How to Make a Deep Run in a Poker MTT
Making a deep run is the greatest feeling in tournament poker. You have already earned your buy-in back (plus more) and you have a shot at a huge payday if you can make it to the final table (or beyond). This article will teach you exactly how to make a deep run in online multi table tournaments, starting with your early stages strategy.
Accumulate Chips Early While Minimizing Risk
At the start of a MTT you should use a standard cash game strategy, which should be conservative and careful. Since most players will have around 100 big blinds in their stack there isn’t much blind/ante pressure, and you can afford to wait for premium preflop hands. When you do have a premium hand you should play it fast to force out drawing hands – winning small, uncontested pots is the best way to accumulate chips during the early stages of a tournament (which also sets you up for a deep run later).
You can’t win the tournament in the early stages, so you should lay low and avoid big confrontations unless you have an enormous hand. Your goal in the early stages of a MTT is to build your stack slowly and carefully while the other players beat each other up.
Open Things Up, Very Gradually
The tendency for most tournament players it to get very aggressive once they advance past the first few levels, as the blinds are now more considerable than they were before. However, if you want to make a deep tournament run we recommend continuing with your careful MTT strategy, which means you should pad your stack by winning uncontested pots and avoid all-in confrontations unless you are certain your money is good.
Even if your current stack is only 40 or 50 big blinds, there is still plenty of time to make smart poker plays before you have to move to a push/fold strategy. We recommend sticking to your same basic cash game strategy until you reach level five or six. At that point you can get a little more aggressive when you are in position, along with making some more powerful moves such as c-betting flops or occasionally three-betting preflop if you have a strong hand.
You should still look to avoid coinflip all-ins or huge bluffs, as there is plenty of time to continue with your safe strategy and ensure that you advance to the bubble.
You can stick with this simple strategy as long as you have thirty or more big blinds – if you dip lower than that, you will need to get more aggressive, but overall you should play it safe in the early and middle stages of the tournament.
Taking Your Shot
Any good tournament player realizes that at some point during a MTT, you have to take a shot if you want to make a deep run. This could be getting into a huge preflop all-in coin flip, making a big bluff on the river to steal a monster pot, or getting all your chips in with a big draw on the flop. NOTE – we are referring to the later stages of the tournament here – in the early and middle stages you should play conservatively, as detailed above.
When you take a shot, you will either bust the tournament or end up with a huge stack. We always recommend playing with this strategy in the later stages of the tournament, because if you sit on your stack and let the blinds eat you away you pretty much eliminate any chance of making a deep run. It is a much better decision to ensure, say, a 50% chance at going deep and a 50% chance of busting outside the money than to have a 0% chance of going deep and a 75% chance of making the money. Online poker tournament prize pools are very top heavy, so your goal should always be to make a deep run.
The Aftermath
Once you’ve taken your shot, you will either be busted, crippled, or have a huge stack. If you’ve busted don’t sweat it – no one runs deep in every MTT they play. Keep your chin up and try again. If your stack is crippled, move into a push/fold strategy and try to rebuild so you can take another big shot.
If your aggressive play worked out and you have a huge stack, revert to a slightly more conservative style because you probably have 50+ big blinds now. Keep padding your stack by making steals in late position and raising pots when you have a solid hand, but there is no need to go into “bulldozer” mode and try to force the action when you have such a big stack. Just cruise to the final table then speed up a bit to hopefully go all the way.
Related "How To" Posts:
- How to Play a Bounty Poker Tournament
- How to Play Middle Pairs (77-TT) Preflop
- How to Choose the Right Sit and Go
Written by Bill Nye