In previous articles, we discussed how your early strategy in MTTs should be relatively cautious. With no blind pressure you have time to pick good spots to chip up and can be careful with your pre-flop selection.
As the tournament progresses however, the blinds become larger, antes may be introduced and pots become increasingly valuable.
How should this change your strategy?
Put simply, you should start to raise more frequently, especially from later position. The blinds + antes will now start to represent a bigger % of your stack so begin to raise with hands you might have mucked in the early stages in a bid to pick up pots uncontested where possible.
There are some things you will want to bear in mind when raising the blinds however.
Consider the blinds you are attacking. If there are bigger stacks in the blinds, they might be more inclined to call or playback at you by re-raising. Before raising decide what you will do if you are re-raised or called by a particular player. This will depend on a number of things such as the player’s aggression levels, his stack size, your own stack size and the tournament situation.
Dealing with different stack sizes
Players with large stacks, especially in position, are much more likely to call raises, as they have the chips to see flops and put pressure on. If you raise a hand with a big stack in position or in the blinds, be prepared to have a plan post-flop if you are called.
Consider what sort of cards he will call with. If he has a wide range then lots of flops will be good to continuation bet.
Medium stacks are less likely to take flops against you so these should be the players you target primarily. They won’t be keen to take speculative shots, so put the pressure on by raising their blinds more frequently and c-betting many flops.
You should be cautious around smaller stacks, bearing in mind they are likely to be willing to commit all their chips with a hand they like so if you raise their blinds, you may be priced in to call if they move all-in. Think about this before raising.
How much should I be raising?
It is a good idea to keep your raising amounts with different hands pretty much the same so as not to leak any information about the strength of your hand. In the latter stages a raise of 2.25-2.5 x the big blind is usually ample to get fold equity and disguise the strength of your hand.
If you are very short (12 big blinds or less, or 15 or less with antes) you may want to simply move all-in pre-flop to take down the blinds as any standard raise will commit you. Poker hands such as ace-rag, king-jack etc. are strong when folded to in late position and you can profitably shove these hands, adding a worthwhile % to your stack on the many occasions where players will fold to you.
Just as a final note, remember that other players will be considering the above too. As they start to raise more frequently you can begin to three-bet some of their raises (or re-steal) more effectively as they will fold more often. Be prepared to go to war with an aggressive player, to prevent being run over in these crucial stages.