Tournament Strategy with The Godfather of Online Poker Chris Moorman

Chris Moorman is one of the most accomplished online tournament players of all time, with a total cash prize of over $20 million. The 37-year-old from Brighton, UK has long been the wild leader in all-time online poker money list for PocketFives, and although he moved to Las Vegas some time ago to focus on live poker, he remained in the fifth place.

Despite his online experience, he has also raised more than $7 million in the live arena. Moorman scored one of his biggest paychecks in 2014 LA Poker Classic . World Poker Tour for $1,015,460. has two World Series of Poker Bracelets, ditched the $3,000 No-Limit event in 2017 and added an online bracelet in 2021. Moorman has also finished second in the series four times, including in 2011. WSOP . World Series of Poker Europe Main event for $1,068,690.

Moorman and his wife Katie Lindsay, who are also a very accomplished and up-to-date poker professional WSOP . World Series of Poker Circuit The winner, who recently signed on as brand ambassadors for Americas Cardroom, became the first couple ever to agree to such a deal through an online platform.

Moorman is also a bestselling author with two poker books under his belt. He detailed his journey of success online in pages Moorman: The Inside Story of the Most Successful Online Poker Player of All Time And strategies of the joint tournament in depth morman book of poker. Both books are essential to any player’s library and are available on Amazon.

Craig Tapscott: I’m always curious about why players choose their bet sizes. One of the biggest differences between cash games and tournaments is the great variety of stack sizes that you have to face during the event. Short and medium stack play can be the difference between bubble and deep play. How do you treat different stack sizes for your opponents playing the spin on the money bubble as one of the deep stacks on the table?

Chris Moorman: In the money bubble as a big stack you can unlock the range of hands you play and in some extreme cases you can play any two cards with the correct stack configuration. There are many options available to you such as the large group on the bubble.

For example, you can lay wider flat in the position where you are not likely to be squeezed out of the pot behind you unless you hit a monster hand. Also, your opponents will have a harder time cheating post-flop with marginal holdings, so realize more stake after the flop. And you can use your three pre-bet more often against the proper openers because it’s less incentivizing to peel a three-bet.

It’s important to attack the right players because some people tighten their opening ranges so much that rebreeding them will burn money because they’ll get a monster when they voluntarily put money into the pot. Determining how your opponents will play the bubble is the most important thing to be aware of.

For example, in live poker, recreational players will often tell you that they just want the money, giving you the green light to squeeze them into each hand until the spin is within reach. Bubble chopping is often the key to a deep spin in the tournament because with the added chips you’ll be able to withstand a bad streak of cards or lose cash.

Craig Tapscott: Stack sizes are relatively similar during the early levels of play. What is the basic transition status during the early stages? What are the variables or warning flags that define your aggression when facing different types of opponents?

Chris Moorman: Early in the tournaments, I try to play really hard, and pretty much hold hands with high implied odds when I get to the flop. It is important to identify your opponents who do not want to quit, as well as to identify other players who believe in every big bet on a scary round.

At the start of any cycle, the stacks are much deeper, so there is more wiggle room. But I find it unless it’s an incredibly prestigious tournament, like a tournament WSOP . World Series of Poker The main event, big bluffs are exaggerated because people generally don’t like the bend of strong hands. It is important to underestimate the value of the bet because having an extra valuable street or a more valuable river bet is essential in chopping and giving yourself a large pool to delve deeper into the tournament.

Realize that against a very aggressive opponent it is often a good idea to let them bet the value for you (eg checking with a strong hand to let them cheat) when you want to bet yourself against a more passive player. If you end up cutting yourself once in a while, it’s not the end of the world.

The return periods for tournaments are also very interesting. This is mainly because against some players that you know, they will never pull out on any kind of regular sized bets. Therefore, you can use huge volumes to settle it in both cases, in a fold or maximum yield. This is something that requires a lot of practice despite knowing the right places for it.

Craig Tapscott: How do you choose the right bet size when flipping and turning? And why? What are the variables that most influence your decision?

Chris Moorman: When choosing bet sizes on each street, it is important to look at the effective bet size after the flop. When spinning and rivering, you generally want to set it up very linearly so that you can bet a similar percentage of your pot to get all in the river either to put maximum pressure on your opponent with a trick or to get maximum value when you hold a strong hand.

Determining the size of the bet on the flop depends a lot on the structure of the board, the number of people in the pot, and the position the players called from. For example, for a big blind on a dry flip, you can’t go wrong with betting 25-30 percent of your pot with your full range. However, against a cold caller from UTG+1 who experiences a much stronger range, you can handle certain fluctuations by not holding the bet and instead continuing with either a check or raise call.

One of the common misconceptions in poker is that in multi-way betting you need to bet big to protect your hand. However, your flop size doesn’t actually need to be that big because your opponents are totally restricted to float you away with other players in the pot because they don’t shut out the process. In fact, you can put the most pressure on your opponents with a larger bet size in the individual pots.

Craig Tapscott: Let’s talk about the sizes of river bets. In the past few years, we see players betting on the pot, sometimes a 2x or even a 3x bet. Can you share your thoughts on when and why you might use this river bet in your arsenal?

Chris Moorman: Mega river bet sizes are used where the polarization range is, such as nuts or air. It is often applied by elite players when their opponent has a crested range that will force them to cheat some of their weaker possessions.

It is important to know how your opponent reacts to these huge bets. Some players view them as an incredibly heavy bluff. Mainly because they put a lot of pressure on them and therefore they will look for any excuse to call their hands. While others will fold close to 100 percent of their range when faced with a river bet size like this one.

At the elite level, players will try to be more balanced in these situations, and if you look at their hands in isolation, it can be incredibly confusing. For example, a weaker hand like 8-7 might be the best cheat catch against a 2x-3x pot size on the K-10-8-6-5 board of KQ. Although it is technically a weaker hand. When facing these bets, the barriers become very important.

Craig Tapscott: What are the biggest leaks you see players constantly making when it comes to volume betting from pre-leak across the river? And what are the biggest leaks when it comes to understanding how playing against other opponents’ stack sizes is determined by your own stack sizes?

Chris Moorman: It is really important to determine which hands are in your opponent’s range that you are trying to target on each street. For example, in a lot of panels preferred for pre-lift versus large curtain, a small volume will be used to attack the air.

At the turn, big bets are often used because you are now either betting on value or cheating. Large bet sizes are often used on particularly brick turns like doubles and triples versus big blinds, because they are not likely to have helped their hands.

On the river, it is important to determine your weakest bet. If it’s a particularly intimidating board where you won’t be making many high-value bets, a larger size is used. It’s also important to note that you rarely want to bet less than 30 percent of your bet on the river when checking in, because reopening the action and getting such a small value can cause you more problems than it’s worth.

I want to add that it is important to monitor the effective stack size during a hand. Usually, it is a good idea to set up a geometric hand on the bend and the river. For example, if there are 20 big blinds on the turn and your opponent has 40 blinds in his stack, if you bet 12 big blinds on the turn, he will leave 28 big blinds in 44 big blinds on the river ( about 60 percent pot on both streets).

You can follow Chris Moorman on Twitter and Instagram @Moorman1. For more information, check out Moorman’s website ChrisMoorman.com. ♠

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