The Basics of Tight Play in No Limit Tournaments
Part 1 – Basic Theory of Tight Play Early
There are several reasons why it is correct to play tight early in a tournament.
1- There are no antes.
2- Other players tend to have similar stacks to your own.
3- Stealing the blinds is worth very little.
4- Pay structure.
5- You usually have very little information about the players around you.
The title of this chapter comes from one of my students. Sometimes you don’t have to really try to get chips, your opponents are all too eager to give them to you. He always referred to these situations as donations, and there is nothing better than having someone give you a lot of chips by making a completely unnecessary bluff. Early in a tournament my focus is on putting yourself in situations where you are able to get donations without giving them. The easiest way to avoid giving donations is to play very tight, particularly in early position.
1- Antes are the fruit of life in a poker tournament. Most of the edges this book exploits come, directly or more frequently indirectly from antes. If you are loose early in a tournament then you are far more likely to find yourself out of the tournament before the easy money even begins. It would be like doing your Christmas shopping before the after Thanksgiving sales. You may very well be able to accumulate a large stack, but you are paying more than is necessary to do so. The one exception to this is in a tournament with a re-buy format.
2- At the beginning of a tournament everyone has the same stack. In Later articles we will look at spots where an opponent on your right has a lot of chips, this may lead to enough of an incentive to make a marginal gamble correct. Being to the left of one of the largest stack on the table while having the second largest stack is an extremely good situation to be in. I will discuss why, and how to exploit this situation in later articles.
Even in a situation where early in a tournament you find yourself to the left of a massive stack, usually it is still right to wait for the antes to begin gambling. You may very well be moved to another table before you have the chance to abuse your position on the big stack. Even if the break order of the tables shows you that you will be at this table for a long period, then you know that you will also be there long enough to have the potential to receive a donation instead of gambling to get to this optimal situation.
3- Stealing the blinds is worth very little. If at the current blind level you can afford 50 rounds of blinds, then stealing the blinds will only increase your stack by 2%. If the average player has a stack around this size, then you gain very little by involving yourself. This is true until you can afford only about 10 rounds of blinds at the current blind level. Since falling below this threshold is an uncommon part of the tournament, we will go into more detail about it later.
4- In addition to the lack of ability to abuse many of the strategical uses for gambling to get chips, there is a simple mathematical reason to avoid gambling early. This mathematical reason will frequently be less substantial than the strategical advantages that arise later in the tournament. Getting all the chips can only win you first prize, lets say first hand everyone else on the table agrees to go all-in without looking at their cards. Do you agree to this even gamble? No, because accumulating a 10x average stack won’t even guarantee you making the money. You will be 10x as likely to win the tournament if you win the gamble, but first prize is usually 30% or less of the prize-pool.
5- The early stages of a tournament are basically your free study session. You can observe the players around you, look for mistakes they are making, and figure out ways to outplay them. It is important to know how the other players are likely to act in a situation before you get into that situation with them. The more the other players get involved with each other, the more information you have about them without giving any information away about yourself. This book is not going to suggest playing tight for the whole tournament, so those that notice your very tight play may draw incorrect conclusions about you later in the event. Questions you should be asking yourself are:
What kinds of hands players are raising?
What positions the players are raising from?
How frequently does a player limp into a pot?
How much is a player betting when they hit?
Is a player capable of making a bluff raise?
Does a player respect position?
If a player talks about the play, is there any reasonable conclusions you draw from their talk?
What kinds of hands will a player call a raise before the flop with?
What kinds of hands will a player call a bet after the flop with?
Is a player capable of floating? [there will be more discussion on floating later].
Does a player notice how the other players are playing, or are they just playing their cards?
Try and focus on the players directly to your right and left, then further and further away in each direction. Since you (and most of your opponents) will be tighter in earlier positions, the closer a player is sitting to you, the more likely you are to be involved with them.
You want to combine these questions together the best you can. For instance, it is extremely important to notice the combination of position and the kinds of hands a player is likely to raise.
It is very important to notice what positions a player limps into a pot.
It is very important to notice if a player notices how other players are playing in combination with their bluffing tendencies.
A great example of a well combined set of questions would be:
What kinds of hands, or situations is a player likely to make a bluff raise, and who are they likely to make it against?
Part 2
Application of tight Play.
Section 1
Tight Play, When Folded to You Pre-Flop.
All of the below examples are intended for 10 handed play. If you are 9 handed, then consider the empty seat to have folded (even if there is no chair at the table). If there are players sitting out behind you, then you can consider their folds to have been made already.
Many books give you a detailed list of hands to play in each position if you are first into the pot. When I coach a player I hate setting strict rules for them to follow. There are so many reasons why you might be correct to break the rules, that I prefer to set standards that can be adjusted based of the situations they face. My articles will take that approach to applying theory as well.
How Tight Is Right?
Simply put, the more of the above that apply, as well as the earlier your position, the tighter you should play. But how tight is that?
If you are the first player to act on the first hand of the tournament, and have not played with the other players before, then it is correct to fold [A-Qo], [A-Js], and [88].
If three players have folded before you, on the first hand of a tournament, then it would be correct to fold [A-Jo], [A-Ts], [K-Js] and [77].
If five players have foled before you, on the first hand of a tournament, then it would be correct to fold [A-9o], [K-Jo], [A-7s], [K-Ts], and [44]
If you are in the Cut-off (only the button and blinds are left to act behind you) or on the button your standards can be more liberal with your card selection. The reason being, that you are far more likely to be in position when you play your hand. How liberal really depends on your skill level. The thing that is important to remember in these two seats when you are first into the pot is that the blinds are not worth stealing on the first hand. Until you get a feel for the players behind you I still recommend playing relatively tight even in these positions.
Section 2
Betting Your Hands Before the Flop.
When you do enter a pot on the first hands of a tournament, do so with a raise. Without knowing how the other players are likely to play there is no reason to try and get tricky by limping. At the very beginning of a tournament with a typical structure a raise to 3x the big blind is standard.
As more of the reasons to play tight change you can increase the range of hands you play, as well as the range of your opening bet sizes. If you are uncomfortable varying your bet sizes at the earlier stages then it is acceptable to always enter the pot for 3 times the big blind.
Since your opponents will frequently be looser than necessary at these stages, and your standards for raising are relatively high, it is a reasonable strategy to raise more from early position to narrow the field. When you are out of position it the more players that call your raise, the harder your hand will be to play on most flops. When you are in late position it is also reasonable to make your standard opening raise a little smaller. If the blinds call your raise, then you will have position after the flop, and since your standards are still moderately tight, you will have a big advantage.
There is a comfort level that many newer players lack in playing after the flop. Your weaker opponents are likely to make bigger mistakes after the flop, than they are before the flop.
Section 3
One Player Limps Before You
When someone has entered the pot before you with a limp you should proceed with caution. Not as much caution as if they had raised, but early in the tournament you have very little information about what their limp means. The earlier their position, the scarier their limp. This doesn’t mean you should shy away from playing the hand, particularly if you are on the button or cut-off (as there are less players that can raise behind you). It does mean you should raise your standards for making a raise, but some hands actually become better to just call with after a player limps. Your standards should be slightly tighter than they would be with big cards that are off suit, slightly looser with small pairs, and relatively similar with suited cards. Estimating a player’s range of hands will become easier as the tournament progresses, so default to assuming they are tight. The less you know about their limp, the harder it will be fore you to take advantage of the situation.
Small pocket pairs and premium suited cards play better in multi-way pots. The reason I recommended raising them, even though they play better in multi-way pots is that by limping with only these hands, you are giving up a lot of information about your hand. It is simply better to be aggressive with a wider range of hands, and then have that deception to use later in the hand.If you have noticed that the limper is likely to have limped with the intention of raising if someone raises behind, then you have more incentive to just call the blind.