Ariston and on - MTT Series - Bubble to the Final Table

Immediately you get through the bubble you will find something strange happens - all the short stacks are now happy with their 2 8 (or whatever) and commit suicide. You will find every small stack suddenly going all-in with all sorts of hands instead of waiting. If you are one of the short stacks wait for some sort of hand because you are going to get called, possibly in 2 or 3 places so there is still a chance you could get back into it. If I am the big stack on the table I tend to now stay out of the way for a few rounds and play purely positional poker. For those of you who don’t know what positional poker is simply don’t play any hands up front (barring monsters obviously) and just play around the button. If it is passed around to you on the button help yourselves to the blinds by going all-in, who’s going to take the big stack on anyway? If a short stack moves all-in on your blind work out the odds you are getting before you fold your junk hand. It often happens that you are getting 2-1 or more and your j2 off maybe a 6/4 shot. If it isn’t going to damage your stack why not call with absolute junk to knock a player out? This will also warn players not to take liberties on your blinds. Watch the other players stack sizes and again pick your fights carefully. Do not go to war with another big stack who can hurt you, pick on the little ones.

You will find that very quickly you will be down to the final 2 tables and people again slow down, everyone wants to make the final. This gives you the opportunity to again take some soft blinds. If you have been watching and taking notes, by now you should know who you can push around and who you can’t. There are a few players on here that I wouldn’t dream of taking chances against because I know they wont mind taking me on with as little as TJ or similar. There are other players who will only call me with AK/AQ or 1010-AA, they are the players whose blinds I will have. A lot of people are very interested in what hands they have. If you need good hands to win tournaments you may win one or two a year. Great players like Daniel Negreanu can win tournaments without ever seeing aces or kings. In fact all the best players are capable of winning without ever seeing a hand.

How you play the last 2 tables depends on how many chips you have and what you are hoping to achieve. If you are a big stack you can sit back and cruise into the top 5 and get a nice "wage", if you are an average or short stack you can pick your spots and hope to climb the ladder. I prefer to be a big stack and pound people into submission. If you are constantly on the offensive and are taking more than one pot down every round you will have enough ammunition to survive the setbacks. As I have said before you also allow yourself to get lucky by going all-in with hands only to have someone calling you with a better hand. There are people on here who believe I am the luckiest player on the site because they only see my cards when I get called and I am quite often behind. When you are down to the last 12 or so, many of the other players are watching the other table trying to work out if they are going to reach the final- let them, you just keep raising. The blinds are so big at this stage that every pot you steal is worth the risk. If it goes pear shaped on you and you bust out 11th so be it, it is better to win this once and finish 11th 5 times than finish 5th or 6th 6 times. At this stage of the tournament there is no excuse for limping. If you want to play the hand, raise with it. Even limping with aces is dodgy because all the good players will be ready for it and won’t raise for you. You may then find the bb flops 2 pair and you can’t get away from the hand. Simple rule at this stage is PUMP it or DUMP it.

Sample hands


Slightly different circumstances because it was a satellite and there was 1 more to go before the money/seats. I was one of the smaller stacks (satellite strategy different) and found myself on the button with KT clubs. The player on my right had a massive stack and had been raising every hand and I was just anteing away as I never got a chance to steal. This hand he folded so I went all-in and got called by the SB with AK. Long story short I hit my 10 (along with the other 2 kings). Before this hand I was a dog (obviously) but not as much as everyone thinks - I had almost a 30% chance of winning this hand. If he folded (as he was supposed to) I had a 100% chance of winning it. Do not be afraid of stealing- occasionally your fingers will get caught in the till but that’s the risk you have to take.

The 2nd hand I had Q3 on the button and the small blind was all-in for 150 chips. With blinds of 1200-2400 and the running antes there was a lot of "free" money out there. It passed around to me and as the BB had a similar stack to me I moved in, surely he couldn’t call me anyway. Call is what he did with his AJ and I hit a queen to take 2 players out. This may seem lucky to some of you but he should just dump his hand - the bet has to win sometimes. If he folds I win a nice pot with no risk whatsoever. Even if the SB beats me I still make a tidy profit on the hand. Watch carefully and you will see this situation happen a lot. You can lose the hand to an all-in short stack and still make a profit.

There are many different ways of playing these tournaments and many moves you can use. These articles are meant to be a simple guide for new players so they can compete and not just sit waiting for aces or kings. I hope a total newbie uses this series to win a tournament online, if any of you do, you owe me a pint. If any of you use this system and go broke then I use a ghost writer ;) Next month the final.

Ariston