There are a few significant and interesting differences between playing in a turbo tournament and playing in a standard tournament that many players elect to neglect when preparing for each type of tournament, and that can spell doom from the start for someone unprepared in playing a faster paced structure than they’re used to. Here’s a few tips to help keep your stack healthy when the blinds escalate much faster than normal.

1. Never assume you have a “safe” chip stack. The number 1 problem for regular tournament players when facing a turbo is assuming that, because they doubled up, they can sit back and relax for a bit. When the blinds are increasing at 5 minute intervals, your M is essentially being halved every 7-10 hands, meaning that double up to M 10 will leave you around M 4-5 within one round around the table. Turbo tournaments force the player to constantly be accumulating chips; don’t kick back and relax til the tournament is over.
2. Hand ranges will increase from the start. Turbo tournaments are usually good reasons for loose players to play even looser, meaning your hand ranges in calling preflop shoves will increase. It pays to keep an eye on the timer when you’re in the blinds and the button ships 6 big blinds; if the blinds go up next hand, you can feel a lot better about calling off with K7o than if there was still 3-4 minutes left in the level, as the button likely realizes this is his last chance to steal before his stack becomes too short.
3. Preflop play becomes predominant. You won’t see a lot of fancy play post flop in turbo tournaments; instead, you’ll see a lot more posturing preflop with stacks that consistently stay around the 3-bet/4-bet shove range, meaning a player skilled in knowing the right spots to reshove or call down reshoves will have significant advantage in these style tournaments.