Are you headed to the World Series of Poker this year? In today's article, we’re going to discuss how you can prepare for each stage of a series event, from the early levels all the way to the late stages.
Let’s get right into it.
1. Early stages: Know whether you are willing to re-enter
A lot of your early-stage strategy depends on whether you are willing to re-enter.
Ideally, you should have a couple of re-entries ready. If other players are willing to put chips in, take chances, and pressure you, but you are not willing to do the same, that can put you at a real disadvantage.
Now, if you want to fire one buy-in and simply value-hunt against people who are overcommitting, that is completely fine. Just understand that the variance is going to be high, and a lot of the time, that one buy-in is not going to last.
It is much better to be mentally and financially prepared to re-enter a couple more times if needed.
2. Early stages: Build a stack that can apply pressure
When you start one of these tournaments, it is extremely valuable to get out to an early chip lead.
Why?
Because a big stack gives you ammunition to pressure people later.
If you have 70 big blinds while everyone else has 20, 30, or 40 big blinds, then every check-raise, double barrel, and three-bet threatens their entire tournament life. But if you go from 70 big blinds down to 58, it does not meaningfully hurt your chances of winning the tournament.
That is a huge advantage.
In a satellite, where the payout structure is very flat, you want to play much more conservatively. You do not want to chase thin draws, make loose cold calls preflop, fire off loose 3-bets, jam draws into capped ranges, make hero calls, or shove thinly for value postflop.
But in a normal poker tournament where the top three places pay the lion’s share of the money, you should be much more willing to take those aggressive actions.
When you are postflop with a value hand and a draw misses, ask yourself: Does my opponent ever want to fold anything here? Are they just going to use the missed draw as an excuse to call with anything?
If the answer is yes, consider pulling the trigger.
Go BIG!
You should always go for larger value bets than you normally would. Remember, this is like one at-bat in baseball. Babe Ruth led the league in strikeouts for a reason. If you are swinging for the fences, which you absolutely should be if you do not get to play many tournaments and min-cashing is not that big of a deal to you, then you should be prepared to strike out quite often.
3. After re-entry closes: Attack the medium stacks
Once re-entry is closed, hopefully you have some kind of established stack.
At this point, you want to start looking for medium stacks who think they can wait their way into the money.
A lot of players with 20, 30, and 40 big blinds will still open from steal positions, but they will have no idea what to do when you 3-bet large and put their stack at risk.
They also will not know what to do when you 3-bet or check-raise them from the blinds.
You want to pressure these conservative players consistently.
Of course, if someone clearly wants to gamble and does not care about busting, you need to shift into a more value-heavy strategy against them. Those players usually broadcast who they are. I am not sure why, but action players tend to love the attention.
4. On the bubble: Shove light, call tight
When you get to the bubble, the general rule is simple: shove light, call tight.
You want to be the person putting pressure on everyone else. You do not want to be the person calling off your tournament life too wide.
People will fold hands on the bubble that would absolutely stun you. Because of that, do not be afraid to shove even 30 big blinds if the pot is substantial to your stack and you believe everyone is just trying to chop up a small pot to keep themselves alive.
Before the bubble bursts, you have to be willing to go down in flames. You have to be willing to go 0-for-20 in these spots if necessary, because building that one big stack is incredibly important.
If you can win a key flip or pick up a big pot right there, it becomes much more likely that you are going to make a deep run.
5. Right after the bubble bursts: Be careful opening into short stacks
Right after the bubble bursts, everybody feels like they just got a free ticket.
That is when players start moving all-in with all kinds of hands.
Be very careful about opening preflop during this stage, because there are often short stacks to your left who are looking for any excuse to jam.
Before you open, look to your left. If you see multiple short stacks, do not raise unless you are willing to call off against an all-in.
Most likely, those players are going to shove, trying to get the stack they should have been trying to build on the bubble.
6. Late stages: Pressure the players trying to ladder
As you get deeper and closer to the final table, everyone starts tightening up again.
Why?
Because now they want to tell their family they made a final table.
This is when you want to go right back to pressuring the middle stacks. The players with 20, 30, 40, or 50 big blinds often think they can just wait for a better spot.
Do not let them.
You want to consistently pressure them, just like you were doing in the middle stages of the tournament. You also want to be shoving frequently in good spots, because a lot of players do not want to call off their tournament life after investing so much time.
That pressure can help you build a bigger stack and hopefully carry you to the final table.
And the final table is a whole other ball of wax.
Wishing you the best of luck at the series.
Alex Fitzgerald is a best-selling author published by D&B Poker. Check out Alex’s most recent book, ‘How to Beat Players Who Never Fold.’
Visit pokerheadrush.com and subscribe to Alex's FREE strategy newsletter to receive three FREE training video packs. Follow Alex on X and Instagram.
