Читать книгу Lessons From The Felt: Advanced Strategies And Tactics For No-limit Hold'em Tournaments - David Apostolico - Страница 11

Why play no-limit Texas Hold’em tournaments? You see them on television, they’re a lot of fun, it’s a great social activity, and everyone seems to be doing it. That may be what attracts many people to the game in the first place. But once players dip their toes into the water, many are hooked by the endless possibilities and strategies involved. No matter how much you play, there is always more to learn. Poker is a game of never-ending learning.

Where tournaments used to be played only by the poker elite in such prestigious events as the World Series of Poker^® with buy-ins costing up to $10,000, they now have tournaments for players of all skill levels. In fact, millions of players participate in tournaments every week in venues ranging from the family basement to extravagent Las Vegas casinos. Whether you aspire to be a regular on the pro poker circuit or just want to dominate your local home game, there are many lessons to be learned from the action on the felt.

For those just starting out, let’s take a quick review of the structure of a poker tournament. In a poker tournament, every player pays the same entry fee and begins with the same amount of chips. Once you are out of chips, you are eliminated from the tournament. (The one exception to this is a rebuy tournament, which we will cover in a later chapter—see p. 39.) Play continues until everyone is eliminated but one player. That player ends up with all the chips. The chips in play do not represent actual dollar amounts but only serve as a way to keep score in the tournament. So the winner of the tournament typically does not win all the money, even though he ends up with all the chips. (If you are playing a single-table sit and go tournament—see p. 31—then the winner may take all the prize money, although the chip count will not represent the actual amount of the prize money.)

As a general rule, players finishing in the top ten percentile will be in the money. For example, if two hundred people enter a tournament, the final twenty players will each win money. The amount each receives will be weighted heavily toward how high they finish. The twentieth-place finisher will get back not much more than his or her entry fee, while the first-place finisher may end up with as much as a third of the entire pool of money. It’s important to study the structure ahead of time so that you can evaluate both your personal goal and your opponents’ goals.

Many players will be happy just to make the money. They are not concerned about winning the entire thing. Others are only trying to last as long as possible, that is, if they come in fiftieth place out of two hundred, they will feel a sense of accomplishment. That is the wrong way to approach a tournament. Success in poker is always measured in one way and one way only—by how much money you win. Anybody can play ultra-conservatively and outlast half the field. The problem with that strategy is that you have no chance of winning money. The goal is to win money and not just last as long as possible. That conservative fiftieth place finisher is not better than 150 other opponents are. In fact, he is probably much worse, since he never had a realistic chance of winning anything. It is better to go out early so long as you are playing to win.

There is nothing wrong for beginning players to be satisfied with making the money. That is a realistic goal. Ultimately, however, you should be less concerned about making the money and more concerned about shifting your goal to winning the entire tournament. That is where the real money is. And that is why in this book we are going to concentrate on playing to win.

One of the great aspects of tournament poker is that you know ahead of time exactly how much it will cost you. If it costs you $100 to enter a tournament, then that is your total cost. You cannot lose any more money, and you may end up playing for hours depending on how the tournament is structured. For instance, for your $100 entry fee, you may receive $1000 in chips. These chips are yours to play with until you are eliminated or you have won the tournament. They have no monetary value outside of the tournament. You cannot take them with you. As simple as this concept sounds, it is critical to your understanding of the nature of tournaments.

In a cash game, there is no limit to how much you can lose. Sure, you can try to limit yourself to how much you are willing to lose in a cash game, but the temptation is always there to reach into your pocket or run to the ATM for more money if you run out. In a tournament, once you are out of chips, you are eliminated and are not allowed to buy more chips even if you wanted to.

If you sit down to a cash game, it is up to you to decide how much money you want to bring to the table. In no-limit Texas Hold’em, this can create some real discrepancies in the game. Choosing the right game and knowing how much money to buy in for is a real art form. Since you are playing with real money, your entire stack can be at risk at any time if your opponents have bigger stacks. If you are not comfortable with that concept, you will not play your best. If your opponents are willing to risk that stack at any time, you are at a serious disadvantage. In a tournament, however, each player receives the same amount of chips to start. You do not have to worry about an opponent having deep pockets. In the world of poker, tournaments are the great equalizer.

In tournament poker, you can risk a little bit of money to win a lot. Let’s look at the payout structure of a sample tournament. Say that one hundred players enter a $300 entry fee tournament. First place may pay $12,000, while tenth place may pay $600. Let’s assume this tournament takes about eight hours to play.

Now let’s suppose that instead of playing a tournament with your $300, you decide to sit down and play a cash game. A good gauge of success in a cash game is to win one bet per hour. If an average bet in your game were $10, then a solid eight hours of play would net you $80. Of course, if you have a great session, you could win more than that. I think it’s safe to say, though, that no matter how great your session is, you won’t win $12,000 or anything close to that. That’s the value of tournaments. You can win a lot more money by risking the same amount.

The flip side of that is that you have to gamble a little bit. While a good measure of a cash game is winning one bet an hour, that will not cut it in a tournament. Win one bet an hour and you will be blinded out quickly. Since the blinds and antes increase at regular intervals, the action is forced. You cannot afford to sit back and wait for cards. You have to look for situations and opponents to exploit. You can manage risk in a cash game. In a tournament, you are looking to maximize profits while minimizing risk. You have to be willing to take chances you would not take in a cash game if you are going to advance. In tournaments, there will be times that you will be forced to make moves to avoid elimination. The key to success is to be creative in making some moves before you are forced to make them.

In a cash game, you are playing to win money or not lose money depending on the situation. In a tournament, your only goal is to play to win. A tournament does not end until one person has all the chips. That means that every other player will lose all his chips. Since chips in a tournament only represent value as a way to keep score, there is no incentive to save them for a better situation. Say you sit down to a cash game with $100 and are soon down to your last $20. That $20 is still real money, and there is no need to waste it on an unfavorable situation. You can walk away and pocket the $20. In cash games, it is often prudent to walk away from the table when the environment is not favorable to you.

In a tournament, if you are down to your last few chips, those chips have no value outside of the tournament. You cannot leave the table with them. You do not have the luxury of waiting for the right situation. Rather, you have to use all your cunning and skill to find a way to play those chips. At all times, you are playing to win.

In this book, we will look at various tournament structures and the optimum strategy for each. We will also look at general tournament concepts to very specific hand analysis. While every situation in poker is unique, many of the principles learned can be applied to different situations.