Master tournament starting hands with proven tactics. Tournament strategy from experienced MTT grinders.
Tournament Starting Hand Adjustments
Tournament starting hands differ from cash game ranges because of stack depth changes throughout the event. Deep-stacked early stages allow wider ranges. Shorter-stacked middle and late stages require tighter ranges with more shoving and less postflop play.
In the early stage with 100+ big blinds, open similarly to deep-stack cash games with slightly more caution in multiway pots. In the middle stage with 30-60 big blinds, tighten early position ranges but maintain aggression from late position.
In the late stage with fewer than 25 big blinds, consult push-fold charts. Your starting hand decisions become binary: shove or fold. Hand playability matters less than raw equity because you will rarely see a flop.
Tournament Rakeback Reminder
Tournament buy-in fees count toward your rakeback tier at most rooms. When evaluating tournaments, factor in the effective discount from your rakeback percentage. A $10+$1 tournament at 40% rakeback effectively costs $10.60 after rakeback — a meaningful savings over thousands of entries.