Top 3 Hacks to Run Deep in Tournament Poker

24 Feb 2025

Intermediate

This material is for medium-skilled players

Have you ever wondered how some pros seem to always be there towards the end of the poker tournament? Well, it's mostly because they do not make silly mistakes and stack themselves early on in the tournament, which gives them many more opportunities to run deep later. And in this article, you're going to learn three ways they do that. First, they stop getting stacked when they get coolered. Also, they give up on bluffs when it makes sense. And also they get full value when they are in a situation where they are very likely to be good, even with a non-premium hand. Let's get right to it.

So today I'm going to share with you three hacks to help you run deep in poker tournaments more often. Hack number one is to stop getting stacked when you get coolered. Now obviously, everyone is going to run into these, call them setup situations, as much as everyone else on average. But the players who run deep over and over again simply don't get stacked in these spots. 

Sometimes you're going to find that you have to be willing to make huge folds. It's very important to realize that hand values are relative to what's on the board, right? Sometimes three of a kind is really good. Sometimes it's not good at all. 

Also, some players, when they want to put in all their money early on in a tournament, they have the nuts almost every time. And if you're sitting there with the second nuts, and you know they have the nuts, well, you have to be willing to fold. 

How many times have you been playing and you thought to yourself: «Man, I know they have it, but I'm going to call anyway. My hand's too good». Well, that may be a big mistake. You have to get rid of your ego and you have to trust yourself and trust your reads, assuming your reads are good and you're a good poker player, and be willing to make the folds that are demanded from the game. 

Let's take a look at two examples. Here’s one example where someone made a big blind here:

Here we have a raise playing 100 big blinds deep from the hijack. We defend pocket sevens in the big blind. So far, so good.   . We check from the big blind. Hijack continuation bets. We call on    or  . That is fine and reasonable. Turn is a . We got there! We check. Opponent checks it back. 

River is the , putting up a backdoor flush. There are three hearts on the board now. We decided to check the river. You may say, why check the river? Shouldn't you bet? Well, this is a spot where if your opponent has a King, they're very likely to value bet, and if they have nothing, they will at least consider bluffing on this river card that should connect with a lot of their flop bluffs that decided to give up on the turn, like King-Queen, King-Jack, King-9, etc. 

So this is a great spot to check, looking to put in the check raise. We check. Opponent does bet 3,000 into 5,400. Raising at this point is mandatory, you may think: «But oh, they could have a flush or a straight». They could, but more often than not, they don't. If you put in the raise in this spot, if they have two pair, they're probably going to call. 

They might even call with a King, so put in the raise. We make it 12,000. We bump it up pretty big. The opponent then rips it all in for 37,000 total:

Now at this point, a lot of people think: «Оh, they probably have the flush, but I have a set, I got to call». But no, you do not have to call. In this scenario, this hand was played perfectly fine up until the river, but once you check raise and then get jammed on, your opponent's going to show you a flush almost every single time in this scenario, and this time, this player called, and they were shown the nut flush. Who'd have thought? 

Let's take a look at another spot where this player played it much better:

Here we have   raising it up, 100 big blinds deep in the cutoff, small blind and big blind call. Flop comes   , we flop the nuts, top set, check, check. We go for a small continuation bet, 300 into 980 chips, and I could be convinced a slightly bigger is better given the board has two Broadway cards that are suited, but whatever, 300's fine. 

Both players call, turns it to a spades, total break, check, check. This is a great spot to bet, again, using a bigger size because the board is very dynamic. We have the best hand almost always at the moment, but it is vulnerable to being outdrawn. We go 1,500 into the 1,880 pot, small blind and big blind call. 

River's the , completing the flush, small blind, puts their whole stack in 7,900, big blind folds. What do we do with our three Kings in this scenario? Well, the answer is easily put your cards in the muck, which we do this time. 

This is a situation where when your opponent leads all in, they really have to have a very good hand because if you consider both the big blind's range and the cutoff's range to bet the flop and call the flop and bet the turn or call the turn, they have all the flushes in their range. Like the cutoff's going to raise with all sorts of suited cards with clubs, they're going to bet the flop with them, they could conceivably bet the turn with them, and they could just be sitting here with a flush, which would not fold. 

The big blind would also call a flop bet with a flush draw, call a turn bet with a flush draw and have flushes a lot on the river. So this would be a spot where bluffing would be torching money for the most part because you're betting into two ranges, both of which contain a ton of nut hands. So in this spot, small blind's probably just not bluffing. Now if the small blind is a loose, crazy, insane maniac, maybe you can find a call. 

But in almost all scenarios, when people overbet, compared to the pot, notice here it's about 8,000 into 6,000 or so, that's usually a sign of strength. When they lead, when the obviously scary card comes, that's usually a sign of strength. When they're betting into two people, both of which have the nuts some portion of the time, that's a huge sign of strength. You got to fold. 

So, two spots where we got set up, and one of them, the player played it poorly and got stacked, and the other one, the player lost not even that many chips. What'd they start with? They started with 10,000, and in this pot, they ended up losing a whopping 2,000 chips. 20 big blinds with top sets. That's how you start running deep.

Hack number two is to give up on bluffs more often. A lot of players feel like if they bet the flop and they bet the turn, they have to bluff it on the river. But that is a big mistake because a lot of players think to themselves, well, if I call a turn bet, I have to call a river bet. And you're going to find that in general, the number one spot to give up on a bluff is when you expect your opponent to overfold the turn, meaning you're going to make them fold out all their marginal stuff with a chunky turn bet. 

And because of that, when they call your turn bet, their range is condensed. It's stronger than perhaps it would be in GTO poker world, right? And when that is the case, when their range should be much stronger than normal going to the river, you usually don't want to bluff the river, especially when the board does not change substantially. Like if a flush card comes or a straight card comes, bluffing is probably okay. But if the board really does not change to the point that if they had something like top pair, it's still really good, don't bluff. 

Let's take a look at an example of this. Here we have  :

We are playing 60 big blinds deep, hijack raises. We call the big blind. Flop comes   . We check. Opponent bets 7,000 into 27,000. This is a fine spot to raise or call. We make it 27K. Opponent calls. Turn is a , putting up our flush draw. This is a great spot to keep betting. Pot's 81,000. We go 60!

Now, when we go 60,000 here and the opponent calls, if the river does not complete some straights or the flush, we don't really need to be bluffing. Why? Because most people, when they call this turn bet, will have a jack or better. 

If they have a jack or better and the river is a brick, to the point that it doesn't really make the board scarier, your opponent's probably not going to be folding all that often. We bet 60K. Opponent calls. River is a terrible card to keep bluffing on, it's :

You may say, why is it terrible? We could have a three. Well, we don't have all that many threes. We're not going to check raise a lot of threes and we're not going to bet them on the turn all that often. So in this scenario, we don't have a whole lot of premium hands, really just straights with the 6-5 and set / two pair / boats, right?

This is a spot where if the opponent has a Jack, they're literally never folding. So for that reason, check and give up. It's also very good to check and give up with busted flush draws and often backdoor flush draws because when you have the busted flush draw, it's less likely your opponent has a busted flush draw, right? Because you block some of those hands. Your opponent can't be sitting here with a random   that decided to raise. 

Like say your opponent does have  . Maybe they decide to call the flop check raise for fun. Maybe they have  . That would make more sense. Then they call the turn bet. And they're on the river and then they go, OK, well, I'm just going to check it back. And then you sometimes win with the ace high. So if there's ever a bluff to give up with in this scenario, this is it. We check. Opponent rips it in. Easy fold. We have nothing. Move on with your life. 

Hack number three is to value bet relentlessly. Most recreational players will tell you very clearly early in pots what they have with their actions. Whenever they have a good hand, they either bet big or they raise. I know that sounds overly simplistic, but that's what they do when they have a hand they think is very good. They want to put money in the pot. 

And this will let you deviate from game theory, optimal strategies heavily on turns and rivers, which will allow you to go for thinner value over and over and over again in spots where in game theory, optimal world, you may have to check it back. And you're going to find that picking up these extra chips with your value bet can make a good player a great player. 

So let's take a look at another example here:

We have  . We raise it up in the hijack seat. Big blind calls. Flop comes   . They check. We continuation bet. 20k into 60k. They call. Turns to . They check. We bet again. 65k. This bet is perfectly reasonable with the top pair and a draw. They call. River is . So we have top pair, marginal kicker. They check. 

Now at this point, this hand is close between value betting and checking. But if you think your opponent's going to check raise the flop with two pair and better, and you think they're going to check raise the turn with two pair and better, well, we pretty much have the nuts, right? Because they don't have Ace-King preflop, they would re-raise that. They probably don't have random King-3, Queen-3, 3-2, right? 

So even though it's kind of hard to find all that many hands we can get value from, this is still a good spot to bet. Because if your opponent does have a king, they're just going to call. I know there's not a whole lot of kings available, because there's one on the board and one in our hand, but they could have a king. 

Also, if they have a Queen, like Queen-10 or Queen-9, they may decide to find a call. Pots 229k. We go all-in:

You’re going to find that in general, when you have about a pot-sized bet remaining on the river, you usually only want to use one bet size, which is all-in. This is not a spot to bet something like 60k and try to get a little bit of value out of your opponent. Because if you bet 60k and your opponent does decide to shove all-in, it puts you in a miserable spot and it's not worth the risk of reopening the action and giving your opponent the chance to bluff you. 

You may say: «If you shove, will your opponent ever call with a weak king or a queen?». Some players will. Now, if your opponent won't, imagine you know so much about your opponent to the fact that you know they don't ever have worse than... Imagine you know your opponent never has a hand better than yours on the river, unless it's like king-3, queen-3, etc. But you also somehow know they never call a river bet all-in without two pair better. 

Well, in that scenario, maybe you don't want to shove. But maybe exploitatively a smaller bet does make sense, because that type of player probably doesn't check-raise bluff the river ever, right? 

We do shove, we do get called, and we're out of the tournament. Oh no, we win! We get a full double up instead. King-8 of diamonds. Makes good sense. They could have a lot of kings in this spot, and remember, if your opponent will turn their hand face-up by raising with it on the flop or the turn if they can beat your hand, on this run out, you have the best hand almost always, and there is value to be had.

So that's it, the three hacks to run deeper in tournaments. Hack number one is to stop getting stacked when you get coolered. Hack number two is to give up more often with your bluffs, especially when it's a scenario where your opponents are probably going to call with all their made hands, and hack number three is to value bet relentlessly. Use these three hacks and start running deep more often right now. We'll talk to you next time!