Poker Articles

After 9 hours of playing the Sunday Million, it’s down to the final table bubble.  You have an average stack and are playing hand for hand with 5 players at each table.  Your table had been fairly aggressive in the previous hour, but play has tightened over the last 20 hands.  Everyone left in the tournament has less than 40 big blinds in their stack, and the limits are set to increase in 4 minutes.  Upon glancing at the tournament leaderboard, there isn’t a single player left in the tournament who you recognize as a big name pro. 

You are dealt a hand, and after the first player folds, you look down at a horrid 6 4 offsuit in the cutoff seat.  You immediately fold in disgust and wait for the hand to play out.  A sense of self-loathing overcomes you as you “Never pick up hands late in tournaments,” and “you’re so unlucky.”  After folding your hand, you watch the button and small blind both fold, giving the big blind a walk.
 
Upon watching 2 of the remaining 3 players fold, you realize that a raise in this spot may have effectively stolen the blinds.  How in the world can you raise with 6 high, though?  Given the scenario, I don’t think there are many hands that you can fold in this spot.  Late in tournaments, there are two types of players: those who are looking to move up the pay ladder and others who are there to win the tournament.  In my opinion, those who are capable of throwing all caution to the wind in order to accumulate chips will come out way ahead of others who simply want that 30% increase in pay from fifth place to fourth. 

Before making the switch to this style of poker, you must realize that many tournaments will end in heartache and disgust.  If you are able to deal with this, there is no doubt in my mind that you will become a more profitable player in the long run.  In order to maximize your ability to accumulate chips, I believe there are three tactics that will lead to more success late in tournaments:

1) Raw Aggression.  As an insightful player, you must utilize position in order to steal the blinds as many times as possible.  Pay close attention to the way that people are defending their blinds, and try to find one or two players who you know can’t defend unless they have a big hand. 

Watch players like Phatcat and BeL0W play position late in tournaments.  You will rarely see them give up a hand in late position if it's an unopened pot.  It is amazing to see how many chips you can accumulate without a showdown at specific junctures late in tournaments.  The insightful player will realize this importance and often times put chips at risk with marginal holdings. 

Keep in mind that you may become a target for any tricky players that remain in the tournament.  After raising the cutoff or button 3 consecutive orbits, many people will realize what is going on and will view you as a target to trap.  If you raise the cutoff seat and are smooth called by the small blind, be very careful.  I can’t recount how many times the small blind has flat called my raise with aces and immediately check raises me all in after I made a continuation bet on the flop. 

All of this being said, you must maintain the lead by continuation betting most flops.  If you are called or raised, your poker instincts must take over and lead you through the remainder of the hand.  Keep in mind that the other player most likely missed the flop, and he/she is either going to have to risk a large portion of their stack on a bluff or simply surrender the hand.

2) The Resteal.  What differentiates good players from great players late in tournaments is the ability of some to resteal with absolutely nothing.  Try your best to notice trends at the table--i.e. seat 6 always raises the cutoff when it folds to him or seat 3 frequently limps in from early position and folds about half the time to late position raises.  It is critical that you pay very close attention to each and every hand when you are deep in tournaments for these reasons. 

A player must be very careful when restealing, though.  Keep in mind that you will sometimes run into monsters from the steal positions.  The tough part about the resteal is that there really isn't a formulaic way to explain the best way it can be done.  Restealing from the blinds is more of a "feel" bet, and you can often times be very wrong and look like an idiot in the process of being eliminated. 

One thing that I have learned is that reraising about 3 times the initial bet looks much more frightening than a reraise all in.  Say you have a stack of 100,000 with the blinds at 2000/4000.  A late position raiser will generally make it 12,000 or so to go.  Instead of simply reraising all in, you can bump it to 35,000 or so.  To the initial raiser, this looks like extreme strength, and there seems to be no way that you can fold if he were to move in.  However, if you have a marginal holding, you obviously know that you can still fold this hand. 

Stack size is the most important information that must be taken into consideration when restealing.  Before making the play, make sure that other players have fold equity and that you aren't committing your whole stack on your raise.

3) Determining Bet Size.  Before making each bet, you must determine the MINIMUM amount that you can risk in order to accomplish your goal.  If you want to steal the blinds from two weak-tight players, it is often correct to raise 2.5 times the big blind instead of the standard 3 or 4 times.  Late in tournaments, when all of the stack sizes are small relative to the blinds, it rarely takes a standard raise to take down the pot.  Any amount of chips that you can save, as insignificant as you may think it is, can snowball into something much bigger.  In the example from the previous paragraph, if you can raise to 10,000 instead of 12,000, you're saving 2% of your total stack on every bet.  After a few double ups, that extra 2% you saved on every opening raise can really amount to something.  The next time you watch a final table, pay attention to how many players are wasting chips with their opening raises.  Keep in mind that every chip counts, and that you're not out of the tournament until you have no chips left.

If you can couple uninhibited aggression with a little caution and calculation, you are well on your way to winning more tournaments.  An additional benefit to a high level of aggression is that your chances of getting paid off on a big hand drastically increase if you have a loose image.  Please don't be afraid to go broke if you feel as if you're pushing a +EV situation.  Players will frequently clam up during the late stages and wait for a big hand.  By that time, it may be too late to make a run.  Your table image will be very tight, and you're only going to get action from other very big hands.  Get in there and mix it up, and I can assure you that more big paydays will be coming your way.