Soft field tournaments are full of passive players and easy chips—if you know how to take advantage early. These seven tactics will help you build a stack early and fast and set yourself up for a deep run.
Be Willing To Re-Enter
None of the strategies we are going to be talking about today are finesse-driven. If you want to get experience wielding a big stack in local tournaments, you’re going to need to take some chances.
The most common chance you’ll have to build a stack early is re-entering. If you’re rolled for this tournament, then re-entering with a decent chip stack shouldn’t be a concern. You’re essentially just entering a new tournament. Your previous buy-in has nothing to do with you anymore. It belongs to the prize pool now. Re-entering is no different than driving down the street and playing a similar tournament at another casino.
Run Big Bluffs With Draws to Build a Stack Early
If you flop a decent draw, you have a couple things going for you.
For one, if there’s an obvious straight or flush draw on the board, it’s likely your opponents would have raised with their sets or two pairs. They would want to protect themselves while simultaneously getting money from their hand.
If they just called you, it’s likely they have some kind of flopped pair that wouldn’t be enthusiastic about seeing you triple barrel or over-bet versus them.
So, if you’re willing to re-enter, you can run a semi-bluff versus these folks. If they fold, great, you pick up the pot. If they call, you might hit your draw and win a massive pot. If they call and you miss, well, that’s what re-entries are for.
When Your Tighter Opponent Likely Has One Pair Triple Barrel Or Overbet
If you’re playing against someone who is taking the game seriously, you sometimes don’t even need a draw.
Let’s say there’s a guy in your local casino who is really trying to be a good player. He’s generally tight and he constantly lectures people on how bad they are playing.
If you raise and this guy calls out of the big blind, you know he doesn’t have his best hands. He likely would have three-bet with his best hands.
If the board comes with high cards, he’s in trouble. He would have three-bet with his best high cards, so all he’s ever flopped here is mediocre pairs. This is also the same guy that constantly lectures people on their bad calls, so you know he considers calling off all of his chips with a mediocre pair to be a bad play.
Go after him. If this pot doesn’t work out, that’s what the re-entries are for.
Call When People Freak Out
If you are playing a pot versus someone who is a straightforward player, you need to pay attention when they just call or check back with draws on the board.
If there’s an obvious flush draw on the board and a straightforward player just checks back or calls a small bet, you have to ask yourself a question:
Wouldn’t he raise/bet with sets/two pair/great top pair?
If he likely would have played his best hands fast, and all the sudden he freaks out on a river that misses the draw, there’s a great chance he missed a draw. Go ahead and bluff catch more. You can re-enter if you’re wrong.
Raise More Suited Hands Pre-Flop to Build a Stack Early
If no one wants to fold to your raises pre-flop, then you can play hands that do better in multi-way pots. Hands that draw to strong combinations are suited Aces, suited connectors, pocket pairs, and suited Broadways. Offsuit big cards go down in value in multi-way pots, so raise less of those combinations.
When you are in multi-way pots, you can bet larger when you hit. If your opponents flopped a pair or draw, they’re not going to fold unless you over-bet the pot.
If you want another card or if you want to try a cheap bluff, bet small. Even if they have top pair, they won’t want to raise because they’re worried about you raising again and putting them to the test.
Yes, this strategy is exploitable. No, your opponents won’t notice. Just don’t announce your strategy and they’ll stay buried in their cell phones while you quietly build a stack.
Call With More Hands In Position
You have more implied odds in soft games because people are willing to go broke with bad two pairs and mediocre flushes and straights. This allows you to open up your cold calling range.
Normally, flatting with suited one-gappers is a little loose, but you can get away with it now versus players that massively overvalue their hands and can’t fold to large bets on the flop.
Squeeze More With Decent Hands And Play Aggressively
If you do get dealt a decent hand, prepare for a big confrontation. You can’t play it softly and let someone catch up to you. You need to isolation raise to two times the size of the pot or squeeze to a similar size. If this is more than 35% of your chips just go ahead and jam in.
This will annoy the hell out of your opponents, and eventually they will remember they are able to re-enter if they fail to bust you with their drawing hand. Once you get some takers play aggressively unless the board runs out poorly for you. You can re-enter if you get your money in ahead and they catch up.
Conclusion:
Getting ahead early in soft fields gives you leverage, confidence, and control. Use these strategies to dominate from the start, build a stack early, turn small edges into big results.
Want to read more from APT Head Pro Alex Fitzgerald? Try his article about the 8 Cash Game Mistakes That Cost You Money.
