Keys to Winning a Tournament
The other day me and Tom were discussing a hand that came up during tournament play where it was the 3rd hand of the tournament. (big tournament ie at least $500 entry fee)
And after standard preflop action (3x times the BB raise) two players get it all in on the turn when one player flops the Nut flush and the other guy flopped bottom set. The board paired on the river.
My thoughts were, why risk your entire tournament life so early? Obviously a lot went on in the hand that isn't discussed, but just the basic concept of controlling the pot size and making damn sure you have a chance to win lagter on rather than risk everything so quickly?
I was reminded of this at last nights DSOP tournament to a slightly different degree. A few things came to mind for me:
- I only risked my tournament life ONE time all night. Pocket 9's vs AK.
- I laid down what was probably "the best hand" several times to over aggressive bets from other players, thinking I could outplay them later.
(it helped that I only sucked out one time all night, it was to the guy that had the 2nd chip stack right behind me, I cracked his pocket 5's with AJo and no one every sucked out on me, not ONCE)
I also almost never made it to a showdown. Maybe 5-6 times all night (that didn't include some ALL INs)
Anyway, I just wanted to hear some other thoughts about laying it down and picking a different battle later in the tournament rather than risking it all, especially early on. |
