Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 30 January 2009 / Leave a comment

Mostly when playing tournament poker you want to try and avoid situations where you are playing large pots with a small edge.

Waiting for better spots or for situations where your stack size forces you to make a marginal move gives you a much better chance of getting deep and having a shot at the big money prizes.

This is simply because a small edge is by its very nature a risky bet, and although you may well be winning a little more than fifty percent of the time (which would be completely fine in a cash game where you can reload if you lose), many times you will lose, and in the case of tournaments, this means you will bust or be crippled often, and as a result, you will make no money.

In tournaments it is nearly always correct to turn down a big bet where you think you have a small advantage early, in favor of trying to get a large advantage later. Always remember that you have a great deal of time early in tournaments - as your stack size is so large relative to the blinds. Waiting for better spots or for situations where your stack size forces you to make a marginal move gives you a much better chance of getting deep and having a shot at the big money prizes.

This concept has many practical applications to your tournament game. From not over playing big pairs or ace king early, all the way to trying to keep pots small with hands like top pair when the stacks are deep; trying to avoid playing big pots in spots where you may well just have a small edge can really help you survive until the stages of tournaments - which is crucial to making money from them.

There are situations where this concept actually reverses though, and here I want to look at a situation where you actually want to push a small edge for a big pot. Imagine that you are sitting at a table full of quite weak players with a stack of twenty five big blinds. Although most of the table is very weak, to your direct left is a skilled player who knows your game inside out. This player is well aware that you will be trying to steal the weak players blinds with this awkward stack size, and is regularly three betting you whenever you open for your standard bet and forcing you to fold.

In this spot you actually face a situation where your current position is very bad (you cannot open anything except monster hands due to the skilled player to your left - despite being at an incredibly weak table), but by shoving your stack with a marginal hand you may face a situation that is very good (doubling up and having a big enough stack that you can start to defend against the good players constant re-raises and be able to profit from the weak players again).

This massive change between your two possible positions is more than enough justification to try and push a small edge in a big pot. As your position if you do not make this play will be so bad, and your position so good if you can double up, it is clearly correct to try and make a few big plays in the hope of doubling up. In this case the risk of busting (which is obviously the key problem usually with making big shoves with marginal hands), is easily negated by the risk/reward ratio of this specific situation.

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Although spots where you do want to try and push a small edge in a big pot do exist in tournament poker, mostly you are looking to try and play pots big pots with big edges and small pots when you have a small edge. Many players look down at hands like ace king or an over pair on a semi safe looking board and end up playing huge pots early on in MTTs. Most good players do not tend to do this, and being able to fold big hands early or just play small pots with them is one of the hallmarks of a truly great tournament player.

Try to think about the future implications of the hands you play early before you go charging in - you may just find that you have been throwing away a lot of chips unnecessarily early.

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