise, and then we’re going to have to hit a strong hand on the flop. The quality of our own hand in this case is therefore more important.
Another important aspect is the size of the blinds’ stacks, the big blind in particular. If one or both blinds have very small stacks, there is an increasing probability that they will very often go all-in. Big stacks defend their blinds more often because they don’t like being “pushed around”. Difficult situations can arise in both cases if we try to steal the blinds with very weak hands. Ideally, both the small blind and big blind have medium-sized stacks and are known for often surrendering their blinds.
Why raises are smaller from the middle phase onwards
In the middle phase of a tournament, players change from a normal raise size of 3 BBs plus 1 BB per limper to the slightly smaller raise size of around 2.5 BBs. At first sight this may appear pointless or at least irrelevant, because the pot is larger thanks to the addition of the ante. The idea behind this was that it would lead to bigger raises. In practice, however, exactly the opposite occurs.
Because of the high blinds and the ante, the players have stacks that, measured in BBs, are relatively small, as rule between 5 and 30 BBs. If we now raise a hand like 77 in a middle position and with a stack of 25 BBs, it makes (almost) no difference to the players after us whether we’ve raised 2.5 or 3 BBs. But if a player re-raises us, we will often be forced to fold. A raise of only 2.5 BBs would save us 0.5 BBs! The smaller our stack, the greater the effect of this 0.5 BB.
Here’s another advantage: in that we now risk fewer chips – the raise doesn’t have to be successful as often in order to be profitable.
Example
- Nine players, blinds: 500/1000, ante: 100
- We’re holding 77 in the middle position.
- Four folds, Hero raises to 2,500, everybody folds
Live Mtt Strategy Game
In this example, we win 2400 chips from the pot. Because we bet only 2,500 chips, our raise has to win the pot straight away only once in every two attempts in order to be profitable in the long term.
In cases in which we don’t win the pot before the flop, we win additional chips after the flop if our hand improves and becomes the strongest one.
Another advantage of this minimal reduction in the raise is that, if we are called, the pot is correspondingly smaller. We thus have less difficulty folding weak post-flop hands if our opponent shows strength.
It is a disadvantage that players who enter the pot after us get good pot odds. This applies particularly to the big blind. In the example above, the big blind only has to put 1,500 into a pot of 4,900, giving them worthwhile pot odds of 3.3:1.
Defending the blinds
In the above sections we have seen that we get very good pot odds, especially as the big blind, thanks to the ante and the smaller raises. In general, we shouldn’t defend our big blind against raises in earlier positions when we’re holding marginal hands.
Faced with raises from middle and late positions, we should 3-bet when holding strong to very strong hands. Especially against players who often attack the blinds from late positions, we should also defend our blind with marginal hands such as 55 or Q♥10♥. When we do so, the important thing is to select cards that give us a chance of hitting a good flop. Hands that are easily dominated, such as low ace and king combinations, should be folded. This will enable us to avoid problems if we hit top pair without a kicker.
Live Mtt Strategy Games
If we only called in the big blind we should very often check the flop to the preflop aggressor and then raise, call or fold, depending on our hand and the flop structure. An exception may arise when the flop is good for us but very draw-heavy. In this case it makes sense to bet ourselves and thus deny the preflop aggressor a free card.
Live Mtt Strategy Tactics
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