Live poker tournaments have been absolutely booming, and the ongoing 2025 World Series of Poker has certainly helped remind us of this fact.
Poker tournaments are fun, but what’s not fun is making almost deep runs all the time without ever actually winning. It’s frustrating and makes the game not nearly as enjoyable.
To help you overcome that hurdle, this article brings three simple but very effective exploits that will help you crush in tournaments, make more deep runs, and put yourself in a good spot to go all the way.
Tip #1: Exploit Wide Preflop Ranges & Cultivate Loose Image
The first exploit you should adopt has to do with your preflop ranges, especially when it comes to your strategy on the button and in the blinds, facing a button raise.
Playing from the button, you should be opening very wide when it folds to you. You’re facing just two random hands in the blinds, and the simple fact is that players don’t 3-bet nearly enough in small stakes tournaments.
By the same token, when you are in the blinds and facing a button raise, you should be 3-betting with a very wide range, which will confuse your opponents and help you win a lot of chips.
The picture below shows optimal GTO ranges playing from the button and from the small blind, facing a button raise.
Most players don’t raise this wide on the button and most certainly don’t 3-bet from the small blind with hands like middling suited connectors and gappers.
So, your best exploit here is to go even wider than GTO, adding some marginal hands to the mix!
When facing a 3-bet, many players will simply fold before the flop or on the flop once they fail to connect. You’ll get much more fold equity than you should, as your opponents will usually fail to adjust and miss-assess your range.
Exploit #2: Continuation Bet Small & Often
Against wide ranges, you want to force your opponents to fight hard against you by giving them good odds when you continuation bet.
Why this is the case? Because almost no opponent will fight hard enough!
By adopting this exploit, not only will you win more pots, but you’ll also help your image, as your opponents will perceive you as an aggressive player, making it easier to get paid when you have big hands.
By increasing your aggression, you’re helping your image, making it easier to get paid off.
Let’s look at an example. At 40 big blinds deep, we open from the small blind to 3.2x with 7♠4♠ and the big blind calls.
It’s worth noting that limping is perfectly fine in this spot, but against opponents who fold too much, you want to apply more aggression and maximize your fold equity.
The flop comes K♠5♥5♣. You should be betting 100% here, using a small sizing of about two big blinds. Even though they can call a lot against that small sizing, there are many turns that will allow us to keep barreling and force them to fold.
So, you bet, they call, and the turn is the 3♦. Since we turned some additional equity, we can keep barreling here, making it something like seven blinds. This should get rid of all hands that are worse than ace-high and probably some ace-highs as well.
An important thing to know is that most small stakes players will actually raise here if they have a king or a five looking to protect against draws. So, if they just call your turn bet, their calling range won’t be protected, which means we can drastically over-bluff on many rivers.
When they call and the river comes the 9♠, this is the time to fire the third barrel and move all in. Many players make the mistake of betting small here, making it easier for their opponent to call with any pair.
You need to bet big and put them under the maximum pressure. You’ll run into a big hand every now and again, and that’s fine. You’ll win this pot on every betting round way more often than you should, as players don’t defend nearly enough with weaker hands.
Exploit #3: Stop Hero Calling the River
The goal in poker is to make the most money you can – it’s that simple. The goal is not to be right or show other people you got out-drawn.
People at small stakes simply don’t bluff often enough. When they want to put a lot of money on the river, the simple exploit is not to hero call in spots where you don’t beat any value hands.
It’s annoying, but in most small stakes tournaments, people don’t bluff often enough on the river, and you should drastically over-fold.
Let’s look at an example:
With blinds 500/1k and 50 big blinds effective, UTG opens to 2k, and we defend with K♠10♠ in the big blind.
The flop comes K♥Q♥5♣, and we check-call the 2k continuation bet.
The turn is the J♠. We check, and they bet again, this time for 6k. This is not a great card, even though we pick up a straight draw, as we are now losing to quite a few more hands that are in the opponent’s range.
We can’t fold just yet, though, so we make the call and see the 4♠ river. After checking, the opponent bets 20,000, almost the full pot. So, what do you do?
This is a very easy fold against most opponents in small stakes tournaments. If your opponent is playing reasonable, normal poker, and especially if they are on the tighter side, this should make you inclined to fold.
This is about the best hand I am going to fold here. I’m not folding two pair, but bad two pair isn’t loving this spot, either. They are just not bluffing here, and they have a bunch of nutted hands. Plus, their UTG opening range doesn’t contain that many logical bluffs to begin with.
Some players just can’t deal with not knowing if they made a good fold, and they are willing to pay with chips or even their tournament life to get that certainty. Don’t be that player.
Make plays that stand to win you the most chips in the long run, and let that be your sole focus when making your decisions!
