When to push edges in tournaments
Multi Table Tournaments
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Marcus Bateman /
19 November 2009 /
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The first key area that weak players make mistakes in is in pushing slim edges too hard early on in a tournament
Most weak multi table tournament players make two key areas of mistakes when they play in tournaments in terms of when they try and push their perceived edges, and recognising them and taking advantage of them is crucial in taking your tournament game to the next level
Knowing when to attack and when to play more cautiously is one of the most fundamental parts of being a winning tournament player, and the lessons we can learn from weak players show why this is so very well.
The first key area that weak players make mistakes in is in pushing slim edges too hard early on in a tournament. Most weak players come hard and fast out of the gate right at the start, getting involved in lots of big pots early and either busting or running up a relative big stack.
The key word here is relative, because even if they do run up a big stack (the best case scenario), it only remains a big stack for a short period of time, as the blinds continue to escalate higher and higher, quickly devaluing their earlier gains unless they continue to play a hard and fast style; a style which in turn drastically increases their chances of busting every orbit as the tournament goes on, simply because of the constant risks they are taking playing such a style.
This brings us on to the next key feature of weak players, they take their foot off of the gas at the precise point that they should in fact start playing in a much more risky manner. While the blinds are small and there are no antes, mostly tournament poker is just about survival and trying to win the odd big pot with monster hands post flop.
Late on, when the blinds are high and antes kick in (and the antes drastically increase the size of the pot, which in turn makes it worth stealing much more), any player who wants to give themselves a chance at winning has to really turn up the heat at this point, looking to accumulate chips in every spot possible to keep themselves afloat and with a chance of winning.
Weak players tend to do the opposite of this late on, no doubt looking at the up and coming money, and simply trying to survive until they receive some kind of prize. The problem with this is that the majority of multi table tournament prizes are actually very small, and to be successful over the long run at tournaments, you have to be looking to make as many final tables and top three finishes as possible.
A player who cashes small in fifteen tournaments out of twenty will make much less money than a player who cashes just one tournament out of twenty, but who makes that one cash a win; and utilising a high risk strategy at the business end of tournaments is one of the hallmarks of nearly all the great tournament players, a point that you forget at your peril in this format of the game.
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