Accumulating chips in the period known as the ‘bubble’ is of fundamental importance when playing multi-table tournaments (MTTs). Typically players (particularly in low stakes games) will tighten up considerably as the money draws near – allowing skilled players to steal the blinds and antes much more frequently than they normally would be able to.
This strategy has quite a large element of risk to it. A player employing this strategy will frequently have to raise and re-raise with marginal hands – leaving themselves wide open to attack.
The reason why this high risk strategy is effective long term is simple – in a multi-table tournament the prize pool is geared towards the top three places (in a tournament with a very large field the prize pool will be geared towards the final table). The money made by just scraping into the money is actually very low compared to the top prizes.
If you want to make money long term in MTTs the aim has to be to try and make the top three. The other positions just do not justify the time spent playing or the investment. Remember that bad beats will often claim you early in a tournament – it is not guaranteed that you will cash in many tournaments.
If we look at this mathematically we can easily see why this is true – in a typical large-field PokerStars tournament the first cash prize that can be won is around 300 times smaller than the top three places (compare this to a typical single table tourney – 1st place only gets one and half times more than third). This effectively means that one top three win equates to over three hundred normal cashes.
Hence the goal in tournaments is to accumulate chips to enable you to make the top three – not to survive to the money. Even though this is a relatively simple concept, most MTT players do not actually play accordingly (the logic behind their play is simple – on a given day a small profit is better than a small loss), leaving themselves vulnerable to attack.
By accumulating a lot of chips at this stage of a tournament you allow yourself a good shot at making the top three places. Mathematically speaking, you are better off frequently busting before the money – as long as the times that you don’t bust you can make the top places.
The saying “get rich or die trying” is a great way to look at the late stages of MTTs. By taking some considerable risks at this particular moment of a tournament you allow yourself a good shot at taking down a big score.
The key to this stage of a tournament is to play fearlessly. Attack stacks of any size that you can have an impact on (shoving all in against a player with 10 times more chips than you is probably not going to scare them). You will be surprised how often players do not have a strong hand and fold (I once stole 17 pots in a row on a bubble – taking my stack from 10,000 to 50,000).
If you employ this strategy you will start to show a big upswing in your results quite quickly. Get out there and attack the players trying to make a slim profit – the big money is always going to be reserved for the players that take a considerable risk. Follow the maxim “who dares wins” and get out there and attack the big money.
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