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Strategy Guide for PokerStars Step 3 Tournaments

CO
Things get a little trickier on the CO. If there’s action in front, your general strategy should still be to play pretty snug, but your basic strategy for the first two seats is essentially reversed here.

With your 7-12BB stacks, you can now open wider than you were opening from the first two seats, assuming the following: the blinds can’t do massive damage to your stack and they’re not calling super-wide. As opposed to the premium range you drew on UTG and UTG+1, you can now mix in more pairs and weaker aces. As the stacks behind you get shorter, your range can increase, and their tightness (or lack thereof) becomes less of an issue.

With your 4-7BB stacks, your approach should now be tighter than it was UTG and UTG+1. This is largely because you don’t have the blinds breathing quite as closely down your neck. You should still be opening with a pretty wide range in most spots (think top 30-40%), but you’re not going to be finding nearly as many spots where an ATC push is correct. To give you an idea: you’ll need a BB who is playing pretty snug and to not have a short stack similar to yours on the table in order to make an ATC push profitable.

With your sub 4BB stacks, you should again be a little tighter than you might think. You should still be getting in with solid pairs and aces and the strongest broadway, but you can comfortably fold almost all Kings, weak aces and weak pairs.

Summary: Open wider when you’re deeper and tighter when you’re shorter – unless you’re really short.

BUTTON
Decisions on the button are some of the trickiest bubble spots you’ll find in Steps play. If there’s action in front, you’ll generally want to be fairly tight (with the exception of CO and short stack opens, which we’ll discuss). If it’s up to you to open, you’ll need to consider both the SB and BB stacks, along with your own stack and position in the tournament. People tend to give far less credit to button raises, and as a result you may find players calling with a much wider range out of the blinds, even if it puts their tournament life at stake. This fact is something you have to adjust for when mapping out your strategy for the button.

With effective stacks over 10BB on the button, it is very difficult to shove profitably with anything but premium hands (QQ+). This is true even if stacks are fairly flat and the blinds are tight.

With 7-10BB stacks, look to open a very wide range, as you can use the presence of the bubble to pick up chips uncontested a significant amount of the time. Unless you’re up against a SB or BB who you think is willing to gamble with all pairs and all aces in the bubble versus your shove, or there’s a crippled stack who is basically guaranteed to exit in the next couple of orbits, you should be getting it in with 70% to ATC. Lean toward the more conservative end of that range when you stack is larger and the blinds are looser, and toward ATC when you’re shorter and the blinds are tighter.

With 4-7 BB stacks. you should be opening very wide here under typical conditions. Here are a few factors that would cause you to tighten up: a stack shorter than yours that might allow you to coast into the money; a larger stack (12BBish) in the BB who is likely to call very loose or a larger stack in the SB likely to call very loose. Absent any of those conditions, you’re essentially fine shoving 80% to ATC. The tighter the blinds (and the more damage you can do to their stack), the more you should lean toward 100%.

With sub-4BB stacks, you’re not committed to shove ATC by a long shot. You’ll still have several hands before the blinds and your presence as a short stack may generate confrontations between other players. That said, top 25% or so will generally do the trick, although you’ll need to play much tighter if there’s a stack shorter than you still in play (say top 10%).

Summary: You should basically play the opposite of the blinds here. If they’re deep and loose, play tight; if they’re short and tight, play loose.

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