Tournament Hold 'em Hand By Hand:. Neil D. Myers
A9 (suited), KQ (suited), QJ (suited), JT (suited), T9 (suited).
Fold everything else.
MIDDLE POSITION: The next three seats to the right of late position as defined above
If first in, raise with AA-77; also, if first in, raise with AK, AQ, AJ (both suited and non-suited) plus KQ (suited) QJ (suited) or JT (suited).
If not first in, raise any number of limpers with AA-JJ and AK (suited or not).
If the pot has been raised three to five times (standard raise) the Big Blind re-raise with AA, KK, QQ, and AK.
Call any standard raise with QQ-TT as well as AQ, AJ (suited or non suited), and AT (suited), A9 (suited), KQ (suited), QJ (suited), or JT (suited).
Fold everything else.
EARLY POSITION: The remaining seats, including the Blinds
If first in, raise with AA-99; also, if first in, raise with AK, AQ, and AJ (both suited and non-suited).
If not first in, raise any limpers with AA-JJ and AK.
If the pot has been raised, re-raise with AA and KK and be prepared to call an all-in bet with these hands if the original raiser moves allin.
Call a raise with QQ-JJ, AK (suited or unsuited), AQ (suited or unsuited).
Otherwise, fold to a raise from an early position player.
Fold everything else.
The key point here is that your Early position means that you cannot tussle with other players unless you have premium cards and there has been no action. If there has been action you want to play fast and strongly with your best hands and get out of the way with anything else. Less-than-premium hands played from Early position, especially against a raiser, can be tremendous chip drainers.
If you study the above highly condensed basic strategy for half an hour or so, you will easily remember it. If you don’t find it easy to remember at first, fear not, gentle reader, as the problems later in the text will help you remember.
Important Note: If you have read any of my other books you will notice that this is a much looser strategy than anything I have previously suggested. However, what I suggest here is entirely appropriate for fast-structure tournaments. To do well in fast-structure tournaments you must play fast! You must also play aggressively. If you don’t you cannot hope to gather chips quickly enough to have any chance of a money finish. The rising Blinds will gobble up your stack and eventually leave you with few playing options. The above recommendations will not work in cash games. If you want to play in cash games, see my starting hand recommendations in No-Limit Hold’em Hand by Hand.
Non-Competitive Stacks
Once your stack slips below a certain level, it is non-competitive. Practically, this means two thing: First, you are increasingly in danger of busting out of the tournament (obviously the smaller your stack, the more imminent the danger) and second, you are not able to use the full range of potential plays. The second point is extremely important. Small stacks in tournaments cripple poker skills. As an extreme example, you may be the most skillful player in the world, but if when the next Big Blind comes around you cannot cover it, you have only one move left: move all-in. All your poker knowledge and skills are useless because of your stack size.
By contrast, if your stack is larger than any of your opponents’ in a tournament scenario, you can select from any poker skill you possess. All options are open. This is why when your stack becomes short you must do whatever is necessary to return it to a healthy, competitive status.
In a fast-structure tournament your stack can move from being healthy to critical surprisingly quickly. In most such tournaments you are rarely very deeply stacked in relation to the Blinds and a couple of losing confrontations that go to a showdown can cripple you in double-quick time. Most players do not recognize soon enough when they must modify their play due to the fact that they no longer possess a competitive stack. They usually wait for it to become critical before they are willing to do anything different at all.
If you are to stand any chance of high money finishes you cannot behave like this. Instead, you must quickly recognize when your stack is no longer competitive and make the required adjustments. You must essentially play faster. Of course the term “non-competitive” refers to any stack size below thirty-one Big Blinds at the current level, but I have listed above three distinct levels of non-competitive stacks. Now I am going to give you pre-Flop requirements for playing these varying stack sizes, based on position. Naturally, as your stack gets smaller, position becomes less of a concern, because ultimately with a very small stack you only have one move left, push all-in. There can be no positional advantage or disadvantage after that.
IF YOU HAVE A SHORT STACK—SORE THAN TWENTY AND FEWER THAN THIRTY-ONE BIG BLINDS (THIRTY AND FORTY-ONE IF THE ROUND INCLUDES ANTES)—YOU WILL PLAY AS FOLLOWS:
LATE POSITION: You have twenty-five to thirty Big Blinds (almost competitive).
If first in, raise with any pocket pair. Also raise with any of the following, suited or non-suited, AK, AQ, AJ, and AT. You can also raise with KQ (suited), QJ (suited), JT (suited), and T9 (suited). You can limp with AA and KK hoping to push all-in if a player behind you raises. However, only do this if you are almost certain that one or more players behind you is aggressive and will in fact raise. If you have any doubts, raise yourself. If you are re-raised you can always push all-in at that point, but ideally you do not want to be a pre-Flop limper with pocket aces and pocket kings.
If you are not first in, raise any limpers with AA-88, AK, AQ, and AJ.
If there is a raise ahead of you re-raise all-in with AA-JJ and AK (suited or non-suited).
Fold everything else.
Note that your non-competitive stack means position plays are a much higher risk so you need cards as well as positional advantage. This is an example of where diminishing stack size affects playing options.
LATE POSITION: You have twenty-one to twenty-four Big Blinds.
If first in, raise with any pocket pair. Also raise with any of the following, suited or non-suited, AK, AQ, and AJ. Also KQ (suited), QJ (suited), and JT (suited).
If not first in, raise limpers with AA-88, plus suited or non-suited AK, AQ, and AJ.
If the pot has been raised and re-raised, move all-in with AA-JJ and AK.
Fold everything else.
Note that your stack size here means that you must gamble with weaker cards than is ideal in an effort to get back to a competitive stack size.
MIDDLE POSITION: You have twenty-five to thirty Big Blinds (almost competitive).
If first in, raise with QQ-88. Also raise with the following, suited or non-suited: AK, AQ, and AJ. With AA-KK, limp and move all-in if there is a raise behind you. This is a risk worth taking from middle position as more players behind have the potential to raise. If the table has been very passive, do not make this move but instead raise five times the Big Blind with pocket aces and pocket kings.
If not first in, raise or re-raise all-in with AA-TT and AK (suited or non-suited).
Fold everything else.
MIDDLE POSITION: You have twenty to twenty-four Big Blinds.
If first in, raise all-in with AA-77. Plus raise all-in with the following both suited and non-suited, AK, AQ, AJ, and also KQ (suited), QJ (suited), JT (suited).
If not first in, raise or re-raise all-in with AA-99, and the following, suited or non-suited: AK, AQ, and AJ. Fold everything else.
Can you see that as your stack gets shorter you must commit your chips more quickly and with weaker cards? Your stack still has some fold equity because losing to you can still