If you’re in a tournament and torn between calling and folding it’s probably right to call. If you’re in a cash game and have the same dilemma it’s probably right to fold.
Defending your blinds or trying to steal them is not a big deal in cash games (unless of course there is a high running ante to go with the blinds i.e. $100/$200 blinds with a $100 ante or something similar).
If you get pocket kings in a tournament it’s probably right to get it all in no matter what. In a cash game there are situations where you can lay those kings down pre-flop.
Ultimately I believe that a good approach to tournaments is that you can think of every hand as having massive implied odds. In other words you’re playing to win the tournament which is usually a large sum of money compared to your buy-in (assuming a decent sized field). Although I have never practised this myself, I think it’s not that bad a play to re-raise all-in with any two because you’re ultimately trying to accumulate all the chips in play.
A lot of old school players believe in avoiding coin flip situations early on whereas it seems the new breed of aggressive and fearless internet players don’t seem that bothered by this. They are willing take risks and push small edges in the interest of gathering up all the chips. Partly this is a question of volume – they play so many tournaments all day long so getting knocked out just isn’t that big of a deal. If they are presented with a chance to double up they are willing to take it, whereas a different type of player (think Phil Hellmuth for instance) will wait for a better spot when the odds are far more in their favour to put the chips in. Of course in a tournament you only have a finite amount of time and before you know it you’re in push or fold territory anyway.
Once you get to a certain part of a tournament all those small pairs lose their value and become unplayable (unless of course you are short stacked and looking to get it all-in). The same applies to suited connectors. Of course you can make moves with these types of hands and maybe you’ll have a stack and be up against a stack where there’s some degree of “play”, but let’s be honest, in the latter parts of most tournaments any semblance of “poker” goes out the window.
Of course the paragraph above refers to the fact that post-flop play in the latter stages of a tournament is rare. Unless you’re in a big main event which had deep stacks to start off with its very likely that if you go deep in a tournament you will either be in a push or fold mode or be surrounded by players forced to play that way because of their stack sizes.
This leads onto the fact that stack size is paramount in a tournament. Of course chip stacks are important in cash games too, but there is a strong argument that deep into a tournament the cards are irrelevant (see Annette_15’s “blind” tournament victory). With players looking to make the money and preferably the top three accumulation of chips and player knockouts take on far greater significance. Small to medium stacks really feel the pressure and many moves can be made just based on the stack sizes of the players around you.
Essentially late in a tournament players are very aware of the need to double up, keep stealing the blinds and so on. They are also aware of the fact that once they get knocked out it is all over so every hand is important. These factors are simply not that relevant in a cash game. Naturally if you have just lost a big pot you are looking to win it back and possibly you may be worried about the loose goose in the game getting up and leaving, but basically you can just exercise some patience and wait for a decent hand and hopefully a good coup to get out of it.
An obvious point that needs to be made is that if you tripled up your stack in a cash game you can simply get up and leave having made a nice profit. In a tournament if you triple up in the first hand you have to stay there and keep on playing until you’re eliminated or (hopefully) have won the damn thing. In fact even if they allowed you to cash out at that point it wouldn’t really be worth your while as tournament chips don’t have the same value as cash chips. Some clever poker writer once wrote that he felt sorry for the winner of a tournament because although they had won all the chips in play he was only receiving 35% of what they were worth. In the big tourneys online it’s even worse with first place usually getting 25% of the prize pool.
In a cash game the value of your money is absolute. That $100 in front of you is worth exactly that whether it’s biggest or smallest stack in the game. In a tournament your chips are so much more precious if they are in a short stack. You must preserve them and not waste a dollar. Conversely if you have a huge stack the chips are not so valuable and obviously you can “afford” to push other players around.
What about the old chestnut of the luck factor playing a much bigger part in the outcome of a tournament than in a cash game? As every tournament player knows this is very true and is the basis for everything written above. So remember the next time you’re wondering whether to call all-in or fold just go for it and stick the chips in, if you’re behind you can always get lucky – you ain’t gonna win the tournament by folding.
Loading ...
