8 Best Poker Tournament Strategies for Winning

Start Slow

You should play very tight in the early level of a poker tournament. Since the blinds are lower, there is much less pressure to make any aggressive moves at this stage. Past stats at prestigious tournaments, such as the World Series of Poker (WSOP), show that early aggression can do more harm than good. Instead, you should look to protect your chip stack and only play powerful hands.

One classic example is Chris Moneymaker in the 2003 WSOP. He waited for quality hands like Aces (AA) or Kings (KK) and occasionally suited connectors like Ace-King (AK). This strategy helped him convert a $39 satellite entry into a $2.5 million score.

Key Steps:

Wait for Premium Hands: Play hands like AA, KK, QQ, and AK suited. For instance, if you get Aces, raise pre-flop to encourage a heads-up situation and deny your opponents the pot odds they need to call a raise.
Key tip: Do not take unnecessary risks. In early positions, you are still risking, and you must not let low pairs (e.g., 4-4) or even worse, 7-2 offsuit, mess with your peace of mind. At the 2008 WSOP, Peter Eastgate folded marginal hands with precision and waited for premium hands. This strategy allowed him to coast through early eliminations while preserving his chip stack and staying out of speculative confrontations.
Pay attention to how your opponents play: Stay aware of someone who continuously raises with junk and compensate appropriately. For example, if an opponent always 3bets from the cutoff with junk, you can begin using this to your advantage by mounting a 4bet with premiums unless you are out of position.

Play The Right Starting Hands

Selecting the correct starting hands is the most essential skill in poker, affecting everything else you do in your game.

One of the best examples of playing tight preflop came during the 2004 World Series of Poker when Greg Raymer played very few hands and won the $5,000,000 top prize. Raymer won the Main Event by folding weak hands and going all in with strong hands (like pocket pairs and high suited connectors), allowing him to play through thousands of players.

Key Steps:

Play Premium Hands: Hands like pocket Aces (AA), Kings (KK), Queens (QQ), and Ace-King (AK) suited should be played aggressively. For example, in the early stages of the tournament, raise pre-flop with pocket Aces to build up the pot and thin out the field.
It Goes by Position: Tight early, loose late. Top-tier hands only (AA-AK suited) early, widening your range to small suited connectors (e.g., 9-8 suited) and medium pairs (e.g., 7-7) in later positions.
Adapt to the Table: Determine your opponents’ hand selection. Against a very tight table, you can open slightly wider. Similarly, if the table is loose and aggressive, play tight and get involved more when you hit hands. For example, during the 2012 WSOP, Phil Helmuth adjusted his raising hands according to his opponents’ tendencies before winning his 12th bracelet.

Examples:

Pocket Aces (AA): Jamie Gold often raised with pocket Aces in the 2006 WSOP, using his genuine holding to make the pot big and knock out opponents.
Medium Pairs (7-7, 8-8): Doyle Brunson played his way into flopped trips with medium pairs, winning his 10th WSOP bracelet.

The Middle is A Good Time to Ease Up

If you have signed up for a poker tournament, one of the key skills you can learn is the ability to adjust your game. This level is when you transition from playing in very tight ranges to opening up your ranges to help build your stack and give you a solid position for the end game of the tournament.

The 2014 World Series of Poker saw Martin Jacobson execute the perfect middle stage strategy. He started off tight but then loosened up some and used his stack as a weapon to keep the field cautious.

Key Steps:

Open up: Start opening suited connectors (like 87s), as well as medium pairs (like 66). You can also use hands like 9-8 suited in a very late position to really bloat the pot. Phil Ivey used this strategy early in the 2009 WSOP and made a massive stack.
Steal Blinds and Antes: As the blinds and antes become larger, it becomes increasingly profitable to start stealing them. Try to raise or steal the pot when given a chance. In the 2016 WSOP, Qui Nguyen was notorious for taking down blinds and antes excessively, which is one of the reasons he built up such a big stack quickly.
Sharpen Stacks: Consequently, if anyone is short, go ahead and increase stakes on those who have fewer chips than average. It puts them in tough spots and can create profitable situations. Joe McKeehen seemed to prey on the weak during the 2015 WSOP with a monster stack.

Examples:

Suited Connectors (8-7 suited): Ryan Riess steamrolled the 2013 WSOP final table by playing suited connectors incredibly aggressively in the middle stages of the event.
Vanessa Selbst developed a reputation for stealing blinds in many games, a technique she has used in the early tournament levels to win titles.

Be Aware Of Your Stack Size

In the 2012 World Series of Poker, Greg Merson displayed one of the best stack management techniques ever seen. Adapting his play was a critical component to his final table finish in the Main Event. This allowed Merson to switch up his big stack, average stack, or short stack strategies to turn around the rest of the game.

Key Steps:

Big Stack Play: If you have a big stack, play more aggressively. Apply pressure to other players, especially those with medium or short stacks. Joe McKeehen in the 2015 WSOP demolished the final table by using his big stack to push the smaller stacks into awkward spots, forcing them to risk all their chips.
Average Stack Play: Play solid, regular poker and fight for pots when you can. Peter Eastgate played tight and tough to keep his stack around average during the 2008 WSOP, waiting for clear opportunities to put him in a great position.
Playing Short-Stacked: Be selective and aggressive if short-stacked. Pinpoint chances to float, and double down with your nutted hands and maximum equity draws. During the 2010 WSOP, Jonathan Duhamel found ways to keep himself afloat by finding spots to shove with high cards (AK) and small pairs (e.g., 7-7).

Examples:

Jamie Gold was seen raising and bluffing his opponents with a stack so big that whenever he got into a hand, everyone else folded.
Phil Hellmuth‘s tight-aggressive style bore fruit when he captured his first bracelet in 1989.
Chris Moneymaker made some of the best short stack plays in 2003, preserving his chip stack and coming back better than before.

Resetting Expectations In A Bubble

The bubble of a poker tournament is one of the most vital and intense moments. Making your way through the bubble and how you set things up can greatly impact your success. This is abundantly clear from data and examples from previous big field tournaments.

One of the best examples of bubble play was at the 2011 World Series of Poker on the final table bubble. His slow start to the day, prudently finding the money and growing comfortable enough to change his game, led him to a third-place finish in the Main Event.

Key Steps:

Be Tight: Start only with your best hands and battle it out until the bubble bursts. Getting rich is an incidental side effect in the bubble years. In the 2007 WSOP, Jerry Yang became super tight, folding nearly everything but the best hands, which got him to the final table and to win.
If you have a large stack, pressurize the medium stacks who are barely holding onto cash. Joe McKeehen generated a strategic death spiral in the 2015 WSOP, grinding middle stacks into oblivion on the bubble.
Avoid Massive Brawls: Don’t go after massive pots unless you have a big hand. No amount of risk is worthy of busting at the money bubble. Play in small pots, only against big stacks at the table. In the bubble of the 2010 WSOP, Jonathan Duhamel played extremely tight, never risking his tournament life unless he had a premium hand.

Examples:

In the 2012 WSOP, Greg Merson played ultra-tight to stay alive and see the money.
Phil Hellmuth frequently floated around the table to manipulate the medium stacks hoping to just min-cash.
In the 2008 WSOP, Peter Eastgate was a model of tight-aggressive play on the bubble, avoiding big confrontations.

Defend Your Big Blind

If you defend competently in the blinds, you can stay alive and even chip up. Here is a bit of history from the biggest poker tournaments to give you examples of how top players exploited big blind defense.

2016 World Series of Poker main event champ Qui Nguyen played arguably the most heroic big-blind defense, keeping him in hands he might otherwise have folded and allowing him to get creative.

Key Steps:

Raise Size: Often, you will see a raise first in when you are in the big blind. Evaluate the size of the raise relative to the size of the pot. Call a wider range if the raise is smaller. For example, in the 2014 WSOP, Martin Jacobson defended his big blind with flat calls against small raises, allowing him to get to flops cheaply and play his opponents post-flop.
Imagine the Betting Player: Look at where the bettor is seated. If a loose player on the button or cutoff raises, you can play looser. In the 2012 WSOP, Greg Merson frequently 3-bet from the big blind against wide raisers.

Understand Your Position

Knowing your place at the table is crucial in poker for strategic execution. This article will take you through what hands you should and should not be playing based on your position in relation to the dealer button and how you should play them.

Jonathan Duhamel proved why position is one of the most important factors in poker play in the 2010 World Series of Poker. He utilized his spot efficiently and effectively to outplay opponents and bluff at the right moments, ultimately leading to his Main Event win.

Key Steps:

Early Position (EP): Only play very strong hands and play tight. You are the first to act, so you do not have much information on the hands of your opponents. This means you will want to see fewer flops and play the top hands like AA, KK, QQ, and AK suited only. Jerry Yang played very snug in early position during the 2007 WSOP, which kept him out of difficult post-flop spots and preserved his chip stack.
Middle Position (MP): Open a little wider. You can start adding in hands such as mid pairs (e.g., 88, 77) and suited connectors (e.g., 9♠8♠). Peter Eastgate took his active middle position in the 2008 WSOP and played a well-balanced hand range, earning his stack without much risk.
Late Position (LP): Play a wide range of hands and be very aggressive. Because you know the most about what your opponents are going to do, you can play looser, playing suited connectors and low pairs. Phil Ivey, a widely ruthless player in late position, often raises and steals a large majority of his hands. This strategy helped him become a big name during the 2009 WSOP.

Examples:

Early Position: Greg Merson played his entire range very tight in 2012, only opening very strong hands from EP.
Middle Position: A great hand to call in middle position is a hand like 7-7 or 8-8, just like Daniel Negreanu in the 2004 WSOP, raising to a set and building large pots.
Late Position: In that year’s WSOP, Vanessa Selbst often raised from the button and cutoff, getting the blinds to fold and picking up a ton of pots with great frequency.

Well-timed aggression

This is particularly important in poker tournaments, where knowing when and how to be aggressive will allow you to amass chips and put heavy pressure on your opponents.

Follow in the footsteps of Joe McKeehen during the 2015 World Series of Poker and see for yourself how powerful and effective timely aggression is. McKeehen put on a master class of when to wield the hammer, overpowering the final table and ultimately taking down the Main Event. Often, his opponents found themselves making bad decisions as they tried to deal with the aggression.

Key Steps:

Spot The Weaklings: Keep a close watch on players who are playing weak or poorly (either by being too tight or too loose, hesitating a lot, or making many mistakes). These players are usually easier to push around. During the 2004 WSOP, Greg Raymer picked out the weaker players in the field, attacked them aggressively, and took down their chips to build his hefty stack.
Leverage Position: Using a position of strength against your opposition. Aggression is most effective when you are the last player to act, as you will know what your opponents have done beforehand. Phil Hellmuth often employs a very tight, selective strategy but takes advantage of his position to reraise pre-flop and post-flop, putting maximum pressure on his opponents and forcing them to make hard decisions.
Change Your Game: Alter your play between aggressiveness to keep your opponents off balance. Mix it up often between big bets and small calls so you don’t become transparent. At the 2004 WSOP, Daniel Negreanu demonstrated the effectiveness of changing things up by playing aggressive raises with slow plays at unexpected times, confusing his opponents.

Examples:

Ryan Riess in the 2013 WSOP overvalued weaker players and raised their blinds.
Vanessa Selbst frequently went for 3-bets in the 2012 WSOP to control the hand.
Chris Moneymaker sometimes checked his monster hands to trap people and sometimes bet his weaker hands, like when he won the 2003 WSOP.