Tournament strategy – valuing your chips

It is a common enough strategy to try to double your chip stack early on.

This is especially true in tourneys that have very large fields.  It is a reasonable strategy, but it has one glaring flaw.

Many players will be familiar with the marginal hands that they are happy to go all-in on.  Say that you have AKoff and you are up against one other player who is all-in.  You have the guy on a low pair.  You probably already know that your odds are roughly 50/50, depending on the pair.

So you might be used to making a call here for a fifty fifty shot with two over cards.  In cash games that is ok depending on how you play and your bankroll management abilities.

But in a tourney situation you have to reassess what you stand to gain against what you potentially stand to lose.  A win here doubles you up, yes, but essentially it just keeps you in the game.

Whereas a loss here finishes your tourney life.  If you take enough of these 50/50 shots you are guaranteed to be out, sooner or later.

Obviously this is similar to saying that you should only play premium hands, and stick rigidly to the top 20 starting hands.  But the difference here is that even if you are not put in for all your chips, but instead are up against a short stack and only need to risk half your stack, you are still not getting good odds on this type of hand. Losing half your stack early on can cripple you just as easily as if you were in for all your chips.

And the upside of that is that you did not even double up.  Longer tourneys require that you re-evaluate your potential losses against your potential gains, and adjust accordingly.

Related posts:

1. Tournament strategy – getting into the money
2. Tournament Strategy – Stealing the blinds