This poker strategy article will give you some advice about how to play on small buy-in and freeroll tournaments.

I. Principles

I believe that just like in cash games, there is a huge difference between the standards of the lower and the higher buy-in tournaments, so you will need different strategies to be a winning player in each of them. What you consider lower or higher buy-in live or online, this is a question of judgment. Even on a middle or high buy-in live tournament the standards can be so low that it calls for the freeroll strategy, and not sophisticated play. I will leave it to your own judgment, to decide for what buy-ins this strategy can be useful. I would use it online up to $5 buy-in tourneys, and for $20 and up I would definitely use an advanced strategy. Between the two it is your call.

In my opinion from this really simple basic strategy you can build up a successful tournament strategy later by adding advanced moves. I think that same as in cash games, the more experienced you become the more you can divert from the basics.

II. Stages of a tournament

1. Early stages

It is a good idea to play tight in the early stages of freerolls and low buy-in tournaments. I would say that you can use the same tight strategy that I describe in our cash game articles for micro limit tables. Maybe you can loosen up a little bit, but not too much. I wouldn’t recommend calling raises with KQ, AJ kind of hands (at this stage). Set mining with low pocket pairs is a great opportunity to get hold of a lot of chips because players are usually unable to fold their big pairs. With big pocket pairs you can overbet pre-flop, because many times you will get at least 1-2 callers anyway. Make an especially big overbet if there is a lot of limpers in front of you. Limpers don’t like to fold and your job is to make enough of them fold so that you are only against 1 or 2 of them post-flop.

It is a good idea to make bigger bets and raises because your opponents will pay off your strong hands almost without exceptions. If you are convinced that your opponent is on a draw, then you should try to go all-in on the turn. On these tournaments players will usually not fold their draws on the turn, not even for an oversized bet. For this of course it is very important to have a good read of your opponent’s holding, otherwise you might run into a monster (three of a kind or better).

If no one limped or raised in front of you (the pot is unopened, it is a good idea to raise almost every time from middle and late positions – one exception is small pairs.

In my opinion it is not worth it to call with “creative” hands such as suited connectors at this stage if you are a beginner. The main reason for this is that to play these kinds of hands you need a lot of experience. The big difference between small pairs and suited connectors is that small pairs play themselves – no set no bet – while suited connectors are not easy to play. The other important reason for avoiding suited connectors is that in advanced games a big advantage of these hands is that when you play them in position you might be able to take down the pot without hitting. But in small buy-in tournaments, your opponents will usually be unable to fold even their naked aces so this advantage of the speculative hands is dismissed.

In short, this stage plays very similarly to cash games. Raise big with strong hands, make your opponents pay for outdrawing you.

2. Middle stages

If you were lucky enough to get hold of a lot of chips, then you should concentrate on keeping them. Your opponents will usually get involved in pots with all sorts of weak holdings so make sure you have at least a reasonable starting hand when you play. You should still not call raises with trouble-hands (KQ, AJ) unless a short stack goes all in with so few chips that it won’t hurt you much if you lose (I would call up to a quarter of my stack with KQ, AJ-type of hands if a middle to late position short stack pushes.

Usually you or your opponents will not have enough chips to give you proper odds for  set mining. So fold your small pocket pairs (under 77) from early position, and the smallest (under 55) from middle position. If you are going to play them, you need to raise, and try to take down the pot latest on the flop. 

Do not try to be tricky with your big pocket pairs. Always raise and reraise

with them. Usually it is best to get all-in with them pre-flop. The value of AK increases so you should definitely re-raise with it and try to get into all-in with a 20-25 BB stack.  

If you have an average size stack, try to find an opportunity to double up. If you see someone to raise continuously with weak hands, then you can re-raise him all-in with 99+, AQ+. With weaker hands it isn’t necessarily a good idea to try to resteal, because you will be called by hands as weak hands as A7, 66, etc. 

If you are short stacked (10BBs or less), then you need to find an opportunity to double as soon as possible. Try to pick a reasonable hand but you don’t have too much time to wait. If you see that your opponents are playing with trash hands, you can go all-in with AT+, KQ, 77+ kind of hands, or maybe even weaker. If the table is tight, which is not going to happen too often, then you should loosen up and push more often because there is a better chance that you won’t be called. With the hands above, you can raise all-in after limpers as well. If no one called or raised in front of you, and you are in middle or late position, then you can try to raise all-in with a lot of weaker hands as well to make your opponents fold. Make sure you pick a hand that is not easily dominated. Q5s is much better for these purposes than A3o.  

It is important that you don’t wait until you are so short stacked that your opponents call your all-in with any two cards. If your stack decreases to or under 6-7 BBs then open-push (push when there are no limpers) from late position with any two cards, hoping that everybody will fold. Unfortunately, if calling stations are sitting on the blinds, this option is diminished. But even the worst players might find 63o and hopefully they are able to fold it.  

3. Endgame 

The endgame is more similar to serious tournament poker. Most of the time the better players make it this far. Study your opponents, notice the players who just got lucky to come this far but actually weak. If you are still in for the endgame, it might be the time to try one or two advanced tricks, to get hold of some more chips, but you should only target the better players with these moves, because they will only work against them. 

If the players on the blinds are tight, then you should try to steal the blinds more often. It won’t work against calling stations!!! These should be 2,5-3 BB raises with any kind of “creative” hands from one of the three late positions. Creative hand means: Ax, Kx - especially if they are suited, any connectors, one or two gappers, any two cards T or above, etc. It is very important that your target is a reasonably good and tight player. If the blinds are too loose or very weak players, just forget about blind stealing most of the time! In this case you should play your better hands for value against them. Your goal with blind stealing is basically to take the pot pre-flop. When you get called, try to take the pot down on the flop with a bit bigger than half the pot bet. 

Against good and aggressive players with the right stack sizes, re-stealing is more profitable than blind stealing. Of course it is important not to try it against weak players. Your target should be a good player who raises many times, but is able to fold when he gets re-raised. The best situation is when your re-raise is all-in. It works best with a 18-25 BB stack. Practically it doesn’t matter what hand you have, but it helps if you have some kind of a reasonable hand or suited connectors, or at least a one or two gap connectors, because if you get called you have the best chance with these types of hands against your opponent’s calling ranges. You can re-raise from behind of the raiser, especially if your stack is too big to go all-in. In this case you have position for the rest of the hand when you get called. Or you can re-raise from the blinds, especially when you can go all-in. 

If you have lots of chips at this stage, then depending on how the table plays it might be a good idea to become a bit more aggressive. If you are lucky then your table is tight enough and there are several reasonable players among them. If usually 4-6 players see the flop after a raise, it is not a good idea to try to bluff them.

III. Final thoughts

On freerolls and small buy-in tournaments you will usually be playing against weak opponents. Unfortunately this might cause a bigger variance in your bankroll than with bigger buy-in tournaments where with certain strategies and tricks you can play even if you never get a hand. On the small buy-in tournaments you are more dependent on your cards, especially at the early stages of the tournament and sometimes later as well. You can still learn how to play in some tournament situations, you can gain experience and start to build your tournament career.