I’ve been playing the 1M tournament regs almost every day for a month now. There is remarkable consistency in gameplay within this pool, including a homogeneous failure to make certain plays (from what I’ve seen).
In my experience, the Top 3 MTT strategies that seem to be underutilized on RP high/elite stakes are:
Key Strategy #1: Variable Bet Sizing
A lot of these players have oversimplified the game tree by having only 2-3 bet sizes, or fewer, in most spots.
Mixing up your bet sizes, as long as it’s done with some consistency and balance, allows you to respond better to different board textures and configurations. To illustrate, consider the following mistakes that result from having only 1 size for a given spot:
- Mistake 1a.) RFI sizing too small for tournament stage *
The prevailing standard is to bet 2bb when first into the pot. I do this too, but mostly later in the tournament when SPRs are high (chip leader has <50bb, avg. stack <25bb). In the early stages, if starting stack is over 2k and the big blind is 20 or 30, most players will have 70-100bb or more. Calling 2bb preflop with hands as weak as 56s can be part of a winning strategy at this stage. If that makes you (or your playing style) uncomfortable, or if you find yourself getting outdrawn a lot at this stage of the tournament, you should probably be opening bigger.
I have started opening with a POT SIZED bet in these early stages recently, and I think it’s improving my results. I face fewer villains, those who do call have more well-defined ranges, and it’s more viable to bluff when I feel it’s called for, because the pot is already significant relative to everyone’s stack.
If you and a whopping 5 players limp for 20, the pot is still only 120. A pot-sized bet on the flop is likely to get called more often than you’d like, since the absolute pot size is smaller. If you open for 40 (2bb) with top pair and 5 players call, the pot is 300. That’s 15% of the average stack in many tournaments - not so easy to call with marginal hands that can steal your equity on later streets.
- Mistake 1b.) Postflop sizing too static *
It’s good to be unpredictable, and using the same bet size in different situations (good pair, good draw, weak pair, weak draw, nutted hand 2pr+, airball bluff) can help disguise your holdings, as well as your intentions. But taking this too far can be a serious error in many spots.
Middle-late stages of a tournament. Say you open KhKd from UTG for 2.5bb, and get only the button to call. The flop is AsKc7h. If you always bet pot for value on the flop (as many players on RP do), likely you feel compelled to use the same sizing here. You lead out for 6.5bb, your opponent folds their 7x happily and maybe even their weak Ax (begrudgingly), saving the rest of their 15bb stack for a better spot, and you miss a ton of value.
One orbit later you open AcQc from UTG for 2.5bb, get two callers from middle/late position, and the flop comes K27 rainbow. A lot of your opponent’s holdings have missed, and your range is heavy with hands containing a K, so you’d like to cbet as a bluff. But again, your usual sizing is to bet pot on the flop with value hands. If you go smaller now, it will look weak. So you bet pot. The hijack calls, the button folds, you check-fold another low card on the turn, and you lose 9bb - likely a good chunk of your stack.
I use 1/3 pot, 60% pot, full pot and 1.2-2.5x pot overbet sizing for value on the flop. I’ll overbet mostly with nutted hands, sometimes with strong draws, and infrequently (but not never) with weak draws. This makes it so that my opponents can’t just say, “he bet 1/3; he’s weak” or “he bet pot; he’s strong.”
More importantly, it means I get to cbet 1/3 pot when I miss the flop but my range is doing well - hands that totally missed will still fold, but now when I get looked up, I lose less. If I choose to keep bluffing, I can continue on the turn more often without spending a ton of chips. This is crucial in tournament play, where the NUMBER of bets you make can be almost as important as HOW MUCH you bet.
And when I crush the board, like on that KK hand, I can cbet a size that more of my opponent’s range can call without it looking too fishy.
–
Key Strategy #2: Taking Down Yucky Boards
It’s the middle stages of the tournament; avg. stack is 25bb. UTG opens 2bb, the hijack calls, and you call with 8d9d from the button. The flop comes 3d3c5c. Both players check to you.
A bet of almost any size will get a TON of folds here. Your opponents are less likely to hold a 3 or 5 after calling even a small pf raise, and even if they have something decent like an overpair, they can be scared of the 3. Most high stakes players on RP really don’t like calling down without the nuts when the board is paired or monotone - there are many combos that beat even AA on such boards. Of course, YOU SHOULD call down at a good clip in these situations if you’re the guy with the overpair - in practice, I think the player pool is significantly overfolding these boards textures.
I love bluffing these spots especially because I look so silly when I run into trips or a flush with some crappy hand - convincing my opponents that I’m a lot wilder than I really am, and allowing me to get more value with my strong hands later on.
Even if you KNOW I’m doing this, it’s not so easy to call even the flop with, say, AJ on a 335 board. And then there’s the turn bet, and maybe the river…
–
Key Strategy #3: Exploits
The overly uniform strategies used by most RP high stakes MTT regs opens the door for all kinds of juicy, highly profitable exploits.
The other night I was playing a 500k tourney and a player I’ve noted to be very tight opened for a standard size (don’t remember if it was 2, 3 or 4bb, but something in that range). I called with AQ offsuit from late position and we. The flop came ace high, villain bet 1/2 pot, and I called. The turn was a low brick, villain bet full pot, and I folded. Villain showed AK and I told the table I’d folded AQ. They didn’t believe me, so I took a screenshot (which I’ve since lost, so you’ll just have to take my word for it lol).
I’m not saying to do stuff long this too often, but I like to tell myself, “at least once per tournament, you will let a big hand go and wait for a better spot.” When I fail to do this I usually bust earlier than I’d like.
High stakes players on RP underbluff in general, especially for large sizes, especially when the best hand is fairly obvious. Throw in the occasional exploitative fold with a strong but non-nutted hands when players you have found to be extra tight start putting lots of chips in the middle. Even if you’re wrong sometimes, you probably aren’t losing that much EV in the long run. These players have very condensed ranges in high leverage spots. If they don’t get your stack when you have a very good hand but they have a great hand, you just owned them 
The flip side of this, of course, is to bluff way too often when these players check. That’s what I do, and I’m confident I’m winning more than my share of those spots.
Add your thoughts below and tell me your favorite MTT strategies that you don’t see other RP players using enough!