If you have spent any amount of time playing in MTT Hold’em tournament, you know how frustrating it can be when you make call downs on draws and they never hit.  The next thing you know your stack is down to nothing and you have little or no choice to go all in with a questionable hand.  Maybe you need to think about taking some more chances and try to get a big stack early on and actually hit the final table with the big stack instead of getting blinded out.

The first thing you have to decide is if you want to play aggressively or you just want to sit back and wait for hands.  While you can be successful by waiting around, you are doomed if you don’t catch cards early on and you are going end up getting bullied off of hands.  While you risk getting bounced out of the tourney early by playing this way, if you get a couple of breaks, you can find yourself deep into the tourney and able to cash a big payday.

Something that you may want to consider is pushing the issue when you are on a draw, especially if you can set up a check raise situation.  Ideally, you are going to set this up with an aggressive player that is bullying the table.  If he raising pre-flop on the bulk of the hands and then going forward with a continuation bet, he is an ideal candidate to pull this move on.  Doing this will also set you up later one when you have hit a hand.  You can do the same thing and possibly get a call when you are sitting on the stone cold nuts.

The ideal situation for this move would be three handed with you playing before the aggressor and after one other player.  Let’s say that the aggressor raises the pot before the flop to 4 times the blind.  You are sitting on the BB with KQc.  The flop comes out 10c-Jc-2d.  You are now sitting an open ended straight draw along, a royal flush draw and of course the flush draw.  In addition to that, you have two over cards that you can catch to improve your hand.  All in all, you have a total of 23 possible outs to improve your hand.

Now assume the other player in the hand is the SB and he checks the flop to you, you in turn check the bet over to the initial raiser and he fires a pot sized bet out there.  The SB folds and now it is up to you.  For arguments sake, assume the pot was $120 before the flop and he is now betting $120 into that pot.  It would be early in the tournament and you have $1,000 left in chips.  The call in this situation is a no brainer, you are getting 2:1 odds on your money and you have about a 90% shot of hitting your hand.   However, a call does not allow you to truly take advantage of this situation.  This is an ideal position to push your stack in and double up.

If the aggressor makes the call and has you beat and is not holding two suited cards with the Ace that will match the board, you are still in the driver’s seat.  You literally have half the deck to draw to him calling and having the lead is not a bad thing here.  The other scenario is that the aggressor folds his hand and you end up taking in a pretty nice pot.

Remember though, you make a habit of this move and you are going to get called down every time.  Save it for a time when you hold a significant advantage on your draw and even if you are behind, you are in a strong position to win the hand.  Then the next time you make the play and have a hand, the aggressor is going to think you are bluffing and will make the call.  When you turn over your set, his mouth drops and you rake the pot.  Well timed aggression will lead you to the final table.  Use it in the right spot against the right player and that chip stack will continue to grow.

In the early stages of the tournament, we were able to avoid losing any chips in marginal situations, as well as doubling up our stack with a premium hand. The blinds are now becoming large enough that merely winning a few blinds, will help to increase our stack significantly. As a result, it is time to change gears from our early stage style, to a stealing style of play.

Our strategy is now to win as many blinds and antes as possible, as well as playing our premium hands strong and trying to double up if possible. The main difference in our change of gears, is that we are now going to be opening with raises with a large range of hands and rarely limping. With the suited connectors and small pocket pairs that we limped with in late position in the early stage, we are now going to be attacking the blinds.

A few things to remember and be aware of when attacking the blinds. You have a much better chance of stealing blinds without contention, when raising from late position. We must also take into account the stack sizes and playing styles of the players we are attacking. It is not ideal to attack a large stack poker player, who is loose and aggressive. These players will almost always defend their blinds, which is exactly what you do not want. Also, be sure that the players in the small blind or the big blind are not so small stacked, that they will be looking to move all-in in order to try and double up and survive in the tournament.

The ideal candidates for stealing blinds from are players with average chip stacks and are tight players. Also, if a player has just doubled up or won a big pot to get back to a good size stack, it is a good time to attack their blinds. They will not feel they need to defend with weak hands, as they have just increased their stack. The opposite goes for players who have just lost a big pot, they will be more willing to gamble and defend their blinds in order to increase their chip stack, so we want to avoid them.

The single most important aspect of our stealing strategy, is knowing when to slow down and change gears again. If you have just stolen three consecutive uncontested blinds, be aware that the players may be willing to make a stand against you. If you start getting played back at frequently and called with weak hands, it may be time to tighten up for a few rounds. Remember, we want to avoid playing pots with marginal hands, we just want to win the blinds.

As you develop your instincts in this strategy, you will begin to pick up on additional situations, where you can steal pots from the Big Blind and Small Blind positions as well. As the tournament progresses, many players will tighten up and some players will attempt to steal more and more blinds. This will give us situations, to re-steal from the blind positions, as well as from late positions. I must clarify, that this is a highly advanced strategy and should not be used until you are experienced in this gear and have developed a very good sense of reading situations in poker tournaments.

Stealing the blinds and antes helps us to continually increase our chip stack, without having any premium hands. It is essential that we continue to build our stack throughout the tournament and by using the strategy in this stage of the tournament we can put ourselves in position to make a deep run in the tournament. Remember, you want to steal as many blinds as possible without making it look like you are getting out of line. Make sure you come back tomorrow, as I will take us through our third gear and the tricky Bubble play section of tournaments.