Tournament Play I

This article is Part 1 of 5 Parts and is an excerpt from “Winning Blue-Collar Hold’em” by Daniel L. Cox. Available at Amazon.com.

“A tournament is like a lottery. We’ve [pro players] got more tickets than most people, but you still got to hit."

- Poker Legend Doyle Brunson

Differences between Ring Games and Tournaments

From a strategic viewpoint, tournamentsdiffer tremendously from ring games. In a ring game, you need to be able to determine when to surrender your hand. Tournaments demand that you win a higher percentage of the pots that you play. The difference between cash game poker and tournament poker is the difference between dedication and inspiration. In a ring game, the primary skill sets are steadiness, repetition, consistency in making the mathematically correct play, and playing better than your opponent is playing. A tournament player’s skill set includes more aggression—especially in the late stages—and less risk aversion. In a ring game, if you double or triple your chip stack during a session, you have done extremely well, making a huge profit. In tournament play, you must double your chip stack at every level to stay in contention.

One of the advantages of ring play is that the blinds stay the same for the entire session. In a tournament, they increase at every level. Though statistically the amount of luck does not change between ring games and tournaments, the effect of luck is much more dramatic in tournament play. The bad beat may dent your bankroll in a cash game. The same play often ends your stay in a tournament.

In a 2007 High Stakes Poker telecast, 2006 WSOP Main Event winner Jamie Gold, with over $50,000 in front of him, made a typical tournament move when he said, “I’ll give you action,” and called the $6,900 All In of Victor Ramdin. Victor held the Ks–Kh while Jamie countered with the suited Kd–10d. The board of Kc–4d–2d–9h–Jh did not improve Jamie’s hand and Victor won the $16,700 pot.

Two hands later, Victor again went All In with Jc–8c following a flop of Js–Kh–10d–8d. This time two-time 2006 WSOP bracelet winner William Chen called $9,500 with a weak 10s–9s. The river was a 4h giving Victor the $37,200 pot.

These two plays show what often happens when powerful tournament players try to play in cash games. Conversely, not all strong ring game players play effectively in tournaments. In tournament play, Gold and Chen both called Ramdin’s All-in with less than 15% of their stacks. In a tournament—especially in the later stages—this play would have been a strong move, possibly knocking out an opponent. In tournaments, when a player with a large chip stack has the opportunity to remove a short-stack player from the tournament, they often attempt do so with less than premium starting hands. In ring games, the All-in does not mean as much, since players can reload their chip stack, so making the call solely to felt an opponent is not a strong move.

Continue to Part 2 of 5 Parts