3 Tournament Myths That Too Many Players Believe
Table Of Contents
An article by Miikka Anttonen.
Poker is a game where only about 1% of all the players make money, yet many of the remaining 99% still think they��re good �C just unlucky.
And boy, do some of these ��unlucky�� people think they have it all figured out.
It��s tough to spend time at a live poker table without hearing all kinds of weird myths and false truths waiting to be proven wrong. The following three are among my favorites.
Myth 1: Aggressive Play Requires a Big Stack
Some players assume that you need a big stack to effectively put pressure on your opponents. Similarly, the biggest stack at the table is often assumed to take on the role of ��table captain,�� and the smaller stacks are expected to let him or her be in charge. This is nonsense.
You get dealt two cards; you play the hand to your best ability; repeat.
First of all, each hand is an individual challenge. Poker is not a game of soccer, in which you set a game plan ahead of time to execute on the field.
You get dealt two cards; you play the hand to your best ability; repeat.
When deciding on the best course of action during a hand, there is a myriad of factors to consider. Stack size is one of, if not the most important single factor. However, there are times when you should play loose as a short stack and tight as a big stack.
Example 1: You��re nearing the bubble of a tournament. The big stack to your right is raising seemingly every hand. You have 15-20 big blinds. Which of these strategies seems better?
- Fold every hand and let your table captain do his thing.
- Attack his reckless raises with relatively frequent 3-bet shoves.
Example 2: Day two of the WSOP Main Event. You have a big stack, and get moved to a new table. The players to your left are Nick Petrangelo, Stephen Chidwick, and Phil Ivey, who all have fewer chips than you do. Which approach should you take?
- Put on your table captain hat and attack their blinds with any two cards.
- Try to play solid poker, and avoid putting yourself in tough spots against super fierce competition.
In both examples, option 2 is far superior.
Should you sometimes try to go after everyone when you have a big stack? Absolutely. But your game plan must always depend on the opposition you��re facing and the situation at hand.
Myth 2: My Short Stack Forced Me to Commit
A few years ago, I was at the final table of a live turbo tournament in Australia. The only halfway decent opponent left was this local woman who was playing tight-aggressive poker.
There were seven players left, with three players sitting on stacks of 4 big blinds or fewer (including myself.) The average is 12 big blinds. The chip leader �� who has all the chips and has been playing nearly every hand �� opens to 3 big blinds from UTG.
I��d have been much happier shoving seven-deuce off blind vs. blind against the nit to her left than shoving fives into the chip leader.
The local player responds with a shove for ten big blinds from UTG+2 holding 5x5x. She ended up losing the race against AxKx and busting in 7th place, much to my delight.
In her spot, I��d have folded 9x9x without hesitation. She immediately shrugged it off as a cooler, saying "I only had ten big blinds and a pair; I had to go with it."
The rest of the table nodded in agreement, and I chuckled on the inside. She was in second or third place before the hand and was almost guaranteed a few pay jumps. Her only job was to play tight and let others bust first. Instead, she decided to adhere to a non-existent rule-of-thumb that says you have to shove any pair if you��re short enough.
If I were in her chip position, I��d have been much happier shoving 7x2x off suit blind vs. blind against the nit to her left �� who was suffocating under ICM pressure �� than shoving 5x5x into the chip leader.
There are situations when it��s correct to go all-in holding 7x2x off with ten big blinds, and others when you need to fold a hand as strong as 7x7x with the same stack. Those are both extreme examples, but these spots do come up.
As a broad generalization, when you��re short (say, fewer than 15 big blinds) and aren��t holding a monster, you��re looking for one of two things before you shove your chips forward:
- Fold equity
- Lots of dead money in the pot
Let me expand on the latter with an example:
Example: Mid-Stage Poker Tournament. Hero has a 10BB stack.
Hero is dealt 5?5? in the big blind.
MP raises to 2BB. Hijack calls. Cutoff calls. Button calls. Sb folds. Hero��?
If you shove here, you��re going to get called virtually every time �� and it will usually be a coin flip. Even so, the amount of dead money in the pot justifies the shove because you have a chance to triple-up with (probably) ~50% equity.
If that raise was bigger than 2BB, or if there were no overcallers, going all-in with 5?5? is a less appealing play because there would be significantly less dead money to go after.
Myth 3: You Can��t Defend Your Big Blind with a Sub-10 Big Blind Stack
An alarming amount of people seem to think that you should never call a raise if you have fewer than a specific amount of big blinds. Many people probably believe this because it was written in ancient poker books published around 1998.
Guys, don��t trust poker training material from 1998.
Guys, don��t trust poker training material from 1998.
Nowadays, most people use a much smaller open-raise size than people did years ago. When you��re in the big blind facing a min-raise open, for example, you need just ~20% raw equity to continue (most hands have at least 30% against most opening ranges).
You may be thinking: ��But I don��t get to realize all of that equity, because I will have to fold on so many flops.�� That��s true. You don��t realize all of that equity, but you will undoubtedly realize enough of it to justify a defend with playable hands.
Realizing equity when out of position is easier with a short stack because there won��t be as much post-flop play. Consider: the cutoff min-raises, you have six big blinds and defend holding 10?8?. You��re virtually never going to make a mistake post-flop �C if you hit something, you��re going all-in. If the flop gives you two undercards and no draw, you check-fold, saving those last few big blinds.
If you have 30 big blinds, however, it��s a bit tougher to realize your equity due to the threat of multi-street pressure from your in position opponent. As your stack gets shorter, it becomes easier to play your hand post-flop and realize equity. This allows us to defend with a wider range than you might expect.
Thanks for reading!
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Sponsor generated content by Upswing Poker written by Miikka Anttonen.
