MTT Poker Strategy

We answer strategy questions with numbers from our own library — 3053 solved tournament spots across 30 tournaments. No gut feel, no rules of thumb borrowed from somewhere else.

Articles

• Which Positions Should You Open From?At 20 big blinds: UTG 34 hands, button 84, small blind 139 — with a chart for each.
• Can You Ever Fold Pocket Aces?Not once in 3053 spots. “Always shove” is still wrong — in 1835 of them the solver does something else.
• What Is ICM in Poker?Real money instead of formulas: 1st place pays 21 times the min-cash — and is still only 18 % of the pool.
• When to Fold Pocket Queens?In 14 of 3053 spots, 13 of them in the money. How to spot the exception — and you can play the hand yourself.
• Push Fold by Stack SizeAt 8 big blinds 48 hands open, at 15 only 30 — tighter, not wider, with charts.
• How Tight Do You Play the Bubble?14.1 hands call on the bubble, 16.8 in the money — and far from the money just as tight as on it.
• When Do You Call an All-In?12.9 to 17.0 of 169 hands, depending on your own stack — short means tighter, not looser.
• Can You Fold AK Preflop?In 45 of 3053 spots — 37 of them facing an all-in, 38 in the money.
• How Do You Play Pocket Jacks?Poker’s most hated hand: the solver shoves it in 1558 of 3053 spots and folds it in only 143.
• Are Suited Aces Really That Good?A5s continues in 26 spots where AQs folds — with the chart of the six hands still playing there.
• Min Raise or Shove?The switch sits at about 13 big blinds: below it 83 % shove, above it 80 % min-raise.
• Big Blind Defense53.5 of 169 hands against an open — and the deeper the stack, the wider.

Twelve articles, each of them standing on numbers from the same library. More will follow one at a time, once they are finished — a list of announcements would be a promise instead of a page.