Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
It is important to make the distinction between cutoff and button
It is important to make the distinction between cutoff and button because having that one extra person to worry about really does make a difference. Suppose the button calls your push 8 percent of the time, the small blind calls 8 percent and the big blind calls 15 percent. The calling percentage increases from 23 percent on the button to 31 percent from the cutoff. That means you must have a tighter range.
With a 10BB stack from the cutoff,
With a 10BB stack from the cutoff, I would push 2-2+, A-2+, K-8+, Q-8+, J-8+, 10-7+, 9-8, suited connectors and any suited hand where one card is king or higher or two cards are 6 or higher. From the button, I would raise 2-2+, A-2+, K-2+, Q-5+ and any two cards that are higher than 6. While this range is wide open, you can find spots to push even more hands as your stack diminishes.