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Poker Tournaments: Strategic Adjustments
A few Card Player issues back, Roy Cooke wrote a fine column about how poker
differs from blackjack in that rigid rules are normally not applicable. He
looked at it mostly from a tactical decisionmaking angle, but this idea is also
important to understand when thinking about our overall strategic approaches to
the game.
In the tournament world, some casinos now use Tex's TEARS structure. TEARS is a
computer program that adapts limit increases to the number of players and the
length of time a casino (and theoretically the players) wants a tournament to
run. It can be used to make earlier limits shorter and later limits longer, or
other innovative ideas, but to date it mostly has not been used this creatively.
Mostly it has been used in its most basic application -- smoothing limit
increases and having tournaments run an approximate length that is known before
the event starts.
Another article could be written as to whether this is good or bad (for the
record, I think it is mostly good, but I would like to see tournament directors
start incorporating the idea of increasing time-limits once the point of the
final three tables is reached). The point here is that a TEARS tournament
requires a different strategic approach than an “old” structure where the limits
increase at a faster pace (and the length of an event can vary a lot based on
how many entrants sign up).
There has been some criticism of TEARS where it is alleged that it disfavors
“good” players by adding more play at the beginning of an event, while lessening
play at the two and three table point. This is pure nonsense. What TEARS does is
simply make it necessary for “good” players to adapt to a different structure.
After all, that is precisely what good players do -- adapt!
If a result of TEARS is that stacks are more even when players get to three
tables -- that is, unlike the “old” structures, with TEARS there are seldom huge
stacks mixed with puny nubs, instead more people have middling stacks -- then if
you are a good player you need to understand that each decision at this stage is
far more critical for all players than would commonly be the case the old way.
And, when individual decisions become more important, good players have an even
greater edge. Skill comes into play here just as surely as when stack sizes vary
much more. It’s just a different sort of skill that is called for now. If you
are “good”, adapt. If you can’t adapt, you really aren’t that “good” after all.
Some tournament players are successful by having a personal strategy that just
happens to be pretty well suited to the old style of tournaments -- deliberately
try to “get lucky” and accumulate a lot of chips in the early rounds, bully with
a big stack in the later ones. If these players don’t think about how TEARS
differs from the old way, they will no longer be successful. They won’t be
playing an effective strategy. This doesn’t mean that "good" players are being
punished by the TEARS structure -- far from it. Good players think on their feet
and play sensibly based on the specific circumstances they face. Good players
always find the right way to play.
If you are first under the gun and choose to limp-reraise with AA in a Holdem
game, you need to understand that you will face different sorts of opponents
than you would if you open-raised. The limp-reraiser will face more opponents
with hands like 98s, while the open-raiser should expect opponents to have hands
like 99. The point here is not to say which way is better, but merely to show
that the same hand in the same position can face very different tactical
challenges depending on how you strategically approach the game. If you like to
trap people, then expect to face speculative hands like suited connectors. If
you like to come out blazing, then expect to face more obvious hands like big
cards and pocket pairs.
Profit from poker can come from several styles, strategies and approaches. There
is no one, single way to play every hand or every game every time. Analyze the
game or situation you face, adapt and adjust to it, then go get the money.
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