While squeezing with such a stack can be an effective move, being down to 20 big blinds doesn't mean you have to be overly eager to get it all in - not yet.Ī primary lesson when playing medium stacks, especially as a tournament moves into the middle stage and nears the bubble or even after it has reached the money, is to continue to have patience and not feel as though you have to get those 20 big blinds in the middle at the first opportunity.

(See '10 More Hold'em Tips: Making the Squeeze Play' for more on this move.)

While the structure and current status of the tournament dictate what exactly a 'medium' stack is at any given point, in many MTTs anything from 15-30 big blinds often will fall in that range.įor some players, a stack of 20 big blinds (for example) also often will fall within the range of 'squeeze stacks,' meaning if a player raises before the flop and one or more call, a player might reraise-shove those 20 big blinds as a squeeze play designed to collect all of that dead money without a showdown, or at worst be up against a single opponent with a playable hand. By 'medium' we mean stacks that are not deep enough to allow a player to explore the entire range of preflop and postflop options, but not so short that the player is unable to open-raise or three-bet preflop, or engage in other postflop moves like continuation betting and the like. Meanwhile, there isn't quite as much specific advice out there for playing a medium-sized stack in a MTT. Nor is it hard to find tips about short-stacked strategy, including 'push-fold' charts and other guidance to help you try to chip back up and into contention.

When it comes to multi-table tournaments, there's no shortage of advice out there for accumulating chips and bullying with a big stack.

Deep stack texas holdem poker strategy