Playing Big-Stack Tournaments

I normally don't mind playing in a quick, one-day tournament, with blinds moving up every thirty or forty-five minutes. You may not get to see a lot of hands, but everybody else has to play with the same disadvantage, so it all comes out even. But I love to occasionally sit down to a deep-stack tournament, with ten or fifteen thousand in chips, and blinds starting down way low.

The thing about these deep-stack tournaments is that the first several hours can be boring for me. I don't like to mix it up too much unless I have a hand to play with, and that means a lot of folding. The strategy has served me well over my poker career, although I've seen plenty of guys pushing chips around from the get-go, and succeed with that style too. But you can't play tighter than a drum the whole way through and expect to win the tournament. So, how do you know when to switch gears, from one of waiting patiently for spots to one of chip accumulation?

Well, in order to answer that, I must understand the tournament structure. At the beginning of all deep-stack tournies, there is a period where the big blind is less than 1% of the average stack. Imagine a tournament where everybody gets 10,000 in chips, and the blinds start at 25/50. The big blind is only a half-percent of the starting stack, so even if you lose 50 big blinds - which is a huge hit at that level - you still have 75% of your chips in your stack.

But eventually, the blinds move up to a point where they do matter, and you are putting a reasonable amount of chips at risk when playing a hand. More importantly, you are also putting a reasonable amount of your opponents' chips at risk when you play a hand with them, and can apply pressure on them by threatening a big chunk of their stack. But when is that point, and do I need to switch gears then, or can I wait until later?

Well, for me, that point comes at the point where the big blind represents at least 2.5% of your stack. In other words, if you lose 10 big blinds in the next hand, you will have lost 25% of your stack. For a tournament that begins with 10,000 in chips, that is where the big blind crosses 250. (It probably won't stop at 250. It will most likely stop on 300 or 400.) This is the point where you start playing for real chips, and for me, this is when the tournament really begins.

Note that it doesn't come at the same point for everybody. After a few hours, some players will lose chips, and reach that inflection point sooner than others. If you have been playing tight, it is very unlikely that you will be one of those players. But you may have accumulated chips, putting your stack at a much higher number than the original 10,000. If you've reached 15,000 chips, you can wait until the big blind has reached almost 400 before you need to start making moves. If you've doubled your stack, you can wait until it reaches 500. It all depends on where you are chip-wise.

When you have a bigger stack than your opponents, it creates a dream scenario for you. You are still looking for opportunities to cash in, for premium starting hands or monster flops. Meanwhile, your opponents, especially those who ran through a bunch of chips early, are having to take greater and greater risks, in an effort to stay ahead of the blinds. For some of them, those risks will pay off, and they will accumulate those chips. For others, it will not, and they will become short-stacked or even broke. Its amazing how many players bust out of a tournament even before some players really start playing.

Some might think by sticking to a tight game while others are loosening up theirs, you are allowing them to "catch up" to your chip stack. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, you are adopting a low-risk strategy for going about your game, while others are adopting a higher-risk strategy. Again, some will be rewarded, and will catch up to you. Others will go broke. But it is very likely that you will go broke at this stage, unless you endure a really bad beat. And you will graduate with a healthy stack to the third stage of the tournament.

This is the stage where everybody is playing for amounts that, for their chip stacks, are significant. The blinds represent at least four or five percent of everybody's stack, and anyone but the chip leader can go broke at any time. Some players will be playing even more loosely, but most will become more selective, and willing to fold over and over again. After all, nobody has enough chips to be making speculative calls, even before the flop. So you will see a lot of blind vs. blind matchups, a lot of raise-and-take-it situations, and even the occasional free pass for the player in the big blind.

When you see your table tightening up, it is time to make some moves. It is time to begin stealing. After all, if any raise seems to win the blinds and antes, then why not raise in late position with a less-than-premium hand? I won't go into the strategy for stealing blinds; I've already discussed it in a past article. But now is the time to begin using those tools to accumulate.

But you want to do so gradually. The longer you can preserve your tight, passive image the better. Don't all of a sudden begin firing out raises just because the blinds have changed. Start with a few, maybe once every 3-4 rounds. Then when the levels move up again, increase your frequency, stealing every 2-3 rounds. At the same time, look for other ways to take down pots. If nobody seems to be interested in a pot after the flop, put in a bet and try to take it down. If your opponent is a habitual continuation bettor, raise his continuation bet, or float him on the flop and take it away on the turn. When you see a scare card, represent a made hand, and take the pot away. All of these moves, and much more, will help you to accumulate chips, and put you in a position to win the tournament.

I liken it to a point guard in a basketball game. His job is to get the ball to somebody on his team that can take an easy shot. As he brings the ball down the floor, he is scanning the defense, looking for opportunities. He is looking for a mismatch inside, or a defensive player out of position, or an open lane to drive toward the basket. And with a full shot clock, he can take his time and make a good choice. At this point, he is more worried about protecting the ball than about scoring.

But something changes as that shot clock ticks down. He is still looking for an opportunity, but he's less choosy now. He doesn't need so much of a mismatch, or so wide a lane, and he no longer has the luxury of waiting for a defensive player to falter. When the clock is at three or four seconds, any open shot will do, and when the clock is at one second, it is 'chuck it and hope' time.

You never want to get to that one-second point to start playing, where you find that the rising blinds have worn away your stack, and your M is under 6. But you need to gradually increase your aggression, both to retain your tight image, and to minimize risk. If you do it well, you need never worry about getting blinded away, nor burn through all of your chips. And you'll be in a position to take down the top prize.

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