In this article, I will present general strategies you can use in big poker pournaments, meaning hundreds and sometimes thousands of players, such as freeroll tournaments for example.. These strategies apply to "normal pace" tournaments. By that, I mean a typical structure found in tournaments where the blinds start low, and the blind increments from level to level are not excessively steep. Also, the total time between level increases is average (10-12 minutes or so is common). These strategies do not apply to "turbo" tournaments where the blinds increase very quickly and by a lot.

Starting Strategy

Because this is a slower pace tournament, I will advise you to take your time when you first start out. Semi-conservative play is good at first. You’ll notice that what tends to happen in the first 10 hands of any big freeroll tournament is that a lot of people go all in. Some go all in because they have an ace in their hands and hope to get lucky. Others my have a pair and try to win big. Some people just go all in no matter what they have and hope to win the "first hand lottery". You don’t want to be involved at this stage because too many people call. Remember that in general, you only want to be all in against one opponent.

As an experiment, I’ve tried the "all in" move early in the game when a bunch of other players would also go all in. The majority of the time, I would loose because someone with nothing, like 5-8, would get lucky and pick up two of a kind or something silly like that. I would often loose even when I had great hands like K-K or A-K and it was frustrating. Unless you have A-A, don"t go all in on the first round, especially when you are one of the first people to act. When you have a good hand and the tournament just started, and you are in early position, then just come out with a good raise. 10 times the big blind is a good raise in early position. Don’t commit all your chips just yet. You may have a great starting hand, but it’s a beatable hand especially with 3 callers!

It’s OK to go all in when you have a hand to back it up, and when you’re in position and a lot of opponents folded already. Then again, going all in may just be a waste of a great hand at this point. Perhaps raising pre-flop is a better play. In general, you don’t want to be over involved early in the tournament. Take your time, wait for some cards and if you’re going to bluff, do it when you’re in position. Bluff sparingly at first because you’re also working on building a table image as well. When you fold, pay attention to the other players and take notes. Determine who’s aggressive and who’s not. Determine who can be bluffed and who’s going to call you. That will help you determine how to play future hands. You can ignore my advice and try to get lucky. If you do win against 3 others who were also all in, then congratulations! You got lucky! It’s still not sound strategy on your part to play like this. Also, don’t bother trying to steal the blinds early. They’re just not worth it yet. Wait for them to go up a few levels before attempting to steal.

Mid Game Strategy

At this stage, you should have established your table image, and you should be exploiting it when possible! Now that the blinds have gone up a few levels, you haven’t played like a crazy reckless maniac, and your chip count should have steadily increased. Now is the time to be a bit more aggressive, but selectively. More specifically, target the small stacks. At this stage, these players are looking to double up and they normally play a looser game. They grow desperate as the blinds increase, and the longer they wait, the worse their situation will get. At some point, they’ll go all in, and many of them will do so without an Ace or even a King in their hand. Use your bigger stack to put the pressure on them and take their chips gradually, or all at once! Don’t allow them to get free flops. If no one else raised pre flop and you are one of the last people playing, then raise or fold. You either don’t play the hand, or you raise it. That puts pressure on the small stacks who were hoping to get a cheap flop. When they are faced with this situation, they will either fold, or go all in. That’s what you want!

Try to avoid making all in bluffs against people who have more chips than you do. If you get called once and loose, you’re out. You don’t want that to happen right? Just focus on getting chips from the small stacks, and bluff occasionally when in position against the bigger stacks, but not for all your chips. If you do pick up a monster hand, then it’s OK to go all in against the big stack, but remember that there are no guarantees. Even your Pocket Aces can be defeated.

Ending Strategy

Let’s recap: You stared with conservative play, established a table image, and over time became more and more aggressive. You’re doing well and a lot of players have been eliminated. You’ve been targeting the small stacks. Now what? Well, you need to keep doing what you’ve been doing because it’s been working for you! Depending on how many chips you actually have compared to the bigger stacks at the table, you may need to try and make a move against them and double up. That’s for you to decide. If you want to win one of these, you’ll have to take a risk and put all your chips in at some point. Hopefully you will be wise enough to determine when to do it, and against who.

Nearing the end of the tournament, you really need to hit the brakes. You’ve made it this far and you want to be sure to place yourself in a prize winning position, and to the final table! You’ll notice that in a tournament that rewards the top 10 position for example, everyone plays tighter when there’s like 30 people left. It’s because they are waiting for the small stacks to get eliminated and this will happen either because the big stacks are pounding on them, or because the blinds are so expensive that they’ll just run out of chips.

At this stage, go back to targeting small stacks exclusively, unless you get a monster hand. With a real good hand, you can target anyone, but don’t commit all your chips against opponents who have more chips than you do, unless you are absolutely convinced that you’ll win if they call, or you are convinced that they’ll fold. Be very careful when going against someone who has more chips than you do because it would be a shame to get knocked out when you made it this far. Hopefully, you’ll make it to the final table and end up playing head’s up for the 1st place finish!