Let me start by saying that if you haven’t played a super turbo or hyper turbo event, then you need to give it a go. There’s so much excitement in these types of tournaments, that they literally put aside the common theme of “slow” tournament poker. While you can play a standard poker tournament and find yourself having to wait quite a while to pick up a hand and simply fold away the day, the super turbos and hyper turbos are going to give you the chance to play fast, and get through tournaments quickly. Don’t get me wrong, there is still some major strategy when it comes to these types of tournaments, mainly because if you just start shoving your chip stack in all over the place, you’re going to be out before you even realize it. As we get into these two types of tournaments, there are some differences between the two, but the strategies are definitely very similar. Let’s jump into the action!
Taking Advantage of the Button
In super turbos and hyper turbos, you need to steal blinds. This is going to be your key to staying alive and keeping your chip stack around the middle of the pack, in a worst case scenario. Obviously you’d love to double up, and you shouldn’t just shove any two cards all-in from the button, but play it smart and look to build up your stack over time. Now, from the button, you need to remember that the players around you are going to be playing incredibly tight poker as well, so there’s a good chance that you can steal the blinds. These players can really only call off the top percentage of hands, unless they want to gamble for their tournament lives. This means that hands like suited connectors, high cards, and any pair are going to result in you going all-in. On top of that, I’d even be pushing all-in on any type of connectors or hands like Q-10 suited as well. Look to take the blinds, get through another round of action, and find your spot to double up whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Don’t Get Cute, Go All-In
One of the worst decisions that a player can make when playing these types of tournaments is to try to make min-raises or 2.5x raises. Why are you going to waste chips if you are just going to fold your hand? Basically, if someone is going to push all-in, and you’ll fold at that point, then don’t even raise in the first place. The only time you can even consider making some type of a min-raise is if you have a good sized chip stack and are later in the tournament (15+ big blinds), or if you picked up a monster hand like pocket Aces and want to try to trap your opponent. If you do have pocket Aces or even pocket Kings and choose to make a min-raise, don’t even hesitate to get the chips into the middle on the flop. Let your opponent make the pre-flop call, and then shove all-in when the flop comes on, making their decision an incredibly tough one. It’ll put pressure on them, but they may think you’re bluffing in this situation, which could get you a call.
Play Your Opponents, Not Always the Cards
If you’re sitting in the small blind or the big blind, and the button shoves all-in over your blinds on a pretty consistent basis, you may need to find a spot to make a stand. This doesn’t mean calling off your stack with 6-4 off suit, but it does mean that if they shove for a second or third time in a row, that you can make the call with something like A-7 or A-8, or possibly something even worse than that. Just base it off of how your opponent is playing, because there’s a good chance that they are just focused on keeping their stack afloat by picking up as many of the blinds as they possibly can. Players can truly shove a wide range when they’re playing these types of tournaments, so just be aware and do your best to try to pick the best spots that you find against these players.