The final table of the poker tournament is where everyone wants to be. Of course, bad tournament play will eventually come back to haunt you. You might get deep into the tournament by just winging it, but it will take a more refined strategy to make the final table consistently. Remember that we’re just as interested in the long term poker game as we are the short term one. This means that you really need to sharpen your skills, focus, and look at ways to be profitable while surviving the match.
You see, tournaments attract a lot of players. Not all of these players are going to be sharks, even though a lot of people make that initial assumption. The reality is that you’re going to be playing against fish, shark, and just about everyone in between. It means that you might have a hard time really getting a good “read” on people, because you’re going to be moving all around the tournament. Multi-table tournaments are even harder than SNG’s because of how many people you will be exposed to.
So, let’s address two different scenarios: you are playing the tournament and you want to break into the final table, and then the scenario that assumes you’ve already made it to the final table.
Breaking In (Scenario One):
No matter how big the field is, you have to remember that everything is a matter of numbers. Eventually, the big bad poker players will make mistakes, bail out, get tired, or surpass you. That’s all there is to it. Loose players that rush in trying to get chips will eventually find that their luck runs out. Playing tight at the earliest stages of the tournament seems to be your best option. How tight you play depends on you, but you really want to stay away from garbage hands. Just because you saw Doyle Brunson make 7-2 off-suit work doesn’t mean that you need to try to mirror that at all. The truth is that you probably aren’t a professional poker player. Sticking to basic theory until you get to adjust your strategy usually works out better than thinking you can copy what the guys do at the WSOP. They have literally millions of hands worth of practice under their belts. If you get that obsessed about poker, you can feel free to freestyle. Until then, you need to stick to what works.
The idea here is that you don’t want to try to stand out by getting as many chips as possible. Everyone is going to be doing that. You need to think in terms of chip preservation. Indeed, you want to try to survive as long as possible. This isn’t something that sounds like a good idea — it’s the best idea that you can plant in your head. You absolutely want to be able to move around like that, because any other alternative just isn’t going to make sense. If you go for the big chi runs and you’re wrong, you’re going to lose big. Then you have to spend the rest of the tournament trying to get back to your original stack and then some. It’s better to be stingy with raises rather than the guy that blows all of his chips before the blinds have even gotten serious. Don’t be that guy.
The type of tournament that you’re in matters as well. Freerolls tend to attract a lot of fish. You cannot assume that poker newbies live and breathe this stuff. They tend to be “TV players” that hear about all of the money you can make with online poker and they certainly want a slice.
Playing that way just isn’t going to get you the type of money that you’re looking for. It’s better to think about how you can strategically survive.
Let’s move on to the other scenario: being actually at the table. [Read more…] about The Final Table of the Tournament – Yes, You Can Be Here!