MTT Stack Management

Managing your stack in an MTT

The biggest difference tournaments have from cash games is the continuous increase in the size of blinds throughout the entire tournament. This keeps the players under pressure and avoids the possibility that the tournament go on for days between players who are simply waiting for the best hands. This means that it is necessary to adapt one’s game according to these continuous increases.

1. A few simple calculations to start with

This is easier to figure out than you think and the more you practice it, the easier it will become. If you don’t want to practice with your own money at first, a good tip would be to just rail (watch a game) to work out other people’s stack value. Add all the required bets that the players must pay: the small blind the big blind and the possible antes, and divide your stack (or somebody else’s stack) by the resulting number.

Example 1:

The small blind is 200 and the big blind is 400. Your stack is 20000.

200+400=600. 20,000/600= About 33 (no need to be too precise, a rough estimate is fine)

Example 2:

The SB is 2500, the BB is 5000, and the antes are 200 (there are ten players at the table). Your stack is 35,000. 5000+2500+10*200=9500. 35000/9500= about 3,5.

The resulting number is known as your Tournament M.

This M will help you to decide what strategy to adopt during a tournament.

In fact, this number indicates the number of levels you can survive before being eliminated due to lack of chips.

There are three M zones:

• M greater than or equal to 20 is the Green Zone.
• M greater than or equal to 10 and less than 20 is the Orange Zone.
• M less than 10 is the Red Zone.

2. Act according to your zone

Green Zone

You will not feel intimidated by the size of the blinds. Actually, you can easily survive 20 levels.

You can attempt any strategy; try to see flops (for a small cost), bluff a little… In short, you’ve got the chips to adopt this strategy.

Orange Zone

It’s not time to panic yet, but you should think about becoming more aggressive, the blinds are hurting you and drastically decreasing your stack. You simply must be aggressive to steal the blinds for players who seem to you to be the weakest. This is also the time to broaden your selection of hands. This is undoubtedly the most difficult zone to play, since you can be eliminated quite quickly if you lack experience.

Red Zone

This is when bravery is more important than technique. That means that you must choose the right moments to put your chips in the middle and hope for the best. Don’t forget that the first player to go all-in always has the advantage.

Identify the weak players in order to steal their blinds, choose a wide range of hands and leave the rest to destiny. You might get a bad call from a player who has not read this!

In any case, your M should not go lower than 5 if you want to preserve some small chance of making it to the final table (with the exception of certain turbo and satellite tournaments). Don’t forget that money is rewarded to all first-place finishers, and that should remain your objective.

3. Constantly observe the other players who go all-in

You should also observe the size of other all-in bets. If you are playing with people who already have a good knowledge of poker, they’ll adapt their style of play according to their M. As a result, a player with an M of 4 can be systematically followed with a pair higher than 8 or two face cards given the choice of hands he has to make in order to survive. A player with an M of 50 who raises should make you think.

Don’t forget that in all tournaments, the more you advance, the more the general M is weak because of the rapidly growing blinds and the elimination of players.

A general rule is - the weaker your M, the more aggressive you need to be.