A deepstack poker tournament means that you’re getting more chips than usual. For example, let’s say you usually start with 15,000 chips for $400 events on the WSOP Circuit (this is usually the case). If it’s a deepstack tournament, then you’re likely going to be starting with somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 chips. Having a deep stack, and therefore expanding an opening range to include a lot of speculative suited hands and small pairs is a tournament strategy that is going to be punished if a number of short stacks are yet to act behind. This most notably occurs in turbo tournaments where the average stack size is quite short. To summarize, deep stacked poker tournament strategy involves adjusting to the strength of hands after the flop. High implied-odds hands in particular go up in value. Position is more important as the stacks get deeper as you will have more opportunity to see your opponents act over several streets. Essence of Deep Stack Poker Strategy Deep stacks are defined as 200 BBs or more and the biggest change in game-play is you actually have to play the turn and river. If you're playing with 50-100 BB stacks, by the time you have a bet and a raise on the flop, if you're committed it's always going in either on the flop or the turn. Deep-stack cash games are more intricate than tournaments and require you to make more difficult decisions because more chips are under threat. Often, in a tournament, you will only have to make a decision preflop and on the flop because the stacks are so short.

One of the regular struggles for tournament only players is how to navigate on deep stacks. The reason is quite simple… unlike their cash game brethren who tend to play a lot on deep stacks, tournament players just don’t get that much exposure to it. The stacks are typically only deep early in a tournament, with most middle and late stage situations involving medium or short stacks. So while tournament only players may get plenty of practice with push/fold strategies or decisions that end either preflop or on the flop, they sometimes struggle when money is really deep.

In this article, we are going to address preflop strategy adjustments for early stage/deep stack play, and in my next article we will address post flop considerations.

Let’s use with the following scenario, which was recently posted in a public forum:

I really would love your opinion on this whether my move was a bad beat or a bad decision:

Early in a 2.6k$ buy-in 1M$GTD tournament (250 big blinds deep). I Opened 2.2BB with QQ from UTG, folded around to the button. Got 3-bet 10BB from the button. I made it 30BB. He made it 80BB. I jammed. He snap called with AK then he flopped the K and got me busted. Did I make a huge mistake considering 250BB? Should I have folded to 5-bet? Is my move profitable in long run?

Okay, so let’s break this hand down at each action point.

“I Opened 2.2BB with QQ from UTG”, certainly we are opening QQ from any position, but 2.2BB is way, way too small. This is a typical sizing for MTT players that is quite effective in shallower stack situations. When the effective stack is 25bb’s, 2.2 puts adequate pressure on opponents (it’s 8.8% of the effective stack) while leaving you some room to maneuver. On super deep stacks, however, like this tournament, not only does it not put any pressure at all on players, it actually invites them to take a shot at you very liberally because it’s less than 0.9% of their stack. They are investing 2.2 big blinds, with a potential windfall of 248 more on the offering. It’s no wonder players will call this open (correctly) with all kinds of marginal, speculative hands. With this depth of money opening for 5-6BB is more appropriate, it builds the pot with your stronger hands and charges people a more reasonable (for us) risk/reward ratio for getting involved with us. 2.2x is just giving players a dirt cheap shot at us with massive implied odds.

“Got 3-bet 10BB from the button.” This is a nice sizing. The “standard” advice you hear is to 3-bet to 3 times the amount of the open raise, which in this case would be to 6.6BB. While that advice is a reasonable starting point, it’s important to adjust up or down from there for reasons that make sense. In this case, because we are super deep stacked and the initial raise is way too small, an upward adjustment is ideal. I think we could reasonably go as high as 12-15BB’s in this spot, but 10 is certainly a lot better and more appropriate than 6.6 would be, or the common tournament player’s small sizing to something like 5.1.

“I made it 30BB”. A common starting point for 4B sizing is more like 2.2x the 3-bet size, or 22BB to go. Given the depth of money and playing out of position should this go post flop, sizing up a bit from 22 makes some sense. That being said, when we are super deep stacked it’s important to think ahead, about how we will respond if re-raised. Let’s continue, since that’s exactly what happened.

“He made it 80BB. I jammed. He snap called with AK then he flopped the K and got me busted. Did I make a huge mistake considering 250BB? Should I have folded to 5-bet? Is my move profitable in long run?” So our hero responded to the 80BB 5bet by shoving all in for 250BB’s. There is really only one hand that is truly worth this much preflop because it’s the preflop nuts. And when you are playing on super deep stacks, you should generally only be looking to get all the money in with the nuts, or really close to it. KK is really close to it preflop, and yet against many players getting it all in with KK here would be a mistake as they will only join you in the middle with the one hand beating you. Getting all in preflop with QQ for a 500BB pot on level 1 of a super deep stacked event is not a good strategy at all as you will be up against KK or AA most of the time when the opponent goes along with you. Try not to get confused by the fact that the opponent in this handmade an even bigger mistake and stacked off AK in the same situation. Both players handled the preflop action very poorly for this depth of money.

The poster then in a results-oriented fashion (because he lost the hand) asks if he should have folded to the 5-bet. The relevant point here is that you want to be asking yourself this question before making the 4-bet to 30bb’s. How will I respond to a 5-bet? If the answer is easy fold, or easy continue, then have at it. But if the answer is I don’t know what I’ll do, that will be a sick spot and I’ll want to throw up… then choose a different course of action. Raise smaller to make folding more acceptable. Raise larger to encourage your commitment to the hand. Or, as the hero probably should have done here… don’t raise. Given the depth of money, I think calling the button’s 3-bet is best. The giant 4-bet will only tend to fold out any 3-bet bluffs (which we are crushing) and get continued action from a strong range.

To answer his question directly, yes he probably should fold to the 5-bet to 80bb. 4-bet/folding preflop with a hand as strong as QQ, not a desirable outcome. Had the hero flatted the 3B, he would have likely called once on the king-high flop, then folded to further action, costing himself around 20BB or so. And moved on with 230BB, more than most other tournaments even start with. Additionally, he keeps his opponent’s range as wide as possible, keeps the pot smaller playing from out of position, and has some real disguised strength working in his favor as well.

When you’re playing tournaments, instead of just making bets and raises in robotic fashion, think about the depth of money and what you’re hoping to accomplish, and size accordingly. Also think ahead, have a plan for your hand and how it may play out, which will lead you to make decisions proactively rather than reactively.

One of many innovations online poker has introduced and made popular over the years is the “turbo”-styled multi-table tournament featuring short levels and rapidly rising blinds and antes. Many live tournaments also feature fast structures and in some cases even borrow the “turbo” designation as a way of advertising to players they can expect a quick pace.

Pick practically any online poker site and you’ll find no shortage of turbo or fast-structured tournaments from which to choose. On the WSOP Social App, for example, you’ll find a number of tournaments that have a blind structure that wold be consdiered to be turbo or hyper-turbo.

The structures of “Turbo” and “Hyper-Turbo” tourneys might suggest that such tournaments reward luck more than skill, since the format demands more preflop all-ins and thus more dependence on being dealt strong starting hands. But the fact is they also tend to reward the same kinds of skills regular, slower tournaments do. Being smart with your starting hand selection, understanding the power of position, sizing your bets effectively, and being able to read opponents’ tendencies and styles are just as important in fast-structured tourneys, and players who have developed those skills tend to perform better as a result.

It’s just everything is happening faster in turbo tournaments. You have less time to make adjustments, to recover from mistakes, and to wait for the perfect hand or spot from which to make a move. While you may start relatively deep stacked in this turbo games, you can quickly find yourself short-stacked if you do not manage to chip up early in the tournament, so it literally pays to play these tournaments aggressively.

That said, such a progression isn’t all that different from what players experience in tournaments with slower structures — you just get there a lot more quickly.

Here are 10 tips to keep in mind when playing fast-structured tournaments:

1. Don’t change style during early levels (tight is still right)

With such a deep stack with which to start, you can approach the first couple of levels of a turbo tournament the same way you would regular MTTs. The blinds and antes are too small to be worth stealing, and in fact you’ll likely benefit more later on by demonstrating a tight image early. That will earn you folds in later levels when you do open up your range and go for blind steals and bluffs.

2. Develop reads on opponents during early levels

Deep Stack Poker Strategy Tournament Schedule

Just as in a regular MTT, you should always be watching the tendencies of your opponents in order to figure out who is loose, who is tight, who seems to be more savvy with their plays, and who appears to be making mistakes. The difference is you have less time to develop these reads, and a smaller sample size of hands in which to do so.

3. Don’t snooze (and lose)

Players accustomed to regular MTTs are used to the slow pace allowing them to register late, to sit out hands, or if online to surf around and let their attention be divided during the early levels. Such is not the case in a turbo, where you’re much better off being present and focused on every hand from the very start.

4. Be ready for the “middle stage”

In the WSOP Social Poker app's tournaments, you’re already edging into what might be considered the “middle stage” of a tournament even before the antes kick after a half-hour. You should still be selective but can start looking to open more often from late position with a wider range, especially after the antes are introduced and there is more dead money to be claimed.

5. Widen your range

Dovetailing on the advice to start looking for spots to steal more often, once you get past the opening levels of a turbo tournament you’ll want to open up your ranges for other actions, too, including reraising others’ preflop opens, calling raises (preferably with position), and making postflop continuation bets/raises. Again, don’t become irrationally loose with your decision-making, but be aware that the rapidly rising blinds and antes necessitate you remain in action frequently. You might well mostly fold through the first couple of levels of a turbo, but after that you can ill afford to do so.

6. Pay attention to changing stack sizes

Players can quickly slip from having comfortable stacks to having 20 BBs or less in turbos, with the change in level sometimes suddenly affecting a player’s status. Understand that players with such stacks will be more likely to push all-in should you raise or reraise them, meaning you’ll want to anticipate that possibility when making such moves.

7. Be aware of impending level changes

Depending on how fast players are acting, you’ll usually only be getting through about an orbit or a little more at a nine-handed table during five minutes of online play. That means that often each level will find you playing from all of the positions at the table just once (the blinds, early position, middle position, late position). If you are getting short yourself, you may find it necessary to reraise-shove or make other aggressive moves before the level changes and your stack becomes less able to elicit folds because your fold equity has decreased.

8. Consider isolating short stacks

As in regular MTTs, players slipping to 10-15 BBs will be looking for spots to double-up in turbos and you’ll see many open-raising all in when given the opportunity. Picking up good hands (medium-to-big pocket pairs, big aces) behind these players may mean reraise-shoving in order to clear the field and set up heads-up showdowns against these short stacks. Weigh the risk carefully and don’t enter into such showdowns without worthwhile hands, but be ready to seize opportunities to gobble up the shorter stacks when they come.

9. Don’t reshove light if short

Deep Stack Poker Strategy Tournament Strategy

A big mistake players often make in turbos after slipping down below 15 BBs is to reraise all-in over an opening raise with hands with which they don’t want to be called. Say a player opens for 2x from middle position and you have on the button with 10 big blinds. You reraise-shove and it folds back your opponent. Now he’s facing calling 8 BBs in order to win about 15 BBs in the middle. That’s almost 2-to-1 pot odds you’ve given him, meaning he can call with a wide range of hands, many of which give him more than a 33% chance to win. Don’t feel obligated to reshove ace-rag or similar hands, especially when you can fold and be dealt almost an orbit’s worth of hands from which to find something better.

10. Be smart about open-shoving when short

First off, before entering into “push/fold” mode be aware that having 15 BBs late in a turbo tourney isn’t necessarily bad — in fact, a lot of times that might mean you’re one of the bigger stacks at the table. But when you do fall to short-stacked status and are down only to open-raising all in or folding, pay attention to your position. From early position your range for shoving should be relatively tight, while from the cutoff or button you can open-shove a much wider range of hands as you have fewer players behind you left to act. (Open-pushing your last 10 big blinds with from the button is much better than reraise-shoving.)

Those are some tips to get you started with turbo tourneys. Something else to keep in mind is that the faster-paced tourneys tend to attract a lot of inexperienced and lesser-skilled players. In other words, employing some strategic know-how can give you a significant edge in the turbos, one that over time can overcome the increased variance such tournaments invite.

^{Photo: “Ludicrous Speed Go!” Michael Shaheen. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.}

_{This article was originally published on November 25, 2014. Last update: July 8th, 2019}

Deep Stack Poker Strategy Tournaments

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