Poker is situational - and this is particularly true in tournament play. Let me give you an extreme example. I was playing a massive one-line tournament last weekend with over 9,000 competitors. The last 250 player left standing would be given entry to another more potentially lucrative tournament. This is a very unusual structure - the person who finishes 1st and the person who finishes 250th get exactly the same thing! Needless to say, such a structure should have a great influence on the way you play but interestingly enough a lot of players have a hard time adjusting.
Like many low or no-buy in tournaments with massive competitors, the first few rounds were a stupid all-in fest; and the field shrank by half in less than an hour, those aggressive risk-takers who had not gone bust had accumulated huge stacks - in fact it was obvious that those in the top ten spots had so many chips that they could fold the rest of the way and still finish in the top 250. But would players who had been so aggressive be able to stop themselves? Out of curiosity, I flagged the top ten at that point to see how many would make the cut.
My own strategy was simple: play my best and see what happens. What happened was I did really well, and when we were down to 500 players I was in 180th spot - not quite to the point I could fold everything, but I could make it if I didn't do something incredibly dumb. The closer we got to the bubble, the tighter everyone played. With about 270 players left I was dealt pocket aces. I was in 150th spot, so I had no need to play the hand, but I just couldn't fold them either so I put in a modest raise. The guy right after me, who had a gigantic stack, moved all-in. I thought about calling - obviously I had the best hand- but thankfully I did a little risk-reward thinking: what would be the reward if I called and won? Nothing really - maybe the satisfaction of winning a hand of poker. Big deal. I was going to finish in the top 250 if I folded right here and 150th place and 42nd place get the same thing. What are the risks of calling and losing? AA can lose to any two random cards and if my all-in call back-fired I'd lose my ticket to the next tourney and the three hours I'd invested in this tournament would be for nothing. So, for the first time in my life I folded pocket aces before the flop.
About fifteen minutes later a fellow raised from early position and once again the big-stack bully moved all-in. Unlike me, the original raiser decided to call even though he had enough chips to cruise into the top 250. He turned over AA and the Big Bully turned over Q9o. The flop was Q 9 4, giving Big Bully top two pair and that holds up to knock the guy with aces out in 258th place.
Soon we are down to 250. I check to see how many of those early chip leaders made the cut and I see that six of them did - which is more than I expected. Still four guys blew themselves up for no reason except they couldn't stop playing aggressively!
So yes, the example is extreme but I hope it makes a point. Always factor in the risk-reward when you are making decisions, particularly in tournaments.
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