crockpot
12-08-2003, 06:20 AM
this essay and many more can be found on my website's essays on online poker section.
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Stack Size in Tournaments
Many players new to tournaments wonder how their play should be adjusted to the size of their stack. This essay will attempt to show how you should play in different tournament situations with a different stack size.
Early in the Tournament
Early on, stack sizes just don't matter that much, unless you are very short-stacked. First of all, at this stage in the tournament, there are still many opponents playing their normal loose game, so bluffing does not play as big a role. Players do not yet believe that they have a lot of chips to protect; they are more interested in taking big chances to build a big stack. Also, the blinds are so small in relation to players' stacks that you should be playing about the same strategy you would play in a sidegame anyway. The only important thing to remember is that your implied odds may be cut down, so some plays (like calling a 50 chip raise preflop with a small pair) may not be worth doing if the raiser has only 300 chips to win.
The notable exception is when you are very short-stacked (less than 1/3 of your initial buy-in). My personal game plan when this happens to me is to move all-in the next time I see a good hand. This may not maximize my chances of winning money in the tournament, but when I have this few chips, my hopes for the tournament are slim anyway, and I would rather either get chips or get it over with so I can focus my attention on a profitable ring game instead. If you find yourself in this situation, I think that if you intend to play a sidegame after busting out of the tournament, attaching all your chips to the next good hand you see is a fine plan. If your heart is set on doing as well as you can in the tournament, you should still probably commit all your chips to the next hand you play, but you should raise your standards. For example, go all-in if you flop top pair or better, or with A-K or any big pair. You should avoid playing marginal hands and drawing hands, because your implied odds are severely reduced by your lack of ammunition on future betting rounds.
Naturally, in a limit tournament you do not have the option of simply pushing in with a hand. Here, you really shouldn't alter your play much at all, because you still have enough chips to play a couple of hands all the way through, and you might as well wait until you have the goods to back it up.
Stack Size and Intimidation
How does your stack size affect how others will react to your play? In practice, what will happen is that your opponents will be more intimidated by raises from a big stack. This does make some sense, especially in pot-limit and no-limit tournaments, because the other players do not want to risk going broke in one hand. But for some reason, there is an extra psychological factor favoring intimidation from a big stack. Even though a player with 1000 chips should not care whether he is facing a 1500 chip stack or a 20000 chip stack in a heads-up pot (since he can only win or lose 1000 chips against either), you will find that most players are more intimidated by a 300 chip raise from the 20000 stack than from the 1500 stack. (This is why online sites have a maximum buy-in for their pot-limit and no-limit tables.)
Don't forget to turn this to your advantage. If you are fortunate enough to accumulate a lot of chips by the middle to late stages of the tournament, use your big stack to bully people and achieve your primary goal in tournament play: win pots without a showdown. On the other hand, if you don't have a lot of chips, you should rely somewhat less on intimidation and more on getting money from your good hands. (However, you should still bluff pretty often. You still want to win a pot without a showdown whenever possible.)
Playing a Big Stack
The first rule of big stack play is that when you have a good-sized stack, you should go out of your way to avoid confrontations with another big stack, particularly in small pots and late in the tournament when your main goal is to move up the prize ladder, not accumulate all the chips. The reason for this is simple: If you have a lot of chips and there are several players with small stacks, you should not put all your chips at risk without a huge advantage. Instead, you should concentrate on stealing pots from the small stacks, and waiting for them to run out of chips so you can move up the pay ladder.
Take this hand as an example. You and another player at your table are the current co-leaders in the World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold 'em championship event, each having 150,000 chips. Pre-flop, you raise to 8,000 with A-A, and the co-leader calls you. The flop comes down 9-6-2. You bet 15,000, and your opponent raises all-in. What do you do? You have a clear fold here. Not only because you should be avoiding big confrontations without a huge edge, but because your opponent understands this, and thus is unlikely to initiate a lot of action unless he has something huge of his own (which is almost certainly a set).
As said before, intimidation is a big factor when you have a big stack. Especially in pot- and no-limit events, your bet not only threatens the chips needed to call it, but also potentially threatens the opponent's entire stack. In a tournament, your opponents will be playing much tighter than normal, not wanting to make a mistake that will cost them all their chips.
Playing a Big Stack - Late in the Tournament
When you get into or near the money, your goals with a big stack are:
- Steal a LOT of pots to build your stack, bullying the smallest stacks in particular
- When someone else has shown strength, get out of the way unless you have the goods
- Avoid playing big pots against another big stack
- At the final table, be aggressive, but wait for small stacks to get eliminated so you move up the pay ladder
The last point is especially important, as at the final table, every elimination means a substantial increase in payout. You must be patient, not playing a pot against other good-sized stacks unless you have superior cards. However, in pots against smaller stacks, take advantage of their quest for survival and bet and raise with anything and everything.
Playing a Medium Stack
The edge between a medium stack and a big stack is often blurred, but a good definition for a medium stack is that you have enough chips that you are not in danger of going broke soon, but don't have a stack that is substantially bigger than the table average. Substantially bigger can mean different things based on how many small stacks are at your table, but as a rule of thumb, you should consider your stack medium if you don't have at least twice the table average in chips.
With a medium stack, you must worry about losing a lot of chips in one hand, as this can be fatal. Therefore, your primary focus should be on staying out of trouble rather than adding to your stack. If someone else shows strength, it is definitely best to get out of his way without superior cards. Do less steal-raising than you would with a big stack, because the penalty for getting caught is a higher portion of your chips. However, you still need to raid the pot to maintain your standing. Just don't do it as indiscriminately.
Aside from avoiding situations that can cause you to go broke in one hand, you shouldn't adjust your play that much. Remember, you can't just fold every hand or your stack will soon be decimated. Do more than your share of bluffing, and push your good hands hard to maximize your chances of winning each pot you're involved in.
Playing a Medium Stack - Late in the Tournament
When you get to the last couple of tables, your first goal with a medium stack is to ensure that the small stacks bust out before you do. Plays here that will increase your chips on average, may actually hurt your money standing in the long run. For example, say eight players remain, you have a medium stack, and an big-stacked opponent moves all-in with A-K offsuit. You have J-J. Should you call?
Absolutely not. Even though you will win this pot the majority of the time, by playing the hand, you will finish in eighth place 40-45% of the time, which is definitely not a good money result. You are much better off waiting until no one has entered the pot to be aggressive, and waiting for the small stacks to get run out of the tournament before you go into battle mode. As a general rule, if you have a close decision whether to call or fold for all your chips, you are much better off folding and hoping to move up the payout ladder.
As with a big stack, go out of your way to avoid combat with a bigger stack. Remember that getting knocked out in one hand at this stage is a disaster when you could have moved up a few spots in the payout ladder just by being more passive. However, while you should be much more cautious about calling bets, you should still be willing to raise yourself with mediocre hands, so long as your position is good and your opponents are playing typically tight.
Playing a Small Stack
The small stacks are the trickiest, because how to play a small stack depends so much on the current situation. In theory, you would still like to win as many pots without showdowns as you can. However, as a short stack, your raises are called with lighter cards, because people not only do not fear getting knocked out by you, but are also going out of their way to knock you out so they can get a bigger payout. Thus if you are on very short money, you should bluff less and concentrate on getting lucky with a couple of good hands so you can have chips to work with.
The most important thing to consider is how long you will last in the tournament if you simply fold every hand and wait to get blinded out. If the answer represents a big money difference from what you are currently making, then it is often best to adopt this strategy, with the exception of superior hands like pairs Q-Q or bigger. Generally speaking, when you cannot significantly increase your money standing by letting yourself get blinded or anted to death, your goal with a short stack is to try and get lucky and win a hand, before you have so few chips that luck can't save you. Notice that this is the exact opposite of how you would play with a good-sized stack; here you are relying on getting lucky, rather than trying to avoid letting luck ruin you. With a short stack, you don't have enough chips to intimidate the opposition into folding the way a big stack can, and you must strike before antes and blinds reduce your stack to the point where you could double up three times in a row and still not be in great shape.
Don't go crazy and try to push in with a hand like Q-6, but if you pick up something like A-T and no one is yet in the pot (or a big stack that is bullying the table has raised), this is probably good enough to play for all your chips, even though you would not make this kind of play with more chips. Again, remember to consider your situation. If there is significant prize money to be gained by waiting, then be patient.
All this assumes that the blinds are a significant portion of your stack (as a rule of thumb, say you have fewer than five big blinds left in your stack). With more chips than this, you should still be looking for an opportunity to double up, but don't go far out of your way to do so.
Playing a Small Stack - Late in the Tournament
There are three situations to consider here. First, say you are close to making the money. How should you play? Here, you should consider opening up the other tables and monitoring eliminations. I am not a fan of the "blind your way into the money" strategy, because the big prizes for entering a tournament are all at the final table. However, I concede that it doesn't make much sense to take big chances when you can get a guaranteed payout soon. Just don't take it to too much of an extreme. It is okay to fold a hand like T-T to a preflop raise in front of you when you are short-stacked, but folding Q-Q or K-K in the same spot is ridiculous, and folding A-A is flat out insane except in very contrived situations.
Second, you are in the money already. Now your primary focus should be on getting lucky and doubling or tripling up, so that you can have some chips to get to the final table with. Remember, the final table is where the real money in tournaments is. Don't go crazy and move in with the first hand you get dealt, but if the blinds are coming up in a few hands and a significant portion of your stack will be used to post the blinds, you should probably push in with the first decent hand you get dealt. Also notice that since your tournament strategy has changed: rather than avoiding confrontations, you should be going out of your way to get into them. Thus, if someone is raising with a lot of hands, be even more prone to call him when you are short-stacked and already in the money.
Third, you are at the final table. Now it is important to consider exactly how short-stacked you are, and how the other short stacks are playing. If there are other stacks shorter than yours, you should try your best to outlast them, unless there is no significant prize increase by outlasting one or two players, in which case you should be trying to accumulate chips on a lucky hand, as above. If you are the shortest stack and the other short stacks are clearly playing tightly in an effort to get you to go broke before they do (which is the correct strategy), once again you should try to double or triple up on a lucky hand.
Remember that aggressive players will be raising on a lot of junky hands at this stage, so calling an apparent steal-raise with as little as A-3 should be considered.
Also, be sure that you consider who will go out first if all the small stacks simply fold every hand. Because of the position of the button and the increasing blinds it is entirely possible that the second-smallest or third-smallest stack will be the first one to get blinded out.
If this is the case, treat the player that would be eliminated first as the smallest stack.
Other specific situations of note:
- When the tournament is one or two eliminations away from consolidating tables, and everyone will move up in the money if one player is eliminated: Go into all-out bully mode with a big stack here. Everyone is petrified of being the last person eliminated before the payout increase, so you can steal even more pots than usual, especially from the smaller stacks. This effect is especially pronounced when it is down to two tables. Here you can show a profit as the big stack by raising with every hand preflop (although this is not the optimal strategy, it is pretty close.) With a small stack, avoiding going broke is your primary key, but don't pass up a great chance to double up with aces or kings. Remember, the big money is still at the final table.
- When one of the blinds (or a limper or early raiser) is desperately short-stacked and will call a raise with any two cards: Don't raise without a better-than-average hand for the appropriate situation. Obviously, you don't want to raise a player who will surely call unless you are the favorite, but there are other factors here. First, if you get called and show down something ridiculous, it will bring to light the fact that you are raising on junk, and your opponents may adjust accordingly. The last thing you want to do is get people calling your bluffs when you need to steal their chips to build your own. Also, as a big stack you don't really benefit that much from knocking out a small stack, unless it is at the final table. Remember, the fewer small stacks at your table, the less bullying you can do, and that bullying adds substantially to your stack leading up to the final table. Finally, there is no need to put your chips at the mercy of fate when you can grind down the players by stealing a lot of small pots later on.
The bottom line
As many authors have written, it is true that chips change value in a tournament: the more chips a player has, the less each additional chip is worth. When a big stack and a smaller stack fight for a pot, losing the pot is much more costly to the smaller stack. Thus, if someone with a bigger stack has entered the pot, you must be careful of getting involved without a hand that is likely to be substantially better than his. Naturally, when you are the big stack, you should take full advantage of your opponents' willingness to let you get away with robbing them.
The most important thing to take away from this essay is that you must pay careful attention to the money situation at the final table. Most of the time it is not worth it to risk all your chips on a hand, even if you are a favorite to win, because of the substantial chance that you will get knocked out in a poor money position and let smaller stacks advance.
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Stack Size in Tournaments
Many players new to tournaments wonder how their play should be adjusted to the size of their stack. This essay will attempt to show how you should play in different tournament situations with a different stack size.
Early in the Tournament
Early on, stack sizes just don't matter that much, unless you are very short-stacked. First of all, at this stage in the tournament, there are still many opponents playing their normal loose game, so bluffing does not play as big a role. Players do not yet believe that they have a lot of chips to protect; they are more interested in taking big chances to build a big stack. Also, the blinds are so small in relation to players' stacks that you should be playing about the same strategy you would play in a sidegame anyway. The only important thing to remember is that your implied odds may be cut down, so some plays (like calling a 50 chip raise preflop with a small pair) may not be worth doing if the raiser has only 300 chips to win.
The notable exception is when you are very short-stacked (less than 1/3 of your initial buy-in). My personal game plan when this happens to me is to move all-in the next time I see a good hand. This may not maximize my chances of winning money in the tournament, but when I have this few chips, my hopes for the tournament are slim anyway, and I would rather either get chips or get it over with so I can focus my attention on a profitable ring game instead. If you find yourself in this situation, I think that if you intend to play a sidegame after busting out of the tournament, attaching all your chips to the next good hand you see is a fine plan. If your heart is set on doing as well as you can in the tournament, you should still probably commit all your chips to the next hand you play, but you should raise your standards. For example, go all-in if you flop top pair or better, or with A-K or any big pair. You should avoid playing marginal hands and drawing hands, because your implied odds are severely reduced by your lack of ammunition on future betting rounds.
Naturally, in a limit tournament you do not have the option of simply pushing in with a hand. Here, you really shouldn't alter your play much at all, because you still have enough chips to play a couple of hands all the way through, and you might as well wait until you have the goods to back it up.
Stack Size and Intimidation
How does your stack size affect how others will react to your play? In practice, what will happen is that your opponents will be more intimidated by raises from a big stack. This does make some sense, especially in pot-limit and no-limit tournaments, because the other players do not want to risk going broke in one hand. But for some reason, there is an extra psychological factor favoring intimidation from a big stack. Even though a player with 1000 chips should not care whether he is facing a 1500 chip stack or a 20000 chip stack in a heads-up pot (since he can only win or lose 1000 chips against either), you will find that most players are more intimidated by a 300 chip raise from the 20000 stack than from the 1500 stack. (This is why online sites have a maximum buy-in for their pot-limit and no-limit tables.)
Don't forget to turn this to your advantage. If you are fortunate enough to accumulate a lot of chips by the middle to late stages of the tournament, use your big stack to bully people and achieve your primary goal in tournament play: win pots without a showdown. On the other hand, if you don't have a lot of chips, you should rely somewhat less on intimidation and more on getting money from your good hands. (However, you should still bluff pretty often. You still want to win a pot without a showdown whenever possible.)
Playing a Big Stack
The first rule of big stack play is that when you have a good-sized stack, you should go out of your way to avoid confrontations with another big stack, particularly in small pots and late in the tournament when your main goal is to move up the prize ladder, not accumulate all the chips. The reason for this is simple: If you have a lot of chips and there are several players with small stacks, you should not put all your chips at risk without a huge advantage. Instead, you should concentrate on stealing pots from the small stacks, and waiting for them to run out of chips so you can move up the pay ladder.
Take this hand as an example. You and another player at your table are the current co-leaders in the World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold 'em championship event, each having 150,000 chips. Pre-flop, you raise to 8,000 with A-A, and the co-leader calls you. The flop comes down 9-6-2. You bet 15,000, and your opponent raises all-in. What do you do? You have a clear fold here. Not only because you should be avoiding big confrontations without a huge edge, but because your opponent understands this, and thus is unlikely to initiate a lot of action unless he has something huge of his own (which is almost certainly a set).
As said before, intimidation is a big factor when you have a big stack. Especially in pot- and no-limit events, your bet not only threatens the chips needed to call it, but also potentially threatens the opponent's entire stack. In a tournament, your opponents will be playing much tighter than normal, not wanting to make a mistake that will cost them all their chips.
Playing a Big Stack - Late in the Tournament
When you get into or near the money, your goals with a big stack are:
- Steal a LOT of pots to build your stack, bullying the smallest stacks in particular
- When someone else has shown strength, get out of the way unless you have the goods
- Avoid playing big pots against another big stack
- At the final table, be aggressive, but wait for small stacks to get eliminated so you move up the pay ladder
The last point is especially important, as at the final table, every elimination means a substantial increase in payout. You must be patient, not playing a pot against other good-sized stacks unless you have superior cards. However, in pots against smaller stacks, take advantage of their quest for survival and bet and raise with anything and everything.
Playing a Medium Stack
The edge between a medium stack and a big stack is often blurred, but a good definition for a medium stack is that you have enough chips that you are not in danger of going broke soon, but don't have a stack that is substantially bigger than the table average. Substantially bigger can mean different things based on how many small stacks are at your table, but as a rule of thumb, you should consider your stack medium if you don't have at least twice the table average in chips.
With a medium stack, you must worry about losing a lot of chips in one hand, as this can be fatal. Therefore, your primary focus should be on staying out of trouble rather than adding to your stack. If someone else shows strength, it is definitely best to get out of his way without superior cards. Do less steal-raising than you would with a big stack, because the penalty for getting caught is a higher portion of your chips. However, you still need to raid the pot to maintain your standing. Just don't do it as indiscriminately.
Aside from avoiding situations that can cause you to go broke in one hand, you shouldn't adjust your play that much. Remember, you can't just fold every hand or your stack will soon be decimated. Do more than your share of bluffing, and push your good hands hard to maximize your chances of winning each pot you're involved in.
Playing a Medium Stack - Late in the Tournament
When you get to the last couple of tables, your first goal with a medium stack is to ensure that the small stacks bust out before you do. Plays here that will increase your chips on average, may actually hurt your money standing in the long run. For example, say eight players remain, you have a medium stack, and an big-stacked opponent moves all-in with A-K offsuit. You have J-J. Should you call?
Absolutely not. Even though you will win this pot the majority of the time, by playing the hand, you will finish in eighth place 40-45% of the time, which is definitely not a good money result. You are much better off waiting until no one has entered the pot to be aggressive, and waiting for the small stacks to get run out of the tournament before you go into battle mode. As a general rule, if you have a close decision whether to call or fold for all your chips, you are much better off folding and hoping to move up the payout ladder.
As with a big stack, go out of your way to avoid combat with a bigger stack. Remember that getting knocked out in one hand at this stage is a disaster when you could have moved up a few spots in the payout ladder just by being more passive. However, while you should be much more cautious about calling bets, you should still be willing to raise yourself with mediocre hands, so long as your position is good and your opponents are playing typically tight.
Playing a Small Stack
The small stacks are the trickiest, because how to play a small stack depends so much on the current situation. In theory, you would still like to win as many pots without showdowns as you can. However, as a short stack, your raises are called with lighter cards, because people not only do not fear getting knocked out by you, but are also going out of their way to knock you out so they can get a bigger payout. Thus if you are on very short money, you should bluff less and concentrate on getting lucky with a couple of good hands so you can have chips to work with.
The most important thing to consider is how long you will last in the tournament if you simply fold every hand and wait to get blinded out. If the answer represents a big money difference from what you are currently making, then it is often best to adopt this strategy, with the exception of superior hands like pairs Q-Q or bigger. Generally speaking, when you cannot significantly increase your money standing by letting yourself get blinded or anted to death, your goal with a short stack is to try and get lucky and win a hand, before you have so few chips that luck can't save you. Notice that this is the exact opposite of how you would play with a good-sized stack; here you are relying on getting lucky, rather than trying to avoid letting luck ruin you. With a short stack, you don't have enough chips to intimidate the opposition into folding the way a big stack can, and you must strike before antes and blinds reduce your stack to the point where you could double up three times in a row and still not be in great shape.
Don't go crazy and try to push in with a hand like Q-6, but if you pick up something like A-T and no one is yet in the pot (or a big stack that is bullying the table has raised), this is probably good enough to play for all your chips, even though you would not make this kind of play with more chips. Again, remember to consider your situation. If there is significant prize money to be gained by waiting, then be patient.
All this assumes that the blinds are a significant portion of your stack (as a rule of thumb, say you have fewer than five big blinds left in your stack). With more chips than this, you should still be looking for an opportunity to double up, but don't go far out of your way to do so.
Playing a Small Stack - Late in the Tournament
There are three situations to consider here. First, say you are close to making the money. How should you play? Here, you should consider opening up the other tables and monitoring eliminations. I am not a fan of the "blind your way into the money" strategy, because the big prizes for entering a tournament are all at the final table. However, I concede that it doesn't make much sense to take big chances when you can get a guaranteed payout soon. Just don't take it to too much of an extreme. It is okay to fold a hand like T-T to a preflop raise in front of you when you are short-stacked, but folding Q-Q or K-K in the same spot is ridiculous, and folding A-A is flat out insane except in very contrived situations.
Second, you are in the money already. Now your primary focus should be on getting lucky and doubling or tripling up, so that you can have some chips to get to the final table with. Remember, the final table is where the real money in tournaments is. Don't go crazy and move in with the first hand you get dealt, but if the blinds are coming up in a few hands and a significant portion of your stack will be used to post the blinds, you should probably push in with the first decent hand you get dealt. Also notice that since your tournament strategy has changed: rather than avoiding confrontations, you should be going out of your way to get into them. Thus, if someone is raising with a lot of hands, be even more prone to call him when you are short-stacked and already in the money.
Third, you are at the final table. Now it is important to consider exactly how short-stacked you are, and how the other short stacks are playing. If there are other stacks shorter than yours, you should try your best to outlast them, unless there is no significant prize increase by outlasting one or two players, in which case you should be trying to accumulate chips on a lucky hand, as above. If you are the shortest stack and the other short stacks are clearly playing tightly in an effort to get you to go broke before they do (which is the correct strategy), once again you should try to double or triple up on a lucky hand.
Remember that aggressive players will be raising on a lot of junky hands at this stage, so calling an apparent steal-raise with as little as A-3 should be considered.
Also, be sure that you consider who will go out first if all the small stacks simply fold every hand. Because of the position of the button and the increasing blinds it is entirely possible that the second-smallest or third-smallest stack will be the first one to get blinded out.
If this is the case, treat the player that would be eliminated first as the smallest stack.
Other specific situations of note:
- When the tournament is one or two eliminations away from consolidating tables, and everyone will move up in the money if one player is eliminated: Go into all-out bully mode with a big stack here. Everyone is petrified of being the last person eliminated before the payout increase, so you can steal even more pots than usual, especially from the smaller stacks. This effect is especially pronounced when it is down to two tables. Here you can show a profit as the big stack by raising with every hand preflop (although this is not the optimal strategy, it is pretty close.) With a small stack, avoiding going broke is your primary key, but don't pass up a great chance to double up with aces or kings. Remember, the big money is still at the final table.
- When one of the blinds (or a limper or early raiser) is desperately short-stacked and will call a raise with any two cards: Don't raise without a better-than-average hand for the appropriate situation. Obviously, you don't want to raise a player who will surely call unless you are the favorite, but there are other factors here. First, if you get called and show down something ridiculous, it will bring to light the fact that you are raising on junk, and your opponents may adjust accordingly. The last thing you want to do is get people calling your bluffs when you need to steal their chips to build your own. Also, as a big stack you don't really benefit that much from knocking out a small stack, unless it is at the final table. Remember, the fewer small stacks at your table, the less bullying you can do, and that bullying adds substantially to your stack leading up to the final table. Finally, there is no need to put your chips at the mercy of fate when you can grind down the players by stealing a lot of small pots later on.
The bottom line
As many authors have written, it is true that chips change value in a tournament: the more chips a player has, the less each additional chip is worth. When a big stack and a smaller stack fight for a pot, losing the pot is much more costly to the smaller stack. Thus, if someone with a bigger stack has entered the pot, you must be careful of getting involved without a hand that is likely to be substantially better than his. Naturally, when you are the big stack, you should take full advantage of your opponents' willingness to let you get away with robbing them.
The most important thing to take away from this essay is that you must pay careful attention to the money situation at the final table. Most of the time it is not worth it to risk all your chips on a hand, even if you are a favorite to win, because of the substantial chance that you will get knocked out in a poor money position and let smaller stacks advance.