By
Roothlus
Let's say it's Sunday, and you're ready to play the Stars Million, which has been setting records every week for its number of entrants. So obviously you get up and shower, brush your teeth, eat a banana, and polish it all off with a wholesome glass of milk. You're already like 90% of the way to winning the million, but the rest of it is pure poker strategy! So what's your game plan going in? Play really tight while the stacks are deep, while trying to grind out a few chips in small pots, right? BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! Wrong answer, donkey.
It's a common misconception, even amongst some of the best online pros, that in these huge field tournaments you should be playing tight early on. While that would be true of a $200 rebuy weekly tournament featuring the best players on the net, it's far from the case in a field full of guys who satellited in for two dollars. In most circumstances, you're sitting with at least 7 guys willing to give you a stack in a really marginal situation. Whether it's with K10 on a K high board or a Q-high flush draw on a coordinated flop, these guys are willing to give up chips.
The best approach to these things is to play hands, mix it up, see some flops cheap, and bust some guys that won't fold QQ on a K high board. Pick up the smallest pots to allow you to continue to play them without losing too many chips, but play hands! Getting more chips than you "deserve" makes the rest of the tournament much easier. When the blind attrition goes up, you can pick better spots and take fewer coinflips.
We all know that if I were to give you one piece of advice, it would be to shower and wash your hair a lot. If I were to give you one MORE piece of advice, given you're outside the first couple hours of somewhat loose play, it would be to slowplay aces. Read again: slowplay aces in large field tournaments. The amount of double ups you're going to require to win the event with 6000 people is exponential compared to the amount you'd need to win a 200 person tournament. Don't always do it, especially if you have a very aggressive image brought about by a recent rush of cards, but realize that that these are the best shot you have at doubling through, and take the best advantage you can. Heads up, this advice is probably being preached to the choir, errr....I guess for me that'd be the synagogue, but anyway, consider a 3-way pot situation like this one:
You're sitting in the big blind with 11k in chips, and the blinds are 300/600. A very aggressive player on the button makes a 4x blind raise, normal for this player, to 1800 chips, and the small blind makes the call, also not out of the ordinary for this guy. Sitting in the big blind with your AA, the automatic play would be to reraise, but what's the right raise here? Something like raising to 6000 chips gives your hand away, and since it's more than half your stack you might as well just shove....but that's not good either, because that's something of an overbet, and it's likely to scare action from a weak hand.
Now factor in that you're in position on one of the players in the hand, and he's sandwiched between you and the aggressive player, who in all likelyhood will make a continuation bet on a lot of flops. The hand will likely play out as follows: SB Checks, you check, Button bets, small blind calls, you've now got THAT much dead equity in a situation where it's almost impossible to put you on AA.
"BUT ROOFLUSSSSS THAT'S SUCH A BIG RISK!!!!!!!!"
How big a risk is it really? Let's look at some percentages, shall we......
Holdem Hi: 1370754 enumerated boards
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
As Ad 922094 67.27 446140 32.55 2520 0.18 0.673
7s 6h 228790 16.69 1139444 83.13 2520 0.18 0.168
Qs Jc 217350 15.86 1150884 83.96 2520 0.18 0.159
Holdem Hi: 1370754 enumerated boards
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
As Ad 986263 71.95 380682 27.77 3809 0.28 0.720
Tc Th 235855 17.21 1131090 82.52 3809 0.28 0.173
Qs Jc 144827 10.57 1222118 89.16 3809 0.28 0.107
Holdem Hi: 1370754 enumerated boards
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
As Ad 1034157 75.44 322601 23.53 13996 1.02 0.759
Ac Th 82437 6.01 1274321 92.96 13996 1.02 0.065
Qh Jh 240164 17.52 1127262 82.24 3328 0.24 0.176
You'd be happy taking AK against QJ here against one opponent, and in all three situations, the aces are more of a favorite against two opponents than that AK is against one lone QJ. Still not seem right? This happens to be a carbon copy of a hand that I played several months ago in the Stars $750k Guaranteed. All three players got it in there, I held, and instead of taking the small raises, I tripled through. I went on to take 4th in that tournament, which was my biggest cash ever at the time. A month after that, I kept to my guns and slowplayed some aces to the final table of yet another huge field tournament.
And on a side note: to anyone that was worried, my avatar will remain the same!
---Roothlus