“You are being moved to the final table,” the pop up screen reads. The background of your table changes to a blue screen with animated characters watching the “under the lights” final table. A tournament director gives you a few trays and moves you to the final table. These are all events exciting to poker players because it means they have reached the tournament pinnacle, the final table.

To be successful at final tables, I believe it takes a lot attributes: fearlessness, aggression, timing, patience, experience, and self-awareness amongst other things. The right dose of all these attributes in the correct combination will lead to success. In reviewing many of the final tables where I have succeeded and failed, I have noticed some common themes: MISTAKES. Final tables really accentuate many of the mistakes people make in earlier rounds of tournaments. Why is this, you might ask? The stakes are higher and the decisions are more important, so the prospects of money and glory cloud players’ minds. I want to explore some common endgame mistakes in this article. By avoiding these in your own play and exploiting them in others, I hope those 7th to 9th place finishes turn into tournament titles.

Short Stack Play

One of the most common topics of final table distress for players is “blinding away.” The mistakes made here can be corrected by having a better short-stack strategy and concept of when it is correct to push. I will not go into how to play when you are faced with a short stack, because I have seen several articles from others on P5s including SamENole, The Shrike, and Rizen, as well as having read from other named pros like Dan Harrington that can explain it far better than I can.

The point I want to make here is that you must remember that as a short stack you are going to have to gamble at some point. Many players, especially those who are inexperienced, simply wait too long to make their move. Others see their places creeping up from 7th to 6th or 8th to 7th, while simultaneously not seeing the huge difference between 6th and 1st. The goal at the final table should always be to win. It will make you feel uncomfortable picking a spot with a marginal hand, but waiting too long may just leave you in the same spot after the double up, as a severely short stack.

Not adjusting to short-handed play

As players get whittled out of the field, great things happen. You get more money guaranteed, and on average, stack sizes compared to the blinds go up. This allows more play that can comfortably happen post-flop. Your style both post-flop and pre-flop must adapt to this. Where nine-handed your stack size may have dictated an all in to a late position raise with a marginal hand, now your play may be different.

It is important to find the smart balance of aggression shorthanded. Aggression in terms of increasing your range and opening more pots is certainly important, but a larger stack size allows you to define your hand more often pre-flop with a modest reraise or even see more flops as opposed to jamming all the money in the middle. Essentially, if you choose to not play more post-flop, then do not make the mistake of being overly aggressive pre-flop. Always evaluate the size of your stack compared to the blinds and antes to see if there is room to get the same result with a play that will risk fewer chips. Remember, you have played for 4-5 hours at this point, so do not throw the tournament away on the hopes that your opponent is stealing; really find out when you have the stack to do so.

Not being the first one to get the easy chips

Even though it is a final table and every player at the table has outlasted hundreds or thousands of players, it is never a guarantee that all players will be great or even average. Often there are a few players at the table that are inexperienced or just crazy. A situation where I have been able to exploit the “easy chips” has occurred at some point in the final two tables in probably 80% of my successful tournament results. I have identified a weaker player that is overplaying hands or making overaggressive plays in position or on the blinds. Whatever the play is from this player, I have identified it and in some sense gambled to exploit it. By gambled, I mean that I have essentially picked a spot where the “safe” move would be a fold, but I have taken a chance with a likely 60-70% favorite hand. These spots often occur in battles for the blinds.

The key to gaining this advantage in a tournament is to PAY ATTENTION. You need to evaluate your opponents at every stage in the tournament. Do research on your opponents if you have the ability to. Turn off the IM and TV. When you reach a final table, half of the table will probably have no idea who has the “easy chips,” but you will be able to exploit that piece of information. Often, it is beating other players to the opportunity to take a weak player’s chips that is a crucial step towards putting yourself in position to win. Do not, however, confuse a tough LAG player with the “easy chips.”

Raising a Red Flag to Other Players with a Huge Hand

Let’s look at an example of this in both post-flop and pre-flop play. With 12,000 chips and 1,000/2,000 blinds, you pick up AA pre-flop in the cut-off. Your play with any amount of chips under 15,000 has so far been an all-in, but you do not want to scare off any action for your hand. All three players in the button, SB, and BB have your stack covered by at least 2.5X. I have seen too many situations where this player makes a double raise, a limp, or even a three times big blind raise. This raises sirens in any decent player’s mind. Be consistent with your play here and push all in.

In the post-flop situation, this happened with 5 players left in a tournament last week. I had A-10 on the BB. The middle position raised 3x the BB, and I made the call. Flop A 10 3 rainbow. My standard play at this table had been 50% of the time to bet out into the raiser and 50% of the time to check call for more on the turn. I had done this the entire tournament. I checked, and a continuation bet followed. For some reason, I decided to check-raise the minimum. Do you see how counterintuitive this play really appears? I have not done this the entire tournament and now decide to do it with a huge hand. My perceptive and strong opponent said, “A-10, huh?” in the chat box and mucked, showing AQ. The value in this hand could have been unlocked by simply being patient and following the consistent pattern. Either of the other two options (betting out or check calling) would have won me more chips in the hand (barring the running straight or Q).

There are many other mistakes people make at final tables that are different from the ones listed above. Besides specific examples that I can point too as flagrant mistakes I have made or witnessed, these are a few tips to keep a player level-headed and improve endgame play:

1. Slow down and take your time. Many of the above mistakes can be avoided by evaluating all aspects of the situation and not impulsively making decisions.

2. Don’t start other tournaments when at a final table. Don’t waste your time in level 1 or 2 of a tournament you want to play later. I know that many players can handle multi-tabling, but I have found a lot of improvement in my results by playing just one table when late in a tournament (my top 8 cashes ever all occured at the only table I was playing at the time). All your focus needs to be on the final table.

3. Review all your tournament final tables. Make sure you always have a copy of your final tables. It is great to review both successes and failures. Knowing your own weaknesses at final tables is the best way to prevent them from popping up in the future.

4. As stated in the examples above, don’t be afraid to gamble in the right spots, and have confidence in your ability and style that got you there. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO GO WITH YOUR INSTINCTS!

5. Sit-N-Gos (not turbos) give great practice for final tables. They will give you a chance to work on many situational concepts that come up at final tables, such as blind stealing, heads up play, and short stack strategy.

As with many things in life, if you mess up once, it is an error. If you do not learn, it soon becomes a mistake. Apply this to your endgame and leave the final table knowing you played your best.

Donking away in tournaments since 2004, so you can learn from my errors,

kice32