So far, I have mentioned about Passive and Active learning and how that is going to affect your game. Now I have to ask you when are you going to risk your chips? I am not talking about short tacks and dunking. I am talking about when do you think it is right time to risk to build your stack for the later game?
We are again going into a territory between theoretical and practical approach and I would welcome both. It is not only about which hand has more chance and which has less, it also involves what situation and what type of players you will face and deal. If you have any classic experience, please share with us. It will help others to understand as well.
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You mean tournaments, right?
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LOL
YES it is. It is rather not going to matter as much i cash games than tournaments since cash game deals with hands hand by hand. But tournaments can be more tricky since you have to think of long terms as you have to progress many levels.
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Of course it all depends on the field/players at your table, but here is my general approach:
Early stages (avg. stack >100bb)
-See as many flops as possible. Play trash from late position (I’ll open hands like T7 suited from the button at a decent clip).
-Identify fish and get in as many pots with them as possible; look to build a stack by exploiting mistakes and make big hands as we can see a lot of cheap flops (many players don’t raise/3bet enough, and don’t size big enough when they do).
-Play your backdoors. If we raise with QdJd and the flop comes 3d 7c 9s, we have two overs, a backdoor straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. We should not be folding to a less-than-large bet at too high a frequency; if we complete any of our draws there’s a high chance we will have the best hand, and it will be disguised, so we can expect to extract a lot of value. If we are not taking advantage of implied odds in the early, low-blind stages (the only part of the tournament where we can even have such lucrative implied odds in the first place), we are leaving a lot of value on the table.
-Be willing to let go of a strong starting hand when facing big resistance. Most players aren’t playing their draws or medium-strength hands very aggressively at this stage, so if they fight back hard, they usually “have it” more often than not. “You can’t win the tournament in the early stages, but you can lose it.”
-That said, don’t be too scared to bust early, either. If the pot/implied odds are in your favor, be willing to go with it for a big reward. Basically I’d rather bust early chasing the nut flush than bust early calling down with 1 pair and finding I’m outkicked, or something like that.
Middle stages (avg. stack 25-50bb)
-Start tightening up, especially from early position. Be more disciplined in general about position, as 1bb is now a more significant % of our stack and calling/placing multiple bets without winning the pot will be a significant setback from here on in. I will often fold hands as strong as AJ from early position at this stage. I am more judicious with my set-mining, too, as it’s more costly to miss and be forced to give up (early stages I’m playing any pair for a reasonable size pre, looking to exploit postflop mistakes for an oversized win. mid stages I start to fold 22-55 at some frequency).
-Be relentlessly aggressive about attacking the blinds when folded to. I probably open more often than GTO says I should when the action folds to me; players don’t defend as wide as they are supposed to, so I feel this is a profitable exploit. Winning the blinds is now more significant relative to stack size, so we’re further incentivized to steal opportunistically.
-Start taking note of who is playing more hands and who seems tight. Attack the tight players’ BB even more aggressively; do the opposite when a loose player is in the BB. Apply the same logic to postflop play (if a tight player calls a raise and the flop is low, we’re basically worried about sets and nothing else. We can cbet and double/triple barrel quite liberally, knowing their range will be top-heavy. If a loose player calls, we must proceed with more caution as their range is relatively uncapped).
Late Stage/Final Table (avg. stack <20bb)
-Steal, steal, steal, steal, steal. You won’t make enough legitimately strong hands to survive the blinds if you don’t. Note which players are folding to preflop raises and pressure them as often as you can without going total spazz.
-Look for the big fold. There is usually 1 you will have to make. We open 7 7 from UTG, a player in MP 3bets and the BB, a tight player, shoves for our effective stack. Just fold and wait for a better spot; you’re unlikely to be ahead of both players, and even if you are, the EQ is kinda dicey. Against one player, we can continue. Against 2 players, we’re gonna see a higher pp too often, and when we don’t we’re often facing a combined 3 or even 4 overcards. Wait for a better spot! Survival is very lucrative now as we can ladder up just by waiting patiently while others bust.
-Look for the big call/continue. It’s also coming. Recognize that whereas in the early/mid stages, 2nd pair decent kicker was a very speculative hand, it’s now a much stronger holding as players don’t have time to wait around and make “the good stuff.” I’ve missed my share of profitable spots by failing to shift my thinking quickly enough in these late configurations.
-Know your shove/fold ranges, and don’t be afraid to use them. Most players are far too tight from the SB/BB. For example, off a 15bb stack in the SB, if action folds to us then KTo and Q7 suited are reasonably profitable shoves. A5o is a very profitable shove.
-On the bubble, remember that your opponents are just as scared of busting as you are. For close decisions, erring on the side of more aggression will often be profitable. Don’t be afraid to bubble—you’ll win more in the long run by exploiting the fact that everyone ELSE is scared to do so, too.
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