{"id":5212,"date":"2026-09-21T13:17:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T17:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pokertraining.com\/poker\/blog\/?p=5212"},"modified":"2026-09-21T13:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T17:21:10","slug":"final-table-poker-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pokertraining.com\/poker\/blog\/final-table-poker-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Final Table Tips That Can Save Your Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hey everybody, this is Alexander Fitzgerald, head coach for <a href=\"\/\">Advanced Poker Training<\/a>, and today I\u2019m going to give you a few tips for final tables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know many of you are about to play more local tournaments as the kids get back into school and as you come home from summer vacations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes, when we get to our first final tables after a break, it is easy to be a little rusty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These five final table poker tips can help you avoid some of the most common and expensive mistakes players make at the end of a tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s get right into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. Get a good look at the stacks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This is something I do at the beginning of every final table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the time I get there, I am often fatigued, or the adrenaline is running through me, and it becomes easy to skip this step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do not skip it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take a good look at all the stacks around you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you need to, take out your phone and write down how many big blinds everybody has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a big deal because you need to know how many short stacks are to your left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If there are players with 10 to 20 big blinds, those are dangerous stacks to raise into. They do not have enough chips to call you comfortably, but they do have enough chips to move all in on you and make it hard for you to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If there is only one of those stacks behind you, you can still raise and steal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If there are two of them, you have to be careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If there are three or more, you need to stop preflop stealing so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is amazing how many people run a chip lead into the ground because they do not realize how many short stacks are behind them. They just keep raising and folding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other thing you have to do when there are several short stacks to your left is avoid cold calling too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do not start calling raises with every suited connector or suited gapper just because you have chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If people are going to move all in behind you, those calls can become very expensive very quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. Tell yourself to fold more to three-bets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Folding to a three-bet is not always optimal, but oftentimes the loss is so negligible that it is not a big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you call a three-bet out of position, you are usually not trying to make money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You are trying to lose less money than you would by folding preflop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you fold preflop, maybe you lose two big blinds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if you call out of position and risk 30 big blinds throughout a large pot, that can become an ICM disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe, on average, you save one big blind by continuing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is not exactly something we should be in love with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People do not three-bet bluff nearly as much at final tables as they should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if you are ever on the fence about folding to a three-bet, just go ahead and do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Be careful calling down out of the big blind<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier in tournaments, people will triple barrel and double barrel bluff you more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is the re-entry period. They are excited to be playing. Or they are frustrated their hand did not hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of that, calling down out of the big blind with mediocre pairs is not always the worst thing in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the final table, though, it can be one of the worst plays you make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From an ICM perspective, it is awful to just call down and give away chips when you have no idea where you are, especially when there are shorter stacks at the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Exploitatively, a lot of your opponents are not going to triple barrel bluff nearly as much at the final table as they should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is a really difficult play for most people to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if someone is applying major pressure at the final table, give that line more credit than you would earlier in the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. Move all in on medium stacks when there are short stacks out there<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember to move all in on medium stacks when there are several short stacks at the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s say there are a couple of players at your final table with eight and seven big blinds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A 22-big-blind stack raises on the button, and you have 24 big blinds in the small blind with queen-nine suited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is an excellent situation to move all in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because your opponent now has to think about calling off and potentially allowing the super short stacks to ladder up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They thought they had those ladders secured. Now you are putting that at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A lot of times, they are going to fold more than they should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have seen people fold some pretty absurd hands in these spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. Use larger three-bets against uncomfortable players<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If someone is clearly uncomfortable at the final table, has not played many final tables before, and is playing a little more solidly, you should apply pressure if you have the chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Try some larger three-bets against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If they are opening to two big blinds, do not automatically make it five big blinds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make it 6.5 big blinds sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let them know early and often that if they are going to play a pot against the big stack, it is going to be a big one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And they could get busted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will see a lot of these players fold quite a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They did not come to the final table prepared to battle the big stack in inflated pots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Use that against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>All right guys, that is my time for today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to go deeper with final table study, 10 copies of my training package Final Table Supremacy are available today for $99:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pokertraining.com\/poker\/blog\/goto\/aHR0cHM6Ly9ndW1yb2FkLmNvbS9hLzg2NTg0MDg1MS9oeGJwaz9vZmZlcl9jb2RlPWFwdGZ0cw==\"  >https:\/\/gumroad.com\/a\/865840851\/hxbpk?offer_code=aptfts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After those 10 copies are gone, the site will say this coupon code has expired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Final Table Supremacy will give you more training at final tables than you would get in 20 years, as the reviews on the site will tell you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The final table theory episode alone is worth the price of admission, if I do say so myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be sure to check it out before all the copies are gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey everybody, this is Alexander Fitzgerald, head coach for Advanced Poker Training, and today I\u2019m going to give you a few tips for final tables. I know many of you are about to play more local tournaments as the kids get back into school and as you come home from summer vacations. Sometimes, when we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>5 Final Table Poker Tips That Can Save Your Tournament<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn 5 final table poker tips from Alex Fitzgerald, including stack awareness, ICM pressure, three-bet defense, and when to shove medium stacks.\" 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