In the game of poker, a lot of the focus needs to come down to the ability to finish. Whether you need to finish off a hand to take down a nice pot, or finish off a poker tournament by dominating the final table. Today, we’re going to talk about how you can dominate a final table of a poker tournament, and look at a few tips and strategy that can help you get the job done to take home the title, as well as the huge prize pool that comes along with winning first place. There are many things that you need to consider while playing, but also some strategies that you should definitely be considered heading into the final table of an event. Let’s get right into it.
Playing Strong Poker, But Not Being Crazy
You absolutely are going to need to play strong, and confident poker when playing at the final table of a tournament. With that said though, if you’ve made it to this point in a tournament, then you must have played solid up until this point at least for a good while in the event. Playing strong and making strong plays though, does NOT mean that you need to be crazy and throwing your chips all over the table. Calling all-ins with medicore hands is just a way to burn through chips, while three and four-betting in spots that it’s not needed is almost asking for disaster. You should make sure it’s known that you know your spots, know what your game plan is, and that the other players even fear you to some extent. Even through that, trying to make incredibly “hero calls” on the river to try to get someone’s bluff when you have virtually nothing is a terrible, terrible idea.
Picking the Right Spots
By picking the right spots, we really mind finding the places that you can double-up, or simply pick up a good chunk of chips. If you are in a blind vs. blind situation and have a good amount of chips, but the short blind is running low on chips and decides to go all-in, you should know that you can be calling with a wider range (assuming there’s no other players in the hand at this point. This is a spot where you could get a nice quick bunch of chips, and also knock a player out. This doesn’t mean to call with 8-3 off suit, but calling with a hand like A-8, or K-10 or something is definitely a good decision.
Another bit of strategy relating to picking spots, is knowing when to three-bet and when to bluff. Three-betting can pick you up serious chips, and if a late position player raised in what looks like an attempt to steal the blinds, three-betting them from the button or even from the blinds can help you pick up chips and build your stack. I wouldn’t do this every single time, as players will start to not believe you, but it’s still a nice strategy to consider. As for bluffing, just be smart about your bluffs. If a bluff doesn’t work, then know when to throw in the towel and move on to the next hand.
Paying Attention to Tendencies of Opponents
Reading opponents is a tough thing to do, but you can at least try to get a feel for how they play. If a player tends to raise from late position often when the action folds to them, then take advantage. If a player almost always defends their blind, then know that they are playing a wider range of hands than most are, so you can’t put them on quite the same range as another player. It’s all about just watching how your opponents play and doing your best to get a feel for the other players.
Knowing When to Risk Your Stack
This really comes down to a few different things. If you’re short-stacked, you need to know when to shove all-in. If you have a solid hand, even something like A-5 from the button and the action has folded to you, decide if your chip stack is short enough to push all-in. Obviously getting a caller wouldn’t be ideal, but players aren’t just trying to give chips away, so you could potentially steal some chips and take down the blinds. Basically, playing with less than 15 big blinds means that you should be looking for all-in spots that could help you double-up or at least pick up the blinds. On the other side of things, if your opponent is pushing YOU all-in, then you need to be much more careful about calling off your stack. Pushing your stack is the way to go, calling it off makes things a whole lot tougher.