Tournament Strategy

Poker Tournament Characteristics

A poker tournament is very different from a cash game. It begins with a fixed number of players with an equal amount of chips at their disposal and it ends when one player has won all of the chips. Winning ALL the chips in a tournament is, however, not the same thing as winning ALL the money. Tournaments have a prize pool that will be divided among the players in accordance with the payout structure which can take on a variety of shapes. The prize pool is normally based on the buy-ins paid by the players but it can also be derived from external sources, as is the case with freeroll tournaments.

In any event, to profit from a tournament you must finish in the money; i.e. you must place high enough to win a share of the prize pool as determined by the payout structure. If you run out of chips you are out of the tournament and the earlier you are out, the further away you will be from finishing in the money. This state of affairs is further accentuated by the no limit betting structure which is standard in tournaments. The huge betting range spanning from the minimum bet of the BB to the maximum bet of your stack means that you can put all your chips on the line in a single hand and by doing so risking instant elimination from the tournament.

You should already be familiar with the betting rules of the no limit betting structure but we will nevertheless take this opportunity to refresh your memory.

Minimum bet: BB.
Minimum raise: The minimum you can raise with is equal to the bet or amount raised with before you.
Maximum bet & raise: Equal to your stack of chips.
Raise to: The amount you raise to is your complete bet; i.e. the amount you raise with + the cost of calling. In online poker rooms you only specify the amount you raise to. This is also standard practise in casinos.
Raise with: The amount you raise with is only the part of your bet that exceeds the bet before you. In casinos and other live poker rooms you CAN specify the amount you raise with but the amount you raise to is standard.

Poker Tournament Strategy - Overview

Poker tournament strategy, unlike cash game strategy, is about protecting your chips. In cash games each hand is independent; whether you win or lose chips when playing a hand has no impact on the next hand. In tournaments all hands are linked together and if you lose a showdown, chances are you won’t be seeing the next hand at all; whereas winning a hand is no guarantee for finishing in the money. In purely mathematical terms this means that you lose more by losing a chip than you gain by winning a chip. Thus, to profit from a tournament you must never take any unnecessary risks. When playing a hand you can lose everything you have invested in the tournament, all the time and money, unless you already have secured a position in the money.

How to actually protect your chips is not as easy at it might sound though. The risk/reward ratio upon which you must base your decisions is not constant. There are three things that change over the course of a tournament.

• The number of players is reduced.
• The blinds are increased.
• Chips change owners

The first two changes affect the odds similarly. With more expensive blinds you must employ a looser style of play to prevent the blinds from eating up your stack. With fewer players at the table you must pay the blinds more frequently, which has the same effect as more expensive blinds. The odds of facing strong hands are also reduced when facing fewer players, adding further incentive to loosen up your play. With more chips relative to the other players you can afford a tighter style of play and with fewer chips you must play looser.

It is all about the expected value of your actions. A sound tournament strategy is, just like a sound cash game strategy, based on positive expectation. As you might remember from an earlier chapter (Texas Hold'em Strategy - Pot Odds), the expected value is very simple to calculate in cash games. In cash games a chip is always worth the same amount of money, whether it is won or lost and regardless of whether you have plenty or few chips in your stack. In tournaments, on the other hand, it is a great deal more complicated. The expected value for any specific action changes back and forth over the course of a tournament. To determine whether an action has a positive or negative expectation you must take all the constantly changing factors of the game into consideration; your stack; that stacks of your opponents; the playing styles of your opponents; the actions of your opponents; the size of the blinds; the number of opponents; your position and your hand. Granted, all these factors can change in cash games as well but there you can at least control your stack and the number of opponents. Once a tournament has started you can not control any circumstances; the circumstances control you. This is the reason why poker tournament strategy is hard to learn for beginners.

Although they are not directly related, both the number of players and the size of the blinds will irreversibly change as the clocks ticks on. A tournament starts at a full table with relatively cheap blinds and it ends with only one player and relatively expensive blinds. In terms of tournament strategy, it is a journey from a very tight beginning to a very loose end. To finish in the money it is usually enough to keep it tight and throw in a few tricks as you get closer. To win the tournament, however, you must be able to handle the full spectrum of tight and loose play. Winning a tournament normally pays off many times more than any other position in the money. Therefore, a tournament should always be played for the purpose of winning the whole thing. Merely finishing in the money is normally not good enough with respect to invested time and size of payout and consequently it should not be your primary goal.

Poker Tournament Strategy - The three Phases

In the poker tournament strategy we will teach you, a tournament is divided into three phases defined by the ratio between the BB and your stack or more specifically; the maximum amount of chips you can put on the line in the current hand. If you have more chips than all the other players you can’t put your whole stack on the line.

Please observe that the three phases do not take the number of remaining opponents into account. The number of players at the table is a variable we have isolated and incorporated into phase specific charts that we will present in subsequent chapters. You must be able to tell one phase from another before you can use these charts.

With the three phases identified we can put them in perspective:

Reaching the late phase is no achievement in itself. Anyone can do that by standing idly by and watching the blinds rise. Reaching the late phase as the chip leader, on the other hand, is a feat that not everyone is capable of and if you are minded to win the tournament you will need to attain that position sooner or later. Being in that position as the late phase sets in gives you the margins you need to win the whole tournament. Being anything less than chip leader as the late phase sets in makes it very hard to win the tournament. You can still finish in the money but to win the whole thing you must climb up a very treacherous mountain where every wrong step means instant death. Sound tournament strategy is all about reaching the late phase in a relatively competitive shape.