Well, class, it seems like we have some unfinished business. In the last two lessons, we looked at the beginning and middle stages of poker tournaments, respectively, so it’s finally time to focus our attention on the latter stages of the game. As poker tournaments progress to their final phases, the nature of the game continues to change as well, so let’s get down to business:

“Show me the money!” – The late stages

If you’ve been playing well and getting a little rub of the green (table cloth, that is!), you may well have survived to the point where you’re nearing the money-making places in the tournament. This is where you can move in for the kill.

By this time the blinds will be so high that almost everyone remaining in the tournament will have stacks around or below the critical size (roughly four times the upper limit for those of you who were messing around at the back last lesson!). In addition, the game will become increasingly short-handed, so you’ll be able to see fewer hands before your stack starts to dwindle due to the blinds.

Keep a close eye on the tournament lobby to see exactly how many players are left on the other tables and how many chips they have. At many of the bigger online poker rooms, it’s roughly the top 10% of tournament players who receive a share of the prize pool, so hanging in there a little longer can increase your share dramatically.

If you have an average or large stack, the correct strategy is still to be extremely aggressive when raising but conservative when calling. However, when you have fewer than average chips, it can be smart to adopt a tighter strategy for two important reasons:

First, let’s assume there’s only one more player to knock out before you increase your winnings and there’s another player at your table without the chips to survive the next round of blinds. At this point, you may well be correct to fold any hand other than genuine premium hands, to try to last longer than the other poor guy. In general, this extends to playing tight if you can survive longer than one or more of the other players left in the game. This will force them to try to win a pot before you—and if they lose, you are one step further up the ladder. If they win, on the other hand, you’ll have the chance to win a later pot and be back in the same relative position as them.

Second, provided that you have enough chips to see the next few hands, playing tight also avoids the chance of immediate elimination, and forces the other players to eliminate each other, which of course is also to your advantage.

For a more detailed look at poker tournaments, with more advanced options, check our Game Play pages here. In the meantime, keep playing and good luck!