Sharp edges

There is no better feeling in poker than having a massive chip stack sitti ng in front of you. Your opponents fear you. Ever y action at the table comes through you. They hesitate before each raise because they know that if you come over the top of them they will have to lay down al l but the ver y best of hands. The power of the big-stack is awesome, but there’s one smal l problem. Not many people ever get to be the big-stack.

The majority of the people that chip up heavily in early play do so through maniacal aggression and luck. Seldom does a player get there through skill, but it does happen. Players like Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Ivey are masters at accumulating chips early in a tournament and putting themselves in a great position to go deep. However, do you have to build a big stack in order to be successful at tournament poker? This article is going to try and answer that question for you.

BUILDING A BIG STACK

A common misconception I often hear is that a player should be willing to take small edges early in a tournament in order to build a stack. The term small edge is used much too loosely, especially in the online arena where if a player is eliminated they can just move on to the next tournament. These players are more than happy to put all their chips in pre-flop in a race situation because they are looking to double up their chip stack. But is this necessarily the correct play?

Let’s look at a typical hand that gets played a lot in these situations. Our hero is dealt A-K with the blinds at 10/20 and has 1,500 in chips. He opens the action for 60 and is re-raised by a player to 250. For the sake of this discussion, let’s agree that our hero will win this hand 50% of the time and will be eliminated the other 50%. Is it worth busting out half the time in order to double your chip stack early in a tournament?

I’d say no and here’s why. Having double a chip stack early in a tournament, while nice, does not guarantee a win, or even cashing for that matter. Being eliminated from the tournament, however, does guarantee not making a penny. All you are gaining at that point is more chips. Granted, the double up will put the player in a better position to make the money or win the tournament but over the long run, I think this play is incorrect.

KEY POINT

Small edges are overrated in the early stages of a tournament. You should look to avoid coin flips or even 60/40 shots in the first few levels.

SEEKING COIN-FLIPS

I’ll use a hypothetical situation to show why actively seeking coin-flip style opportunities in the early stages of a tournament is a bad idea. Let’s assume that if our hero doubles up in the first two rounds that he will make the money 35% of the time as opposed to 25% if he just maintains his stack. These are fairly realistic expectations in my experience. Using these numbers we come up with the following:

PUSHES THE COIN-FLIP

50% OF THE TIME ELIMINATED 50% OF THE TIME DOUBLES UP AND 35% OF THOSE TIMES MAKES THE MONEY =17.5% OF THE TIME MAKES THE MONEY

DOESN’T PUSH THE COIN FLIP

25% OF THE TIME MAKES THE MONEY

In this example, the player that doesn’t take the coin flip will make the money 7.5% more. Proponents of taking the coin-flip will argue that when they do make the money, with double the chips, they will often make more of it. There is some merit in that argument, but at the early stage of the tournament, doubling up tends to lose value as opposed to the middle and late stages.

If you’re putting all your chips in pre-flop in these situations, you might as well go down to your local casino and put down the tournament entry fee on black or red at the roulette wheel, because essentially that it exactly what you are doing. You’re gambling – nothing more, nothing less.

The better approach would be to take calculated risks to increase your chip stack that don’t require you to put in all your chips pre-flop. There is a good reason poker players are always talking about implied odds with such reverence. When understood and applied correctly, playing for the maximum implied value is a hugely powerful tool in any poker player ’s arsenal. And when is the implied value of virtually any poker hand is at it’s greatest? It is early in the tournament. When else can you risk just three or four big blinds and end up winning 75?

KEY POINT

Implied odds are your best friend in the early levels of a tournament. Try and play raised multi-way pots with small pairs and suited connectors at this stage

CALCULATED RISKS

Implied value always decreases in the middle to late stages of a tournament due to the increasing blinds in relation to stack sizes. An average stack at the beginning of the tournament will usually be 75-100 big blinds. In the middle to late stages of a tournament, it will often be in the 15-25 big blind range, meaning there is little to no implied value.

This is the approach that small ball specialists like Negreanu like to take. They take risks, but they are calculated risks. Calling a raise with 8-7 suited is the kind of risk they will make, not pushing all in pre-flop with A-K. This is the much better approach because you have a lot more information available to you after the flop, and the probability of winning or losing a hand is more clearly defined.

For example, say you have pocket eights and an early position player has raised. You have him on two big cards and figure it to be a race. Rather than push and take the 50/50 proposition you decide to just call and see the flop. The flop comes A-10-3 and your opponent bets the pot and you fold. Instead of busting out you have lost a small percentage of your stack and can live on to play another day.

If the flop came A-8-3, you would have doubled up without having to risk your entire stack pre-flop. The best poker players succeed because they make better decisions than their opponents. When you move all in pre-flop you are eliminating any decision making from your game.

KEY POINT

In the middle stages of a tournament try to avoid taking obvious 50/50 shots and don’t be afraid to keep the pot small by calling and seeing a flop.

HOW TO BUILD A BIG STACK

The number one reason a poker player is successful at building a stack early in a tournament is that they embrace confrontation. As we have already discussed, however, this does not mean mindlessly seeking to play for stacks with everyone at your table. Instead you should be looking for the weak or poor players that are a feature of virtually any online tournament. So what confrontations are you looking for? Ideally, you want to take on three specific types of players.

FOLDERS These are the easiest people to play against. They only play hands when they have it, and fold when they don’t. For example, they raise with A-K and check-fold the flop when they miss. Or they raise with pocket tens and check-fold the flop when it comes with two overcards. Essentially, these players are playing with their cards face up. And what better way is there to build a sweet stack than by taking candy from a baby?

CALLERS These players call when they shouldn’t. While there is some risk playing against calling stations, there is high implied value as well. You can win bigger pots than you can against a conventional player because these types of players hate doing one thing when they have a piece of the flop – folding. And that presents you with a fantastic opportunity to value bet them out of the tournament. Bet more and watch your stack grow right before your eyes.

RAISERS Early in a tournament, players that raise and over commit themselves post-flop are ideal opponents to play against to build a stack. How many players do you know that can’t fold big pairs or over pairs post-flop? Not many. You want to identify these players and look to see cheap flops. This doesn’t mean playing limped pots. You can call a three times the big blind raise looking to hit a set. If you hit it, you win 50-75 big blinds. If you miss, you lost three big blinds. That seems like a good risk to take to me.

KEY POINT

Concentrate on playing pots against players who make fundamental mistakes rather than looking to push every edge. This will allow you to chip up safely.

Building a stack is about taking advantage of opportunities. While there is risk involved in embracing confrontation, if you are able to take calculated risks where you have a significant edge when you put your chips in the middle, you’ll find that more often than not your stack size is larger than when you were sitting back and waiting for the cards and opportunities to come to you. Early in a tournament is when the bad players give away all their chips. Don’t let someone else get them. Get them yourself.