Tournament Poker Strategy Articles
Popular Tournament Poker Articles
Four Doug Polk MTT Hands Reviewed by Two of The Best Tournament Players Ever
Doug Polk built Upswing Poker, but he’s still best known as a heads-up cash game specialist. That’s what makes his…
Push Fold Charts for Poker Tournaments, Plus More Advanced Strategies
Note: Updated February 2026. For the original article and charts scroll to the bottom. In the mid-2010s, the emergence of…
7 Poker Tournament Tips for Running Deep More Often
Poker tournament tips is, apparently, a pretty common search term on Google. I assume the searchers are looking for a…
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All Tournament Poker Articles
Final Table Poker Strategy: The #1 Biggest Mistake to Avoid
With steep pay jumps and top-heavy payout structures, the final table of any poker tournament is where big money is…
How to Squeeze Max Value from Juicy Live Tournaments
Live poker tournaments have much softer fields than online tournaments. The Big $109 on PokerStars, for example, is a tougher…
4 Insights from 11 Years, 70,567 MTTs, and 6,304,190 Hands of Poker
I’ve written poker strategy at Upswing for the past year and a half. During this time I’ve mostly covered specific…
Poker Bankroll Management Tips & Tools That Work In 2022
Part of becoming a great player is establishing proper poker bankroll management principles. Not only do you need to be…
4 Mistakes to Avoid for More Profitable Postflop Decisions
Top poker players are adept at putting their opponents on a range of hands. This battle-hardened skill in turn leads to more profitable decision making. By contrast, players who are unable to properly range their opponents are often forced to […]
How to Play Small Pocket Pairs in Tournaments
The disguised nature of a flopped set makes small pocket pairs very profitable. However, although they are profitable for most players, some tend to play them wrong in certain situations. A common mistake, for instance […]
4 Ways to Improve Your Results in Multi-Way Pots
Multi-way pots can cause headaches, and it’s easy to understand why. More players means more variables, and potential for the…
Preflop Strategy Quiz: Only a Feared Grinder Will Get 9/10
Are you ready to challenge your preflop skills? Because these 10 questions aren’t meant to be easy! Be sure you share your score at the end. Good luck! Can You Get 9/10 on this Preflop Poker Quiz? […]
4 Do-or-Die Tournament Situations Explained
The situations heavily impacted by Independent Chip Model (ICM) are truly where money is won and lost in tournament poker.…
Open-Raising with a Short Stack in Tournaments Explained
Most players leak chips with a short stack in tournaments, despite how important short stack play is. To become an elite…
Bluffing in Poker Explained (by Doug Polk)
Is there anything more satisfying than a successful bluff? Bluffing is life in poker, but not all players feel the…
How To Range Your Poker Opponents With Accuracy
At the core of poker strategy is the concept of ranges. Instead of trying to put your opponent on a…
How to Choose a Poker Room Where You Can Maximize Winnings (and Happiness)
For many poker players, picking a live poker room is as simple as choosing which decor they like the most.…
Complete Guide to Tournament C-Betting Strategy
Continuation betting (c-betting) is now so trivial that even the most inexperienced tournament players do it without thinking twice. Today…
You Probably Aren’t Loose Aggressive Enough in These 4 Common Poker Spots
The overwhelming majority of poker players are not aggressive enough. If you want to compete with high level players, or…
Short-Stacked 3-Betting in Tournaments Revealed
The Ultimate Guide to Tournament 3-Betting Suppose you’re facing a late position raise with a good-but-not-great hand on the button.…
3 Poker Tools Every Tournament Player Should Use Daily
Poker tournaments have gotten noticeably tougher over the past few years, and they’re getting tougher every day. In order to…
When Should You Cold Call from the Small Blind in MTTs?
When facing open-raises in tournaments, you should rarely cold-call from the small blind. A cold-call is a call of one or more raises by a player who has not yet voluntarily put money in the pot. The conventional wisdom used to advocate never […]
Probe Bets – How to Play Turns when the Preflop Raiser Checks Back
What is a probe bet? A probe bet is when you bet out of position into a player who had…
5 Expert Strategies for Monotone Flops
If you’ve ever felt unsure of what to do on a flop with three cards of the same suit (a…
Boost Your Winnings by Using Blockers in These 3 Common Spots
Leveraging blockers allows you to bluff and call with a slightly higher degree of success. A blocker is a card you see, either on the board or in your hand, that ‘blocks’ your opponent from having any hand containing that card. Poker is a game of small edges, and the small edge you gain […]
How to Build Stacks and Avoid Spewing Early in a Tournament
Early stage tournament play, before the antes kick in, is a subject that players have varying ideas about. Some think…
Poker Game Theory – How You Should Think About the Game
Poker has evolved rapidly in recent years. So much so that many strategy resources including some books, videos and digital…
3 Tips That Will Skyrocket Your Win-Rate Versus C-Bets Out of Position
Being out-of-position is unfavorable. Being the pre-flop caller is also unfavorable. Put these together and you’ve got a recipe for…
How to Dominate Weak Tournament Competition Post-flop
So you’ve read part 1 of this series and learned why maximizing the amount of pots you play against weak…
The Ultimate Guide for Dominating Weak Tournament Competition Pre-flop
A targeted approach—focusing on a particular strategy or game type—is exactly the right approach to take toward improving. However, it’s important to occasionally step back and consider your game from a broad point of view. This is something I’ve […]
How to Check-Raise with Short Stacks Like an MTT Boss
Check-raising is an indispensable play in tournaments. Since average stack sizes are shallow, a check-raise will typically represent a large portion of your remaining chips. This allows you to put a lot of pressure on your opponent(s), because in order […]
4 Skills That Will Help You Win More Money From the Blinds
Your strategy from the blinds will have a huge impact on your winnings. It’s an indisputable fact that you will…
This Misclick Made Me Bubble the WSOP Main Event
The year was 2010. It was my second time in Las Vegas, and my first World Series of Poker. I…
Tournament Poker Quiz — How Much Do You Actually Know About MTT Strategy?
The following 8 questions will test your knowledge of tournament poker strategy, math, and more. Good luck and don’t forget to share your score at the end! Can You Build Big Stacks in Poker Tournaments? […]
Poker Training Course: Upswing Lab 2.0
Enjoying the free strategy articles, but want to take your game to the next level? Upswing has a poker training path for you in the new Lab 2.0 to move from intermediate to advanced as you work beyond the Launch Pad and into the Mastery Path. Lessons are from some of the world's best coaches including Uri Peleg, Gary Blackwood, and Qing Yang. Lab 2.0 gives you a clear path to sharper and more profitable play.
Enjoying the free strategy articles, but want to take your game to the next level? Upswing has a poker training path for you in the new Lab 2.0 to move from intermediate to advanced as you work beyond the Launch Pad and into the Mastery Path. Lessons are from some of the world's best coaches including Uri Peleg, Gary Blackwood, and Qing Yang. Lab 2.0 gives you a clear path to sharper and more profitable play.
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Browse our catalog of poker training courses. Whether you're a for fun/profit low stakes player, a tournament player, a cash game player, or rising crusher looking for advanced material, we have a course for you, including our brand new Upswing Lab 2.0 membership course and private strategy community.