MTTs Aren’t “Just Luck”
In tournaments, the blinds keep going up and your stack keeps shrinking.
You stare at your dwindling chips, think “I guess I have to go all-in soon…,” shove reluctantly, and bust out. It happens a lot.
“Yeah… tournaments are basically luck.”
Is that what you’ve been thinking?
Let me be clear.
MTTs are never “just luck.”
Now, take a moment to review your own play.
- Did you use an MTT-specific open range instead of your cash game ranges?
- Did you adjust your open range flexibly based on stack depth?
- Did you track how many players were left until the money and the stacks around you?
- Did you make decisions with in mind?
- Did you navigate the bubble effectively?
- Did you make correct all-in decisions?
If you don’t understand what these mean, that’s proof you haven’t studied tournaments enough.
These are fundamental MTT concepts, so you can understand them quickly with a bit of study.
There’s a huge gap between “knowing” and “not knowing,” so close that gap as soon as possible.
And of course, there are many more factors beyond the list above.
If you play tournaments the same way you play standard cash games, you won’t get the results you want.
If you want to finish higher in MTTs,
study specifically for tournaments
and do it properly.
Key MTT Features: How Tournaments Differ from Cash Games
s differ from cash games in several major ways. Let’s organize the key points first.
1) Your goal is to survive and win prizes
MTTs and cash games have different objectives. In cash games, the goal is simply to increase your chip stack. In tournaments, the goal is to survive as long as possible and earn prizes based on your finishing position.
In other words, chip count and prize money are not the same thing.
For example, in a 100-player tournament that pays the top 5, 6th through 100th are the same in one key way: they win nothing. That means there’s a massive difference between 5th and 6th.
That’s why MTTs require position-based, payout-aware decision-making.
2) s increase over time
In cash games, blinds usually stay the same. In tournaments, blinds rise as time passes.
For example, you might start with blinds at 50/100 and a 20,000 stack, which is 200BB. But if blinds increase to 500/1,000, that same 20,000 stack becomes only 20BB.
So when blinds go up, the value of your chips goes down. It’s crucial to accurately track your stack and your opponents’ stacks in big blinds and play accordingly.
3) There is an ante
Unlike cash games, tournaments include an ante. This is a forced contribution separate from the blinds that goes into the pot before the hand begins. Often, the big blind posts an ante equal to the BB (a big blind ante).
That means each hand starts with SB (0.5BB) + BB (1BB) + ante (1BB) for a total of 2.5BB in the pot.
Compared to 1.5BB in many cash games, the pot is larger, so the reward for entering pots increases.
4) No rake
In cash games, the house typically takes rake from the pot postflop. Tournaments do not take rake from individual pots.
So just like the point above, because the pot doesn’t get reduced postflop, the reward for continuing postflop is larger.
As you can see, even the basic rules differ significantly between tournaments and cash games.
So naturally, strategy also differs dramatically.
Keep this firmly in mind and study with a focus on how MTTs differ from cash games.
Next, let’s look at what you should study first.
Are MTTs 90% Preflop?
When you start studying tournaments, you might wonder where to begin.
Here’s the conclusion.
By far, the answer is preflop.
MTTs are 90% preflop.
Stop overthinking it and start studying preflop.
That might sound a bit extreme, so here’s why preflop matters so much in tournaments.
As mentioned earlier, blinds keep rising in MTTs, which means you’ll often play with shorter stacks.
As a result, preflop all-ins happen far more often.
If you make the wrong decision in these preflop all-in spots, it becomes a fatal mistake.
All your hard work can disappear instantly, and that’s brutal.
MTT preflop strategy differs from cash game preflop strategy in many ways, and you must account for tournament-specific factors, which makes it complex.
By studying preflop, you’ll learn the core fundamentals of tournament poker.
Let’s look at three concrete examples.
Example 1: decision right before the money
You’re playing a satellite tournament, and if just one more player busts, you’ll be in the money (you’ll win a prize). You have 10BB, and you’re dealt Ah Kd in the big blind.
The chip leader on the button shoves for 50BB, and everyone else folds.
The remaining stacks are: UTG and CO have 20BB, SB has 10BB, and HJ has 2BB.
Your options are call all-in or fold. What do you do?
(This scenario is based on lesson content from POKER Q’z.)
Correct answer: fold!
“Wait, fold AK?”
If that surprises you, you won’t win in tournaments. ing all-in here is clearly a big mistake.
Let’s break it down. You’re one bustout away from the money, and the HJ has only 2BB and is about to bust.
In other words, you have a high chance to cash without doing anything.
AK is a very strong hand, but against the button’s overall shove range, it still has only about 60% equity.
When you’re likely to cash by waiting, taking a gamble where you bust about 40% of the time is obviously bad.
If you were about to call, fix that mindset immediately.
Example 2: Big blind defense
Now assume a normal situation where the money is still far away. You have 50BB and are dealt 9d 4d in the big blind.
UTG, also with 50BB, opens to 2.3BB and everyone else folds. What do you do?
, call, or fold
Correct answer: call!
“Isn’t 94 suited too weak?”
In tournaments, antes are in play, so the big blind can defend with many more hands.
Against a 2.3BB open like this, you only need to add 1.3BB to compete for a pot of 1.3BB × 2 + 2.5BB (blinds + ante) = 5.1BB.
Here’s a surprising fact about suited hands in BB defense:
When the open size is small, the big blind can call with every suited hand.
Yes, every suited hand.
s allow you to widen your BB defense range that much.
That said, if the open size is larger, like 3BB, you should fold some of the weakest suited hands.
To move up in tournaments, you must understand MTT-specific features and adjust flexibly to the situation.
Example 3: Mid-stage all-in decision (advanced)
Here’s one advanced example. If it feels difficult, feel free to skip it.
You enter a tournament with 40,000 chips.
You build your stack, and now it’s the mid stage: about one-third of the field remains, the average stack is 120,000, and blinds are 3,000/6,000.
You have 120,000 (20BB), open from LJ to 14,000 (2.3BB), and the SB shoves for 120,000.
Which offsuit Ax hands do you call with?
AKo, AQo, AJo, ATo, A9o…
Correct answer: AJo!
According to calculated in Wizard:
Call with AJo: +1.32BB
Call with ATo: about 0 (but it mostly folds)
Call with A9o: -1.37BB
Some people might think, “It’s only a little over 1BB. That’s not a big deal.”
But in this spot, 1.3BB is roughly 10,000 chips.
If you fold AJo or call A9o here, it’s like making a massive mistake worth 10,000 chips compared to your original 40,000 starting stack.
As blinds rise over time in MTTs, one mistake becomes more and more costly.
MTTs really are 90% preflop
After these examples, the message is simple:
MTTs are 90% preflop. Start studying preflop right now.
Even so, you might be thinking,
“That sounds hard.”
Many players feel that way at first, including the author of this article.
But there’s a recommended way to study efficiently.
The Most Efficient Way to Study MTTs
We’ve covered a lot about tournaments, so now let’s talk about an efficient study method.
How are you studying poker right now?
Some people may not study at all.
Others just play, then review afterward.
Post-session review is important, but it often becomes inefficient because:
- You can’t play enough hands
- It’s hard to know the correct answer on your own
- You can only practice a limited set of situations
There are many ways to study on your own, like books and YouTube, but there’s one option I especially recommend:
a poker training app.
With a poker training app, you can:
- Study in small chunks during downtime, like on the train
- Practice a large number of hands in a short time
- Always get the correct answer
So even by yourself, you can study efficiently.
Poker training app: POKER Q'z
Here’s an app I want to recommend:
POKER Q'z
POKER Q'z - Poker Training and Skill Assessment App
POKER Q'z uses the latest AI to help you learn poker in a fun, clear, and easy-to-understand way.
The biggest reason I recommend it is that you can learn like you’re following a textbook.
Don’t assume it’s sloppy just because it’s an app.
The developers seriously focus on what actually makes you better at poker, and they’ve built a wide range of quizzes and lessons.
There are also tournament-focused lessons, so you can learn MTTs step by step from the fundamentals.
You can efficiently build skills for different situations like the bubble (right before the money), early stage, and mid stage through a “lesson → practice → explanation” flow. The content emphasizes the most important part of tournament poker, preflop strategy, and covers everything from basics to advanced concepts.
It also includes features like:
- Fun quiz-based learning
- Level-based lessons that teach fundamentals carefully
- Clear explanations from characters
- Ask questions to an AI
It’s easy to use, so start by installing it and trying it out.
For example, Example 1 above is explained clearly in the lessons like this:
Conclusion
In this article, we covered tournament fundamentals and how to study efficiently.
These are essential for winning in MTTs, so make sure you remember them.
If you play tournaments the same way you play standard cash games, you won’t get the results you want.
MTTs are 90% preflop.
Use POKER Q'z to start learning tournament poker step by step from the basics.