Mid Stage Freeroll Tournament Strategy
Chris Wheeler | September 17, 2011
The mid stage of a tournament generally runs from the end of the first break right through until the antes kick in.
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations—you’ve done well to stay disciplined during the early stage and have been rewarded for it. Don’t get too comfortable though; it’s not all high fives and back-slaps just yet. There’s still a long way to go before you’ll see a cent of that freeroll prize pool.
You still won’t want to push all-in without the nuts or without knowing you have your opponent crushed. However, you can start to open up a little and add hands like Ace of DiamondsJack of Clubs, Ace of Clubs10 of Spades, King of SpadesJack of Clubs, and Queen of ClubsJack of Hearts to your arsenal when in position. You can even afford to occasionally limp in with King of Hearts10 of Hearts if you feel like loosening up a bit more in late position.
Successful freeroll strategy often focuses more on what not to do rather than what to do. One thing you shouldn’t do at this stage is get flustered about your placement out of the 784 runners remaining or how you stack up against the chip average. At this stage, none of that matters. You’re still trying to ride out the storm and consolidate the stack you have.
Don’t trick yourself into rushing or playing mediocre hands because you don’t think you’re keeping up with the tournament. Keep your head screwed on. You can’t win the tournament yet, so there’s no use trying to.
However, you do need to become a little more aggressive now. The chasers and hopefuls will still be out there, but their numbers will have diminished. It’s time to start introducing a few more techniques beyond raising and folding.
This is the perfect time to introduce the semi-bluff if you haven’t already. If you haven’t studied the art of semi-bluffing, get acquainted now.
But again, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need to start rushing. A semi-bluff is a calculated move made with a hand that has serious drawing potential. Don’t try stone-cold bluffing unless your opponent seems extremely weak and is obviously going to fold under pressure. It’s just not worth it at this point. You’ll need to bluff occasionally, but be smart about how and when.
The above advice can be forgotten if you find yourself extremely short-stacked. No matter what, if you’re sitting behind a stack of 1,500 with the blinds at 100/200, you’ll have to make a move. There’s no point letting your stack drop to the point where a bluff won’t put pressure on opponents to fold. You’re better off being knocked out betting than bleeding yourself out of a tournament.
When the bubble approaches, the field will tend to tighten up. If you have a few extra chips to play with, capitalize on this by squeezing where appropriate.
The middle stage of a freeroll tournament is the time to step up your play and capitalize on the inexperience of weaker players still remaining. Put pressure on the short stacks and build your own stack slowly but surely through solid play. It’s in the latter stages of the freeroll that things really start to heat up.
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