Fast And Furious Poker

By Philip Tuck

9 October 2007

Turbos provide a great poker option for those in a hurry or in the mood

Playing turbos are a fast and fun way to get your online bankroll going. Make sure you mug up on the strategy though...

** Help support Poker Verdict by using one of our links when choosing to download a new site **

“Turbo” or “speed” tournaments (both MTTs and SNGs) have boomed in popularity in recent years. The combination of fast action and big blinds seems to appeal to many players. Turbos certainly quickly re-create the high pressure all-in poker that dominates final table coverage on television. This may account in some way towards its new-found popularity.

The strategy for these tournaments differs quite radically from conventional deep stacked poker. Often in turbos you will have no move left to you other than all-in or fold - picking when and where to get the money in is critical.

Before we move onto the strategy required for the different stages let’s take a look at a typical PokerStars turbo tournament structure in the early stages:

Blinds in PokerStars turbo tournaments increase every five minutes.

* * * * * * * ADVERTISEMENT * * * * * * *

Poker Verdict Private Tournaments and Freerolls:
Great value events, qualifiers and guarenteed prize pools

Poker Verdict Special Offers:
Win a chance to play in the WSOP $1,500 event

* * * * * * * ADVERTISEMENT * * * * * * *

Players have a starting stack of 1500 chips.

The 5 min blind levels are 10/20, 15/30, 25/50, 50/100, 75,150 and 100/200. After 100/200 an ante is introduced and the blinds continue to rise.

Early levels

As we can see from the structure players have many options in the first 10-15 minutes - typically having at least 30 big blinds until the 50/100 level. During this period the tournament is effectively just like a regular tournament - stack sizes are relatively large compared to the blinds and standard deep stacked play is in order.

It is worth mentioning here that there are two key schools of thought regarding the early stages of turbos. The first is to play tight, only playing big hands, and fold until the blinds get big. The second is to try and accumulate chips early by playing many hands - either busting early or having enough chips to avoid push/fold mode in the middle levels (as we will see later it is often worth going to considerable lengths to avoid being all-in late in these tournaments).

These two approaches are really dependent on your style of play - if you enjoy playing many hands then the loose style will probably suit you better. If you prefer a less swingy and more solid style tighten up. Try and lay down a tight reputation for when you need to steal the more important big blinds later.

I’ve tried playing both styles and don’t think there is much in it (I’m sure very talented players would do better playing loose - their post flop edge is just too great); just play which ever style keeps you concentrating and motivated.

The mid levels

The mid levels start at 50/100 and end at 100/200 when the ante is introduced. This is arguably the most tricky period of a PokerStars turbo tournament - you will frequently have a stack that is too big to just shove in pre-flop, yet is too small to allow you to make many moves if called.

Imagine you enter the 50/100 blind level with 1350 in chips. Say you 3x raise from the button and the big blind defends. You now have only 1050 left to play for a pot of 650 - an extremely difficult situation if you miss the flop - do you bet and fold leaving yourself 400 or 500? Do you check/fold and leave all those chips out there? Do you go all-in and risk your tournament life with nothing?

A good technique when holding a stack that is between 10 and 20 big blinds is to rarely open raise. Try and focus on re-shoving other players’ pre-flop raises and folding your marginal hands when you could have opened. This strategy is dangerous, but often worth the risk, as you will frequently get your stack back to safe levels quite quickly if the right spots are chosen.

If you have more than 20 big blinds at this stage of a turbo, you are in good shape. You should try and raise whenever the opportunity arises. Also remember much of the advantage of this stack size comes from the fact that you have chips to safely fold. You can survive those periods where the cards go against you - don’t just lose all your chips bluff bullying.

If you have a stack lower than around 10 big blinds, you have no option other than to go all-in pre-flop. There are two simple things to consider when deciding when to go all-in. Firstly, do you have a monster? If you hold a high pair, A-K, or A-Qs you probably just want to get it all-in regardless of the action in front of you. If not, focus on being the first person to bet - you will be surprised how often you can pick up the blinds if you go all-in when folded to.

The late stages

By this stage of the tournament stack sizes will be very small compared to the size of the blinds and antes. Mostly play will break down into survival mode, with players trying to stay alive from all-in to all-in.

Being the first player to go all-in is of critical importance at this stage - any action in front of you will indicate either very strong hands or total junk. This obviously isn’t a great situation to be gambling marginal hands with as you will often be a total dog or slim favourite.

Many important pot odds calculations come into play at this stage. Often at the late stages of turbos you will have to call all-ins from the big blind with any two cards. As a rough guide you probably want to call any all-in as long as you are getting between 2/1 and 3/1 or better on your money. Remember that it is rare in holdem to ever be more than about a 75% underdog in any hand (usually you are about 60/40) – 3/1 is at the upper end of these numbers and 2/1 at the lower end. Some judgement is required on the player type, but if you’re getting these sort of pot odds you should strongly consider calling with a very wide range of hands.

Most of the same principles are covered in Poker Verdict’s articles on how to play the bubble (click here for SNGs and here for MTTs) - the all-in move is your only means to attack the blinds. If you are aggressive you can still accumulate a lot of chips on the bubble - going all-in and trying to bully the mid-stacks who are trying to survive until the money will still pay massive dividends.

Once the bubble has passed remember that knocking out players in the late levels is much more important than in the early stages - each player eliminated moves you further up the money. This is often worth considerable risks to achieve (especially if you have lots of chips). Often at the later stages of turbos the jump from prize to prize is great enough to warrant gambling on pretty marginal hands.

Turbos provide a great poker option for those in a hurry or in the mood for action. Adopt the right strategy and you could quickly start racking up nice wins during the breaks in your day. After all, what could be better than winning a poker tournament during your lunch hour?