Multi Table Tournament Strategy 2

Winning large multi-table tournaments can be an arduous task. Many players find ways of eliminating themselves early by not thinking clearly. Weaker players who manage to blindly make their way to the final couple of tables almost always make the dangerous mistake of committing chip suicide before getting into the money! Talk about a painful death after hours and hours of tournament play only to loose 1 - 2 positions away from receiving something for your time.

Imagine being only a table away from making money, sitting 2 behind the button with nothing more than a few chips in your stack. You need more chips in order to move forward before you have to ante up the big blind with your final few chips. Sitting in this position you have only a few hands to look at before you lose your few remaining chips to the blinds so what do you do?

You are dealt a QJ and have decided to take your chances at this point. What you shouldn't be looking for are a couple of players limping in where they can call and get four or more way action on their money. This is not a good position to be in holding your mediocre cards. Now this isn't to say you shouldn't go but it will be a tough haul.

What you would like to do in this situation is move all-in once a single opponent has risen in front of you. Ideally everyone else will fold once your opponent has risen leaving you to force his hand. If the raiser is an aggressive player who has a huge stack his raise should intimidate the rest of the table leaving the 2 of your to face off in a showdown.

Now let's do the math on these 2 scenarios to see if you are getting true value for your few remaining chips.

One the first scenario you have 4 or 5 players in with your mediocre hand. This will give you a 20 - 25% chance of winning the pot. So you are getting a not too shabby 4-1 or 5-1 on your investment, however that being said you can do better.

On the second scenario you are forcing the bully at the table to move all-in with your mediocre hand. Chances are he is using the intimidation of his large stack size to take the blinds rather than holding a decent hand. If he is holding a decent hand you still have a bigger chance of winning the pot than in the previous scenario. Facing one opponent who is holding a better hand is a safer bet than facing 4 opponents with equal hands. Let's say you are a 60/40 underdog on the hand, your actual odds aren't that bad and your return on investment is much larger. Winning this hand could give you a fighting chance to get to the final table and the money spots.