Tournament Hold 'em Hand By Hand:. Neil D. Myers
(occasionally two or three) paying prizes to the first three finishers. These tournaments have a very fast structure and players with a fixed, almost robotic playing strategy can do quite well, if they understand exactly how to play these to optimum effect. These tournaments are not covered in this book.
Satellites have similarities to Sit and Go tournaments and may consist of one or many (Super Satellites) tables, the prize usually being a seat in a bigger tournament. Satellites represent an excellent opportunity to gain entry to the event that may have entry fees of $5000–$10,000 and more. The satellites entry fee may be a few hundred dollars or less. Internet poker rooms have satellites for as little as $10. It was by entering one of these and finally winning the main event that Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker in 2003. As one western poker writer has stated, it’s like taking a toothpick and turning it into a lumber yard. I can think of no competitive arena that offers similar opportunities of growing a modest stake into almost instant riches. Like Sit and Gos, satellites have their own specific strategies and considerations. I recommend playing in them and becoming skilled in their execution, but again, how to do so is beyond the scope of this book.
Also, there are many tournaments that are not no-limit Hold’em although no-limit Hold’em tournaments are by far the most numerous and popular. If you are a skilled Seven-Card Stud, Omaha, Razz, or Limit Hold’em player you can certainly find tournaments that use these poker forms, but they can be hard to find outside of the larger poker events, like the World Series. Right now, no-limit Hold’em all but dominates the poker scene. Events played that do not feature no-limit Hold’em may well be very lucrative, because these days few players are willing to devote the time to playing them well. However, smaller fields often mean lower profit potential and you may run into expert specialists. If you are willing to devote the time and study to becoming one of these you can do well, but these forms are not covered in this book.
CHAPTER TWO
How to Use This Book, plus the Ideal Tournament and the General Winning Method
A Winning Strategy for Fast-Structure, Multi-Table, No-Limit Hold’em Tournaments
This book offers a specific method for playing fast-structure, multi-table, no-limit Hold’em tournaments. These tournaments have the following characteristics:
1. The tournament consists of fields of around eighty to 400 players.
2. Buy-ins range from $25 to $1,000, with the majority being around $100 to $500.
3. Players start with a chip stack that is at least thirty times the opening Big Blind; for example, a Big Blind of $50 and a chip stack of at least $1500.
4. The tournament lasts for about four to seven hours on average.
The methods described in the following chapters are designed specifically for tournaments of this type. They are not applicable (though elements of them might be) to Sit and Go tournaments (one or many tables), One Table Satellite tournaments, or Multi-Day, Slow-Structure tournaments. The latter include tournaments that are often televised, such as the Main Event at the World Series of Poker or the bigger events on the World Poker Tour or Professional Poker Tour.
PLAYING IN BIG, SLOW-STRUCTURE TOURNAMENTS
If you play in, or plan to play in, these big, slow-structure events, then what you will learn in this book will be of benefit and a good foundation for playing in bigger tournaments. But you will need additional skills that are beyond the scope of this book. These big events are really meant for the most highly skilled players, and players like this will enjoy a considerable overlay because most of those who participate in these events have no idea how to play in them so as to maximize their chances of winning or even finishing in the money. Even in these types of tournaments when the field becomes very large, numbering thousands of players, the luck elements increase. In slow-structure tournaments with smaller fields, say 100 to 500 players, skilled players can do consistently well. This is why some skilled professionals like Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, T.J. Cloutier, and other notables have been consistently able to win over the years. They enter a lot of events, they understand what it takes to win tournaments, and they play in events that favor skill over luck. I should add that when some of these players were at the peak of their powers, they were perhaps some of the very few who knew and understood how to play tournaments well. The knowledge gap is closing rapidly and to win consistently, winning players of the past will have to adjust to current conditions. Some have already done so, while others are slower to adapt and their recent results reflect this. However, this is all the subject of another book!
Frankly, I know of no book in print at this writing that offers completely sound advice on how best to play in slow-structure tournaments, under current conditions. The best books available (many of which are credible efforts) all have flaws. Books that I recommend, that at least offer useful, though sometimes incomplete or flawed information, include those by Dan Harrington (though I believe he places far too much emphasis on card selection and is generally too conservative), Doyle Brunson (great book but somewhat outdated), Erick Lindgren (up to date but not detailed enough to be practical), and T.J. Cloutier (again, outdated and rather superficial). Some of the current tournament superstars are great players but not, it seems, great writers, teachers, or analysts as none has yet penned a useful and remotely complete volume. Perhaps they reason that it is better to play and win the big bucks rather than share their secrets and earn a poker author’s pittance. Very wise!
So if you understand the limitation of this book and its method, I will share with you a series of strategies than can serve you well if correctly applied. I run into many players who have entered many tournaments over the years and have never finished in the money. Some of these are good cash game players, but they do not understand how to adjust their game to tournament conditions. They erroneously believe that the same game will serve them under all conditions. This is patently false. It is also an error to believe that if you are a winning tournament player you can therefore dominate in cash games. Again, lack of understanding, hubris, and arrogance are to blame, and many good tournament players have lost a good chunk of change in cash games. So in using the methods I describe you should know how to select your field of battle. What follows is a personal recommendation about what I believe to be the ideal tournament for the methods described.
THE IDEAL FAST-STRUCTURE TOURNAMENT?
So is there such a thing as the ideal fast-structure tournament? Maybe not ideal, but there are definitely characteristics I would look for that reward skilled play rather than make a tournament a mere luck-fest. Here are three factors I look for before I plunk down my hard-earned cash and give up my even more valuable time to enter a tournament.
1 A field of 80 to 350 players. In my opinion, when fields have too few players the prizes are really too small to justify the cost of entry and the time it takes to get to the final table. I have seen tournaments with as few as thirty players or so and with buy-ins of $60 last hours. Depending upon payout, the top prize might be only $600 with second place paying $300 or less. This does not seem a good use of my poker time. If I win I want a bigger payout than this and so should you. Conversely, a field of over 350 in a fast-structure tournament can make for some impressive prizes but it also begins to cross the threshold where luck is a more significant factor than skill. I have seen some fast-structure tournaments where the field is as high as 1,500 players. The online free rolls often have more. Eventually as the Blinds increase and antes become larger, there is no real poker left to play. Luck wins out. To some extent all fast-structure tournaments are like this in their final stages, but when that occurs you want to be at or very close to the final table. If it becomes a luck-fest with, say, 150 players still remaining, the chances of winning even a large prize do not adequately reward the skilled player.
2 Buy-ins of $100 to $300. With a field of this size I like the buy-in to be large enough that if I win or make a top-place finish, I feel that I have got a pleasing return on my investment. I prefer not to spend more than $500 on an entry fee because even for the skilled player, fast-structure tournaments have a high element of luck. It is easily possible to play twenty such tournaments without a money finish (though this would probably indicate that there is a flaw in your approach), and maybe longer before you capture