Bodog's Tourney Tips Friday Is Here!
Okey dokey folks, it is time for our Tournament Tips column.
You may recall that when we first began, we mentioned that success in tournaments can be boiled down to time management: you have to cope with a ticking bomb with the panache of James Bond.
Well, if you have found yourself at the final table, the first thing is to congratulate yourself on your Bond-like temperament. Your ability to let the others players adopt a devil-may-care attitude has left you a guaranteed juicy award and the chance to raid Fort Knox.
Think of the final table as the point where Bond reaches the villain's lair – you have faced some almighty challenges but the toughest is yet to come. Everyone else at the table is your nemesis but they will also be prone to grave mistakes – remember Auric Goldfinger's error when he cackles at Bond, who is looking at a laser-beam inch ever closer to his balls, 'I expect you to die' – at the final table, you cannot expect players to die, you have to put the boot in and thwart their version of Operation Grand Slam.
Obviously, a major consideration is the size of your stack. If you are in the top three, bully places 4-10. The antes and blinds will be sizeable enough to hurt the small-fry and, unless they have exceptional cards, they won't take many chances. Why pay for your cards, when you can easily pick up the blinds once a round, and often more? If you are called by a small-stack, it is usually a not a huge dent in your stack if you lose.
In these cases, you are likely to be an under-dog, but so what? Assuming two live cards, you have about 35% - that's a 35% chance of increasing your minimum take-home prize for the cost of a fraction of your stack. Given how many blinds you can pick up on other rounds, it is a no-brainer.
If you are raising a bit too often, you will inevitably attract the attention of less diminutive stacks, who will also be keen to terrorise the table. If you raise from mid-position with a mediocre hand and you find yourself tussling with a player who has the ability to induce wipe you out, exercise caution.
Be alert to the power of reads but also be aware how much play is left in your stack. Many players refuse to make tough lay-downs because of pride – so let's look at a real life example, the final of The Wynn Classic.
At the heads-up stage, Chris Moore had 1,470,000 chips to Ryan Young's 2,100,000. Young raised to 50k pre-flop, Moore called and they looked at J-8-5. After a check from Moore, Young bet 100k – Moore hit back to make it 400k. After some time, Young pushed and Moore called – Young had AJ, for TP, TK, but Moore had J-5.
The chip stacks were now 2,940,000 for Moore and 630,000 for Young.
Had Young folded at the check-raise they would have been 1,620,000 and 1,9250,000 respectively.
Moore went on to win a few hands later, but would he have done had Young folded?
Maybe.
However, Young's call left him a tiny chance of winning. Yes, had he caught a bluff, he would have taken it down there and then, but here's another factor:
Although Phil Hellmuth (pictured) claims he 'can dodge bullets, baby', when tested by a journalist to guess whether or not she was lying, out of twenty guesses, he was only correct 11 times – that is a fraction over what anyone could achieve. Add to that the relative anonymity of online poker and you have a huge call.
Ask yourself: have I really got a read or am I just deceiving myself because I don't want to be seen as a push-over? If your ego is more important than a life boosting chunk of change, call.
Otherwise, weigh up your stack. If there is still plenty of play in it, then folding is usually the better option.
Next week, we'll look at the opposite scenario – when you start in places 8-10.
Now you've got the wind in your sails check out the Tournament Schedules at Bodog Poker.
Submit Your Comment