[SossMan]

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1)The facts that we a dealing with: a) a tournament, and b) a large field, both seem important to me. You must accumulate chips fast enough to keep the escalating blinds from becoming a factor, or your flexibility will erode as time passes. Since it is a very large field, dozens among the hundreds at other tables will accumulate large stacks via the usual combinations of skill and luck. You will run into these people starting in the middle stages, you won't always have the dominant stack, and I think the blinds will often start to matter.


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No you won't. You simply limp into a lot of pots early. Call raises with all sorts of hands. Then you either blow people off the hand when you know they cannot call or you value bet them perfectly.

Example: You have 94o. MP opens for 3x w/ 99. Sweet, you think to yourself. You call. You both have typically deep early stacks (like 150xBB).
Flop comes 237. You check call a pot sized bet. Turn is a King. You check, he bets, you blow him off the hand. If he calls, then blow him off the hand on the river.

You just won like 10-20 BB. Imagine being able to do this once or twice an orbit.

Another example:
You have Jh9h on the button. EP player makes it 4xBB w/ QsJs. Another player in the middle calls w/ 55. You call, blinds fold.
Flop is 9sTh6s. You call a small bet from EP, MP folds.
Turn is a blank. You lead out and he calls.

River either makes his hand or it doesn't. If he whiffs, he might bluff into you and you can make the impossible call w/ the 9. If he hits, you simply fold.

You check call them to death or value bet them to death. You will will be able to build an ennourmous stack early simply by doing these things. Then, later, you apply the same pricipals knowing that the players will adjust for their shortening stacks.

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4) With nine other people at the table, many of your pre-flop decisions will be murky. Example: Someone raises in early position with 66, you have AT, and someone behind you has KQ. If you fold in these situations, you will sometimes not get enough better ones for enough chips to build a big stack early. If you call, raise (or move-in), you will end up playing respectable-size pots where you are the favorite, but not overwhelmingly.


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I don't see any reason to play a big pot like this until you have a larger advantage. There are plenty of hands where people won't have enough of a hand to look you up when you blow them off it. Eventually, you will become unplayable since it's 'like he knows what I got every time'.


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6) When the tournament "really starts" in the late stages, almost every pot is raised. Usually, you won't be a monster favorite over the raiser or over someone who calls your raise/reraise. You'll be facing a lot of 52/48 to 2/1 situations for decent money against short stacks who decide "it's time to gamble." and big stacks who get to act before you to punish the short stacks. Example: You have AQ utg, a small (but not microscopic) stack has 66, and the big blind (who has a big stack and is very aggressive) has KJ.

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Then you simply adjust when you resteal from someone to a time when they haven't committed themselves to the pot and you are only a small favorite. Wait until they make the raise w/ 59o on the button and you are on the BB and they raised less than 10% of their stack. Those are virtually risk free.

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7) A 2x average player (which I postulated) will make mistakes, especially in multi-way pots. The magical powers don't include the ability to flawlessly calculate odds and EV under playing conditions.


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This is the only factor that I didn't consider, but a player who is 2x their buyin in terms of equity has a pretty good grasp of most basic concepts and would be able to quickly adjust for the proper strategy given the context of the situation.