The Best Tools for Online MTT Players 2026
Online poker multi-table tournaments, or MTTs, as they’re more often referred to, remain by far the most popular poker format in 2026. They attract players of all experience levels and bankroll sizes, offering a chance at big money, trophies (virtual and physical), and more. But, to get your hands on the title, you’ll need all the help you can get, which certainly includes the best tools for online MTT players.
Modern poker is very different from what the game was 20 years ago. The players who win consistently are those who put in the work, study the strategy, and constantly improve their play. To achieve this, they resort to various tools for online poker tournaments.
From the most basic ones, like simple preflop charts, to complex solvers like GTO Wizard, these MTT poker tools will help you develop sound foundations, adjust your play based on your opponents’ tendencies, and learn the GTO strategy for some of the trickiest spots that come up frequently.
We give you the list of tools that every online tournament player needs to have in their arsenal!
#1 Essential Tools for Online Tournament Players: Preflop Starting Hand Charts
As a tournament player, having your foundations in place is essential. Unlike cash games, where you can always reload to play 100+ big blinds deep, MTTs put you in spots where you have to handle different stack sizes, from just 10 big blinds (and even fewer) to 200+ big blinds effective during early levels.
Knowing which hands you should raise with, which ones you should fold, and which ones are good enough to get your stack in the middle before the flop can be tricky. Luckily, you can find plenty of quality starting hand charts for different stack depths, and you should learn these by heart.
For example, Upswing Poker will give you access to their preflop chart app for free. You just need to sign up for an account with the site, and you’ll get your hands on one of the best, most user-friendly preflop poker apps there are. You can easily switch between different stack sizes to immediately see correct hand ranges for every position at the table, which is exactly what you need.
Memorizing all the charts for every single stack depth (10, 20, 30, 40… big blinds) is hard, so a good way to approach this is to start at one point, like 10 big blinds, and work your way up. As you increase the effective stack size, you’ll notice how certain marginal hands from the previous chart start to get included.
After a little while, you’ll realize there is an actual method to the madness and a very sound logic to help guide you. This is an approach that works best for most players learning the ropes, but if you prefer to brute-force your way through it and just memorize all the charts, you’re more than welcome to do so. If you have the capacity to store all that information and bring it up as needed, more power to you.
#2 Best Tools for Online MTT Players: Holdem Manager 3
Poker tracking software of some description is a must for online tournament players in 2026, and Holdem Manager 3 (HM3) seems to be the favorite pick among the most experienced grinders. PokerTracker 4 is the close second, but it seems to be more popular among cash game players.
The value of an MTT poker tool like Holdem Manager 3 can’t be overstated. The software runs in the background and collects important information about your and your opponents’ play, carefully recording every single hand.
The more you play, the more valuable this information becomes. You’ll be able to use the database to go through all the hands with a fine comb, using different filters to find specific spots you’re interested in. This can be anything, from the button percentage raise to how often you defend in the big blind to very complex setups, such as how often you get to a showdown in 3-bet pots starting with 50+ big blinds.
If you’re new to poker, this may sound complex and somewhat intimidating, but you don’t need to jump in at the deep end right off the bat. Having access to that information about you and your opponents is very valuable, and you can start by analyzing some of the biggest pots or looking at specific situations, like big blind 3-bet spots.
If you want to continuously develop as a player, which is pretty much a requirement to stay ahead of the curve in 2026, you definitely need Holdem Manager 3 (or a similar piece of software) in your arsenal of the best tools for online MTT players. Using it will make it easier to identify your own mistakes, recognize your opponents’ tendencies (especially other regulars you come across often), and adjust your strategy accordingly.
#3 Top Tools for Online Tournament Players: HUD
Tracker software is beneficial on its own, but it shows its true potential when used in conjunction with a Heads-Up Display, popularly known as a HUD. A HUD pulls that statistical information from the tracker and displays it in a neat, organized fashion on your screen in real time.
Even if you’ve never used it yourself, you’ve probably seen a HUD in action while watching one of your favorite poker streamers. It shows a square next to each player seated at the table, displaying statistical information such as VPIP (Voluntarily Put Money Into the Pot), PFR (Preflop Raise Percentage), C-bet percentage, and more.
Every HUD worth its salt can be customized so that you have the information that is most useful to you right on the screen, while additional numbers can be easily accessed by hovering over the basic display or clicking on it.
Holdem Manager 3 comes with its own HUD, so you don’t have to download any third-party solutions. However, you can also get standalone HUDs that work with major trackers like HM3 and PT4.
Regardless of what route you decide to go, a well-organized HUD is definitely one of the best tools for MTT poker players in 2025. It gives you easy and real-time access to a wealth of information gathered by your tracking software, significantly improving its usefulness.
Setting up your HUD correctly for online poker tournaments can be tricky, especially if you’re at the start of your poker journey. Luckily, there are many ready-made solutions available for free download, created by experienced MTT players. You can simply get one or two of these from a poker forum like TwoPlusTwo and import them; you’ll be all set with minimal adjustments.
Online poker rooms’ attitudes toward HUDs (Heads-Up Displays) vary significantly: some support external software, others offer built-in solutions, while others ban them entirely. IF you are ready to experiment with your own settings and want to use your tailor-made options, ACR (America’s CardRoom) might be your go-to site to play.
#4 GTO Wizard: Advanced Tool for Online MTT Players
As you move up the stakes and start taking on higher buy-in online MTTs, you’ll, naturally, start to face tougher opposition as well. Eventually, you’ll reach a stage where a majority of your opponents are well familiar with fundamentals like starting hand ranges for different effective stacks and are using other top online tournament tools like a poker tracker and HUD.
At this point, you’ll need some additional assistance to stay ahead of the curve and keep up with the best, which means learning the Game Theory Optimal strategy. And to achieve this goal, there is no better software than GTO Wizard.
GTO Wizard is the market leader in the group of software solutions known as poker solvers. Their main purpose is to develop theoretically optimal solutions for various poker situations, regardless of other players’ actions. Solvers teach you to play a strategy that, when implemented correctly, cannot be exploited.
The scope of options offered by GTO Wizard is quite comprehensive. You can analyze pretty much any preflop or postflop spot by entering relevant details and letting the software do its magic. It will provide you with mathematically correct plays, allowing you to better recognize the areas where you might be making frequent mistakes and plug those leaks.
The software also lets you play against AI opponents. You can set up a scenario, then play through a bunch of hands relevant to it. As you make your decisions, they’ll be rated by the software, and you’ll receive real-time tips about any mistakes you make. This is a great way to learn by doing, and it could be just the right approach for players who don’t like doing “dry” analysis.
In 2026, GTO Wizard is, without a doubt, one of the best tools for online MTT players. While you can get by without using it if you’re only playing the lowest of stakes, you’ll definitely need to start learning GTO as you venture into events with buy-ins of $50+.
It is a fact that poker solvers can be confusing and even scary for beginners. A good thing about GTO Wizard is that it comes with a large number of video tutorials and explanations to help you get started. While it is a bit pricey compared to some of the other tools for online poker tournaments, it is one of the best investments you can make if you’re serious about improving your game and have your sights set on playing (and winning in) higher buy-in events.
#5 ICMIZER – An Essential Online MTT Tool
Knowing how to navigate the money bubble and various prize jumps that are inherent to tournaments is just as important as having your starting hand ranges sorted and adjusting to your opponents. In the MTT world, this entire knowledge is referred to as ICM – Independent Chip Model.
In cash games, every chip you have is worth exactly the amount displayed on the clay, so there is no confusion. In tournaments, however, chips don’t have direct monetary value. Instead, the value of your stack is determined based on the total prize pool, the number of players left in the field, and the prize distribution.
ICM takes this rather complex setting, crunches all the numbers, and provides actionable information based on this knowledge. As a very crude example, there are situations in poker tournaments where you might even want to fold pocket aces. Say you are at a final table, and you and the other player have almost all the chips. The remaining players all have between two and five big blinds.
If the big stack, who has you slightly covered, were to open shove, folding a hand even as strong as pocket aces could make sense, as you’re likely to ladder a few spots without even playing, or by playing against super-short stacks, without any risk.
If you want to make the next step towards poker success, you should read our article about the Best MTT Poker Sites in 2026 , and pick your favourite site to register and play.
Trying to figure out all the different spots in your head will probably make your brain hurt, and, unless you are particularly talented, you won’t be able to crack it. That’s where ICIMIZER comes in. It is an essential online MTT tool that can help you practice and understand ICM.
The software has two different modes. You can use your own hands, whether from a final table or at an earlier stage of the tournament with significant money jump implications, or you can practice using the trainer mode. The second option is great to help you develop a good feeling for different ICM spots, so even if you can’t do the exact math in your head, you’ll have a solid idea of what hands to push with and what hands to fold given a particular table setup (chip stacks, remaining prizes, prize jumps).
While many tournament players don’t pay much attention to ICM and prefer a do-or-die approach, always playing for the win, serious grinders who are in it for the long haul mostly know this theory very well. So, if you want to keep up with them, you’ll need this tool as well.
#6 HoldemResources Calculator: More Advanced MTT Tool for ICM & Beyond
For most players, ICMIZER will probably be more than enough to get their understanding of ICM to a respectable level. However, there are always those more curious minds that enjoy crunching numbers and toying with percentages. If you find yourself in this description, then HoldemResources Calculator might be just the right online tournament poker tool for you.
HRC started off with an idea similar to ICMIZER: helping with shorter stack play across different ICM situations, providing actionable info on how to adjust your calling and shoving ranges. However, over the years, this software developed into something much more powerful.
If you’re a beginner, we wouldn’t really recommend HoldemResources Calculator. It is quite confusing, and you probably won’t have the required background knowledge to really use this software’s full potential.
For those who are ready to take a more serious approach and are really dedicated to studying the game, HRC lets you import hands or set up different preflop and postflop scenarios with highly adjustable custom scripts. This means you can include real trends and opponents’ tendencies in the calculation.
You can also use the software to import your sessions and have them analyzed, with an overview of all key errors and areas of improvement. HRC will provide you with really detailed reports, which can be quite helpful, but to really take advantage of them, you’ll need to put in some serious work.
The Best Tools for Online MTT Players in 2026: Summary
Online poker tournaments remain one of the most popular and, arguably, softest formats in poker. However, if your desire is to rise through the limits and start winning in events with bigger buy-ins and more serious players, you’ll need to approach the game more seriously yourself.
The easiest and most straightforward way to improve your results is to use tried-and-tested helping programs, the best tools for online MTT players, like the ones we listed in this article. They will provide you with all the information you need to continue to grow as a player and stay ahead of the curve.
If you’re just starting out, don’t get overwhelmed. You don’t need to get all these online poker tournament tools at once. Start with a couple of them, like quality preflop charts and HM3, and work your way up from there. After all, the learning process never ends in poker, so you don’t need to rush. Stay calm and focused on your goals, and you’ll eventually get to where you want to be!
