In small-stakes tournaments, becoming a big winner has far less to do with simply seeing cheap flops and hoping to make a strong hand. Real success comes from stealing pots that don’t belong to you, and that begins with building a stronger, more aggressive preflop strategy.
Overall, you want to raise first in preflop play. One of the most important first steps is to stop limping, with the exception of the small blind.
Some of you just want to see cheap flops; limping should disappear from your game. When you raise instead of limp, you seize the initiative. Your raise announces that you have a strong hand, and I’m coming into the pot for a raise, which puts immediate pressure on people as you take the initiative.
This initiative forces opponents to fold equity, prevents them from seeing free or cheap flops, and sets you up to win the pot postflop with a continuation bet, with a potential range of very strong hands. Simply put, raising first makes you a more aggressive and more profitable tournament player.
Three-betting is the biggest upgrade
Secondly, beyond raising first in, the biggest improvement most small-stakes players can make is learning to three-bet far more often.
I see numerous players in small-stakes tournaments who call and see a flop very often, but that passive habit leaves a tremendous amount of money on the table.
When you three-bet, even without a premium hand, you take control of the pot before the flop and increase your stack slowly over time.
Sometimes the opener folds immediately, and you scoop uncontested chips. Other times, they call, and you enter the flop with initiative, allowing you to c-bet and continue to apply pressure.
Over time, those extra chips accumulate and help build the stack you need to go deep.
The correct sizing
Just as important as sizing is understanding the shape of your three-betting range. Many small-stakes players have a predictable approach: they three-bet only their very strongest hands, something like tens or jacks or better, plus ace-king, and never include thinner value hands.
Then they talk to professionals and wonder why opponents call their three-bets and stack them with junk.
So, let’s talk about that scenario – a wide linear three-betting range.
Against opponents who call three-bets too often, increase your value range.
Hands like AT suited, AJ suited, KQ suited, KJ suited, QJ suited, and pocket 8s or 9s become profitable three-bets because you bring dominated holdings along for the ride.
When you widen your value range, you isolate the loose caller, force the players behind not to realize their equity, and play bigger pots in position. Three-betting a wide linear range is how you want to play against players who will call too often against a three-bet.
Now let’s flip it. When you’re up against opponents who fold too often to three-bets, use a polarized strategy. That’s going to be a tight, linear value range, calling the hands in between that may not feel strong enough to three-bet, but they want to see a flop.
Hands that are a little bit under your calling hands, those are going to be three-bet bluffs. Hands like K9 suited, K8 suited, J9 suited, 97 suited, button versus cutoff, or something similar.
These hands are not part of a wide linear range. You’re not just going to three-bet hands AK through A2 suited. You can call some of those hands.
The three-bet bluffing hands you can make use of against players who will fold a reasonable amount of the time against a three-bet. When you are up against players such as that, who believe you are very strong, it’s the perfect time to use your three-bet bluff range.
Applying these concepts at the table
Overall, start by raising first in. Second, three-bet way more often. Use reasonable sizes and decide, ‘Do I want to three-bet with a linear wide value range or a more polarized strategy?’
Those questions preflop help you increase your aggression and take down more pots, and build the larger stacks you need to make deep runs in tournaments.
When you begin thinking this way, you naturally increase your aggression, win more pots before the flop, and build the larger stacks you need to make deep runs in tournaments.
Justin Saliba, a professional player with over $10 million in live tournament earnings, is a two-time WSOP bracelet winner and sought-after coach for players of all levels. For more information regarding coaching from Justin, see PokerCoaching.com and PeakGTO. Follow Justin on X.
