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Tournament Strategy – Taking Advantage Of Your Large Chipstack

Holding a large chipstack in an online poker tournament can be a pleasurable experience. You will have many advantages, including the ability to take positive expectation situations without the risk of busting out. However, many players make some basic tournament strategy errors while holding a big stack – resulting in losing their advantageous position. This article looks at tournament strategy for taking advantage of your large chip stack the right way – to help you reach that lucrative final table.

We will start by looking at the various stages of a poker tournament and how the stacks and goals of opponents affect your large stack play as the tournament moves through these. Next two common large stack errors are looked at, playing too tight and calling too many bets. Finally adjusting for the changes in your own image that big stack play will create is covered.

Having a large chip stack in the early stages of a poker tournament will allow you to see many more flops. As we will see, the ideal situation in the mid to end game is to be the aggressor with your large stack – however the number of weak opponents in the early stages mean that it is more difficult to push opponents around. Seeing flops in position will allow you to steal those times when nobody has flopped too much of a hand. It will also allow you to ‘float’ – calling continuation bets those times there are draws on the board or your opponents appear to be weak. This, in turn, will allow you to pick up many pots on the turn.

The mid-game is all about adjusting to the stack sizes of your opponents. Having a big stack will allow you to call the ‘desperate’ all-ins from the short-stacks – often with very good pot odds once the blinds and antes are taken into account. It will also give you the opportunity to open raise many pots when medium stacks are in the blinds, when you will have a great opportunity to grow your big stack further by stealing.

At the bubble your large tournament chip stack becomes a powerful weapon. Correctly judging who has tightened up in order to make the money will allow you to steal many pots. An advanced strategy here is to try and keep the bubble going as long as possible, folding to the smallest stack is an example of this. Here you may have an entire round of the table to steal more pots before someone busts and the bubble bursts.

The biggest errors that players make with a big stack is to play too tight. Since you are in a comfortable situation, folding hands seems like an easy strategy. However, it is always surprising how fast your opponents will catch up – it only takes one or two players with stacks as big as yours at the table to nullify many of your advantages. Positive and aggressive big stack play will give you the best chance of winning the entire tournament.

A second error is to call too many bets when holding a big stack. This will often result in facing a flop bet with little or no information on your opponents holding – giving the opportunity to make mistakes. Instead you should look to take the lead in the betting, the combination of having your opponents fold and hitting your hand will give you multiple ways to win the pot.

You will also need to note that raising many pots as a big stack will lead to the medium and small stacks that you are stealing from feeling pressured and frustrated. They will be looking for opportunities to play back at you with a wide range of holdings. There is no harm in folding after making a raise if your hand is not good enough to show down. The key factor here is to come right back raising the next hand – letting opponents know that your big stack means you can not be pushed around!

Good luck!

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	Need more? View our Poker Tips & Strategy Articles archive or Poker Rules section