In Tournaments, It's often Where you Play that Matters Most

This may not make intuitive sense to everyone, but the site and type of tournaments you play has a lot more to do with consistent success than you may think. In the US, it is no coincidence that the best tournament players are consistently playing at Ultimate Bet, Stars, Full Tilt and Bodog. Granted these tournaments have strong guarantees for higher buyin tournaments, but they got there for a reason. They are great tournament sites.

What makes a great tournament site? I think there are 3 key factors; tournament structure, number of players and rebuy options. First tournament structure is critical, a good player wants an adequate level of chips and sufficiently slow structure so that they can get some play with their chips and try to build a stack while the blinds are low. Many sites on the web, like the Prima Network and others, have such fast blind increases that their tournaments are paramount to gambling. Good players do not want to simply chalk up their entry fee strictly to chance. Any tournament takes a certain amount of luck to win, but skill is more important to consistent cashing and long-term success.

Ultimate Bet and Bodog have the best structures for sites with a base level of players. Bugsy's Club has probably the best structure on the net with every tournament starting with 10,000 chips, but they have so few players that prize pools are rarely very large.

That is a good lead in for the second factor, number of players. The more players in a tournament, the bigger the prize pools. Several of the big sites have $200 buyin tournaments on the weekend with in excess of 1,000 players. Now there is a trade-off here. I like to play tournaments with between 150 and 400 players. Less than 150 and the prize pool is not large enough to make it worth the time. However, above 400 and the luck factor becomes to great a factor in getting to the final table. While both payout to 10% of entrants, most of the money is given to those at the final table. In tournaments with more than 400 players, you need more of your good hands to hold up and you need the luck to win a lot more races to make the final table.

At a site like Stars this can be a real problem, especially if you are playing in the $5-$30 size range. These tournaments almost always have more than 1,000 entrants and you will grind it out forever before making a big score. This can be so frustrating that it can lead to sloppy play or overall disappointment with the game. At Stars, I try to limit my play to the $20 and $30 rebuys or tourneys, larger buy-in tourneys and the capped size tourneys (180 SNGs and 360 max tourneys)

If you play lower denomination tourneys, I highly suggest that you look at UB. They offer a lot of lower buyin tourneys and the number of entrants is usually 100-300 people.

The third factor is rebuy offerings. One thing you will note is that good players like to play rebuy tournaments. Rebuy tournaments give a good player the best chance to win because they can start with a big stack. At most sites you can rebuy immediately to double your stack. Then if you are able catch some cards during the rebuy period, you likely will double your doubled stack, so you might have 6,000 chips (versus 1,500 in a normal tournament). Then you can addon for 2,000 more chips at the first break. So now you have 8,000 chips and the blind levels are likely in the 75/150 range. Your M is 35 (chips divided by blinds/antes) and you have a lot of room to play pots and try to build your stack. That is why good players play rebuys.

One of the little known benefits of playing rebuys at UB and Absolute Poker is that they allow a double rebuy and double addon -- which further increases the stack size to multiply the benefits discussed. If you wait until the tourney starts at UB, then when you click the rebuy option it asks if you want a single or double rebuy. If you double rebuy, you end up with 4,500 starting chips. Let's say you build that up to 7,000 chips by the first break, then you do a double add on for another 3,000 chips. Now you have 10,000 chips and UB has one of the slowest blind structures, so the blinds after the first break are still only 50/100 after the first break. Your M in that example is 66 -- that is a big stack relative to the blinds.

I love to play the $30 rebuy at UB as the prize pool is very large. Yes, I end up buying in for at least $150 but the chance of cashing is greatly increased with the stack size you can usually build during the first hour. They also have $2, $5, $10 and $20 rebuy tourneys.

Easy Change for Big Results

I have a simple change for you that can have a dramatic affect on your tourney (and cash game results). I see so many players doing this incorrectly and yet it is such a simple little change that it is completely overlooked.

drumroll please.....fold the small blind most most most of the time!!!

So many players complete because it is cheap, especially if it is limped to you. And while there may be pot odds to call, most players overlook the huge disadvantage of playing out of position for the remaining 3 streets. It is crazy how often I see player calling 2x bb raises with A rag or QJo from the small blind. I know the rationale is I already have money in the pot and if I hit big I will stack someone.

However, in tourney play that is dangerous thinking. Chips are precious and your odds of hitting the monster are very small (about 1.3%). What is much more likely is you catch a small piece of the flop with a bad kicker and out of position. Now what. Either you win a small pot or you lose a big one.

I do like to reraise a late position raiser from the small blind, but this is usually later in tournaments and its often for all my chips. At that point position no longer matters.

Looking at my PokerTracker tourney stats, as is typical I am a net loser from both blind positions and a big winner from the last 6 positions (button to button - 5). I voluntarily put chips in the pot from the SB, about 35% of the time, meaning that I fold 65% of the hands from the SB. That 35% is also skewed because it includes all the times late in a tourney when I will reraise a late position raiser with a wide range of hands.

Consider the blinds an ante for playing a round at the table and disregard the fact that you have those chips on a certain hand. It can dramatically reduce your tourney chip leakage.

I need a New Luck Generator

Mine was clearly broken last night.

Hate to post bad beats, but I played in 9 tourneys last night and did not reach the money in any and 6 of 9 ended in horrendous domination bad beats.

Raised with JJ in the middle position and got two callers. I had a medium to small stack - with a flop of 653 rainbow. I pushed the flop and one bonehead calls with 88. Just horrendous. Turn comes 4. Uh-oh here comes the....noooooooooo.....7 Runner-Runner is good. Lovely!

With a medium stack, it is folded to me on the button and I raise with ATo. The big blind is a large stack who has been aggressive and I expect him to reraise me -- the trap is set. He takes the bait and he pushes over the top - I insta-call. He lives up to expectation when he shows A6o. Yeehaw domination coming!!. 6 hits on fourth street and I am finished. Nice 3 outer.

More big stack silliness. I am in the small blind and it is folded to the cutoff (who has a big stack) who raises 3x bb. I am in the small blind with an average stack of about 20x bb -- and AKs (hearts no less - my favorite). I reraise to 9x the bb and he pushes a bit of contemplation. I assume he may have AT-AK or maybe a small to medium pair. With such a big pot to really chip up, I call quickly. He has T5o --- wow! But of course, about 30 5s come off on the board and I am out again.

These were the most brutal but also lost with AA to JJ and AK to AQ. Oh well not my night.

Sorry to bore you with bad beats, but it makes me feel slightly better to exorcise the demons.

Four Consecutive Nights of Tourneys

I had the rare opportunity to play a full night of tourneys for 4 nights in a row. Given family life, I rarely play more than 1 night per week. This was a rare treat.

I did fairly well cashing in 21% of the tourneys entered and making 3 final tables (7.9% of tourneys played). Unfortunately, I did not win any of them placing 4th, 5th and 6th at the 3 FTs. However, I should have made it to heads up in one of those tourneys and I like my chances head up.

However, I was knocked out of that tourney on the hand outlined below. A little background first though. I had played very well in this tourney and chipped up nicely when we were down to two tables. I was second in chips with 146,000 chips, but the chipleader had a massive stack with over 500,000 chips. The other three players had small stacks with 25,00 to 75,000 chips.

PokerStars Game #8531695368: Tournament #43326817, $30+$3 Hold'em No Limit - Level XVII (4000/8000) - 2007/02/20 - 03:27:16 (ET)
Table '43326817 43' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: gthumb (75984 in chips)
Seat 3: K-Rock2525 (527263 in chips)
Seat 4: Dogbreath (146524 in chips)
Seat 7: charliehalf (34020 in chips)
Seat 9: dms3838 (20209 in chips)
gthumb: posts the ante 400
K-Rock2525: posts the ante 400
Dogbreath: posts the ante 400
charliehalf: posts the ante 400
dms3838: posts the ante 400
K-Rock2525: posts small blind 4000
Dogbreath: posts big blind 8000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Dogbreath [Qh Ah]
charliehalf: folds
dms3838: folds
gthumb: calls 8000
K-Rock2525: raises 48000 to 56000

the button limps and the big stack raises it up to 7x the bb for 56,000 chips. I am in the big blind with AQs. This is a great hand 5 handed and I am torn here. There is a huge money difference between 5th and the top 3 spots. I have a great chance of getting to the top 3 spots given how short two players remaining. I could fold this hand and live or mix it up and try to build a big stack.

As I looked at the betting so far, the button either hand a monster or a weak hand by limping from the button. I thought K-Rock2525 sensed weaknesses and was simply making a move on the button. K-Rock had been raising nearly every hand once his stack was more than 2x my stack. This clearly looked like another move -- especially with the oversized bet. I decided that if I came over top here and he folded I would be taking down a 70,000 chip pot and really help to balance my stack with the chipleader.

I played to win and in hindsight this is one of the few times that is a mistake. I should have folded because of the two small stacks. This risk was not worth it given my large stack size. I had time to play patiently and I had been able to steal at least one set of blinds per round to at least maintain my stack. This was a clear fold in hindsight. If mine and the other 3 non-chipleader stacks had been similar in size then I made the right play by moving in, but with such a large differential between myself and the other stacks -- I should have folded.


Dogbreath: raises 90124 to 146124 and is all-in
gthumb: folds
K-Rock2525: calls 90124
*** FLOP *** [2s 6s Ks]
*** TURN *** [2s 6s Ks] [7c]
mcfarmer [observer] said, "spadeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"
*** RIVER *** [2s 6s Ks 7c] [Qs]
mattster24 [observer] said, "spd"
Bull62 [observer] said, "spade"
aa_thief_aa [observer] said, "cha"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
K-Rock2525: shows [Qd As] (a flush, Ace high)
Dogbreath: shows [Qh Ah] (a pair of Queens)
mcfarmer [observer] said, "shipppppppppppp"
mattster24 [observer] said, "bink"
polyballer9 [observer] said, "booooom"
K-Rock2525 collected 302248 from pot
aa_thief_aa [observer] said, "boom"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 302248 | Rake 0
Board [2s 6s Ks 7c Qs]
Seat 2: gthumb (button) folded before Flop
Seat 3: K-Rock2525 (small blind) showed [Qd As] and won (302248) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 4: Dogbreath (big blind) showed [Qh Ah] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 7: charliehalf folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: dms3838 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Brutal way to go with the flush suckout and the myriad of railbirds, but that's poker.

I have provided the link here to the full tournament for any PokerXfactor subscribers.