Recently, I played in the Bicycle Casino’s weekly Wednesday
Night Tournament, No-Limit Holdem $50+$10 with one optional
re-buy. You get $800 in chips for your initial
buy-in, and for $50 more, you get an additional $1,000
in chips. The blinds start at $5 and $10, and
are increased every twenty minutes. This week,
there were 160 entrants. I know, I know.
In my last article, I said that I was going to write
most of my articles on cash games...well, I will, but
this article is on tournament strategy.
I
played one of the best tournaments of my life. Did
I win? No--but that’s not something I can control
entirely. In order to win a tournament, you need to
have two essential ingredients, and if you are missing either,
you cannot win it: luck and skill. First off,
by luck, I mean that you need to make some key hands.
For example, you need to win some all-in “coin-flip” situations.
I
don’t really believe in “luck” per se, but you do need
to win several hands where you don’t really have an advantage.
Even the best player in the world needs to win some coin-flips
in order to win a tournament, and that’s not something you
can control. Skill, however, is entirely within your
control. You have absolute power to learn as much
as possible about the game and to practice correct strategy
with discipline. Even the luckiest person in the world
will have trouble winning poker tournaments if they play
poorly. There are only so many times that you can
win where you start at a disadvantage before the odds catch
up to you and you lose all of your chips.
There
are two major theories about how to win a tournament,
and they are really two sides of the same coin:
Accumulation and Survival.
The
Accumulation Theory follows the tenet, “You cannot win
a tournament unless you accumulate all of the chips.”
In practice, you must continually increase your stack
size by winning both contested and uncontested pots.
I like to think of this as “playing the player.”
You need to determine whom you can steal pots from and
when your opponent can be bet off a hand. You
also need to maximize the size of the pot when you have
the best hand.
The
Survival Theory follows the tenet, “You cannot win a
tournament unless you survive until the end.”
In practice, you must pick and choose your hands that
you are going to play and stay out of trouble.
You also need to minimize your all-in confrontations.
I believe is in one of Tom McEvoy’s books that he states,
“You can’t lose a tournament if you never risk all of
your chips.”
In
truth, to win a tournament, you need to follow both
of these strategies extremely well. I believe
that you need to both stay out of trouble and maximize
your stack. Last night was a chance for me to
practice surviving. During the first hour and
a half, I did not win a single pot. I was dealt
horrible cards and therefore played very few hands.
During this time, I received one pocket pair (sixes)
and I did not get a single big ace (ten or better kicker)
or suited ace. However, I stayed out of trouble.
Fairly early in the tournament, I started to get short-stacked
(which I define as having less than 20 times the big
blind), but I did my best to stay out of trouble.
Once I finally broke the seal by winning a pot when
I flopped two pair from an unraised big blind, I started
to receive some better cards. I folded at least
two hands when I had a suited ace when someone had moved
all-in before the action got to me. Also, I did
not make a move with A-3 off-suit when I was the action
had folded to me in late position. This is a great
hand when you are in “all-in mode” (defined as having
less than 8 or 10 times the big blind), and although
I was right in this neighborhood, I decided to wait
for a better hand.
There
were two key hands that I played that were excellent
spots to make a move.
1)
I picked up A-J suited in late position when I had
between ten and twenty times the big blind left in
my stack. One loose player called the $100 big
blind and everyone else folded to me. With the
blinds and antes, there was already $500 in the pot,
so I raised to $725, exactly half of my stack.
This way, if I am called, I can make the decision
of whether or not I want to make a bet on the flop.
In fact, the loose player called and the flop came
9 high, rainbow. She checked to me and I put
the rest of my chips in the pot. Correctly,
I had read that she missed the flop and she promptly
folded her hand.
2)
I picked up A-K offsuit when I was “under the gun”
(the first person to act, just left of the big blind),
and I went all-in with about eight times the big blind.
It was folded to a player in middle position who took
a minute or so before folding his hand. After
folding, he claimed that he had A-K suited.
Since he folded, I won all of the blinds and antes
instead of (in all likelihood) splitting them with
the other A-K. Because I had been playing very
few hands, this opponent guessed that I had been waiting
for a huge hand. He was right, but he didn’t
realize that in that situation, I consider A-K a huge
hand.
Here
are the main principles that you need to follow in order
to survive in a tournament:
1)
Don’t play too many hands. Early in the tournament,
it is okay to call with speculative hands, like medium
connected cards (for example 9-8 offsuit) when you
have more than twenty times the amount of the call.
However, if you have less than that, or are getting
close to that amount and the pot has been raised,
it is best to stay out of trouble and wait for a better
hand, which leads us to the next principle.
2)
When you have between 10 and 20 times the big blind,
look for hands that you can raise with. During
this stage, you cannot to afford to just call.
You are starting to look for opportunities to make
a move and double up. This means that you are
looking for big aces and pocket pairs. If you
raise and are called, you can decide after the flop
if you want to contest the pot.
3)
Raise; don’t call. When you are starting to
get short-stacked, you are looking for opportunities
to raise, preferably when everyone has folded to you.
This way you have two ways to win the hand:
either you make the best hand and double-up, or everyone
folds and you win the blinds and antes. When
you call, you can only win by making the best hand.
So, if someone has made an all-in bet, your requirements
for calling go way up. I would suggest calling
with pocket Aces, Kings, or AK suited, but you can
even fold A-K if you like. Use extreme caution
if there is more than one all-in bet before the action
gets to you. It is very likely that one person
has a big ace and the other has a pocket pair.
I only like to call with pocket Aces in this situation.
For example, against A-K suited and pocket 9’s, pocket
Aces will win about 70% of the time. However,
pocket Kings only win 50% of the time and pocket Queens
win 43% of the time. So, although Queens might
be the third best starting hand, against two opponents
like these, the “ladies” are at a disadvantage--you
can call it the “glass ceiling.”
4)
Don’t
get too anxious when you start to get short-stacked.
It is very common for players to start panicking when
their stacks get small, especially as the blinds keep
increasing. If you still have some time before
you are going to get blinded off, wait so you can
pick and choose the spots that are right for you.
On the other hand...
5)
Don’t wait too long when you are short-stacked. When
you start to get short-stacked, especially when you
have to put an ante into every pot, you need to know
how many hands you have until you will be “pot-committed.”
So, every time you play a hand or the blinds are increased,
you need to examine your stack and count the number
of hands that you can fold until you will have to
put a large potion of your stack into the blinds.
This way you will know, for example, that you reasonable
have six hands before you will be pot committed. That
means that your requirements might go down to any
Ace (as long as you’re not already facing a raise),
or even any Ace or King if you have three hands left.
(These are just examples, and not meant to be the
exact requirements for these situations.)
Once
again, I’d like to recognize that it is just important
to accumulate as it is to survive. I failed miserably
to accumulate chips during a few key hands: one hand
that I was bluffed into folding when I should have realized
that I had the best hand, and the other was when I was
dealt pocket Aces in late position and everyone folded
to me. I could have slow-played by calling and getting
two people in the pot, or enticing one of them to try
to raise. Instead, I raised all-in, hoping that they
would suspect that I was trying to steal the blinds,
and one of them would call. However, they both folded
and I accumulated a small amount of chips instead of
doubling up.
I’m
very happy, however, with my performance. I outlasted
nearly 130 out of the 160 entrants, nearly making it
to the top 18, who all made the money. I’m also happy
with the hand that busted me. I waited and stayed out
of trouble, until I was finally dealt pocket Jacks in
middle position with everyone to folding before me.
I moved all-in and was called by pocket Queens, and I didn’t
catch a Jack. Like I said, even if you
play with a lot of skill, you still need to get lucky
in order to win a tournament. Maybe I’ll get lucky next
time.
Oliver
can be reached at oliver@babblog.com. |
