Playing an MTT when Short Stacked

[GaF]

Buy Harrington on Hold'em Vol I (Strategic Play) from Amazon Buy Harrington on Hold'em Vol II (The Endgame) from Amazon Buy Harrington on Hold'em Vol III from (Expert Strategy) Amazon (Due to be released May 30th 2006) I have had Harrington on Hold'em Volume II for a while, but am only just getting around to reading it ....... reading his section on "inflection points" - this talks about the area of my game that I feel is my biggest strength (and the most important factor IMO to doing well in the closing stages of a Multi Table Tournament) - it also explains why I make moves like going all in with 84o (noted previously by Mr V :P) and why I feel this is right. That's the strength of my game - The weakness of my game is post flop play (which is why my aggressive game trys to avoid post flop situations). If you have read Harrington on Hold'em, Volume 2, then there will be nothing new here. If you haven't read it, I suggest you view this as a brief taster - if you play MTT's regularly then Harrington on Holdem is essential reading and I suggest you buy the books and read them!!! Your stack of chips in a tournament has no monetary value in itself. It simply represents time. The amount of time you can remain in the game. The more chips you have the more time you have. As the blinds increase during a tournament however, the amount of time that a fixed chip stack has reduces. A good measure of time is a variable called M (as defined by Paul Magriel). M takes each stack as a multiplier of the cost of each circuit (so Big Blind plus Small Blind plus any ante multiplied by the number of times it must be played). The lower your M value, the less time you have, the more desperate you are and the more prepared you should be to gamble on lower value hands. Some examples of M: BB=$200:SB=$100:Ante=$25:Players Remaining=9 The cost of one circuit is $200 + $100 + ($25 * 9) = $525 If your stack is $500, then your M is approximately 1 If your stack is $1,000 then your M is approximately 2 If your stack is $10,000 then your M is approximately 20 BB=$1000:SB=$500:Ante=$100:Players Remaining=4 The cost of one circuit is $1000 + $500 + ($100 * 4) = $1900 If your stack is $500, then your M is approximately 0.25 If your stack is $1,000 then your M is approximately 0.5 If your stack is $10,000 then your M is approximately 5 Harrington breaks down your M, your time, into a number of comfort zones and recommends play depending on your zone. Green Zone (When your M is greater than 20): You can play as you wish - your normal and standard form of poker that you are most comfortable and successful with, whether it be aggressive or passsive, loose or tight. Yellow Zone (When your M is between 10 and 20): Here you lose your ability to play conservative poker - you need to loosen up a bit. You can be aggressive and need to start making moves with hands weaker than those a conservative player would make. Orange Zone (when your M is between 5 and 10): Here you lose the ability to make certain types of move that require a deeper stack. You need to be getting even more aggressive than you were in the Yellow zone. Red Zone (when your M is between 1 and 5): Here "you've lost the ability to make a bet other than all-in". It is all in or fold. If your M is below 3 then you have lost the ability to force others to fold and will probably have at least one caller. If your M is above 3, then you need to be going all in with almost any 2 cards where noone has entered the pot before you - For example, on the button, on a full table, with no callers before me, with an M of between 3 and 5, I would go all in with ANY 2 cards (one slight proviso - depending on the M of the SB and BB behind me). Dead Zone (When your M is less than 1 - you have less than a circuit left): You should NEVER let yourself get into this position through being blinded away - you have no fold equity any more and are likely to be called by multiple players when you make your move. You should only ever get into this position after you lose an all in with a similar sized, but slightly smaller, stack. Here you need to move against as few opponents as possible - you should go all in at the first occasion the betting arrives at you and there are no callers or betters before you. Your cards are all but irrelevent in your decision. This is a very high level summary - the book goes into more detail. Now M is a new variable for me - I play in few MTT's that introduce ante's - so with that you can ignore M and just think of multiples of the BB. With no Ante's you hit the red zone with between 7 and 8 times the BB. The orange zone will be between this and 15 times the BB. The yellow zone will be between 15 and 30 times the BB and the Green zone is above 30 times the BB. Stack size is CRITICAL. You need to be aware EVERY hand of which zone you are in AND which zone your opponents are in. In general, when you are in the lower zones, your objective is to win the blinds uncontested. This is why you either want to be first into the pot, or betting large enough to make limpers fold. Another concept Harrington talks about (in Volume I) is the Gap which explains why it takes a far better hand to call a bet than it does to make a bet. The Gap is an essential piece of knowledge in this strategy, and is the reason it works. When you are in the higher zones - you should be aware of what zones your opponents are in and the likely hands they will be betting with. If you know they are in the Red Zone, you are able to call for value with weaker hands than you would if they are in the higher zones - you can afford to play the odds and take the longer term value!!! Ok - happy to take questions on this. Does it make sense? Are there areas that need clarification? Do you want to dispute anything I have said? I'm open to debate on this!!!!

[BAM]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked Thanks GaF extremely informative, very useful piece. I have only started playing MTT in the past couple of months after being very succesful playing short handed STT. I find I am successful to a point in MTT and have made several final tables but to date I have never won one. I will probably go and buy the books now and do some swotting but the biggest skill I think you need in MTT is luck especially on SO as there are so many idiots around not taking it seriously. I have enjoyed the champions league format as that cuts out a lot of the idiots because when people enter that tourney its for a month not just that night so that suits my tighter game. I would like to go on and win a place at the BF million or something of that ilk but I do have something lacking in my MTT game and this will help a great deal. Thanks a lot :notworthy:notworthy

[Pokerose]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked nice post Gaf. :clap

[guesswest]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked Top post GaF :ok Will just say that I don't think an awareness of inflection points necessarily applies more to shortstacks. It's a useful thing to be aware of in terms of preserving your own stack but even more useful in terms of knowing when and how you can pick up chips from your opponents. It's the central factor in LAG games mastered by the likes of Phil Ivey. In his case, when he has a large stack he continually makes seemingly random overbets into pots - but those bets are actually very carefully considered and specific amounts factoring his opponents stacks and what it'll do to betting patterns over subsequent streets etc. If you have a sense of inflection points, you have a great idea what bets are needed to make your opponents make 'real' decisions, without overcomitting your stack. That kind of LAG play, but certainly TAG too, is actually very mathematical and very much based around opponents stack ratios and % pot committment - I think the depth and complexity of the factors being considered and calculated in that kind of play is largely hidden, which is why we don't appreciate how skillful and difficult it is to play that game well. So like in most aspects of poker, it's 10% knowing whats going on with yourself, and 90% awareness of what's going on with your opponent. I think it's easy to shy away from playing position and stacksize as oppose to strictly cards because at first glance it seems like it's more risk exposure, but the problem with that is the fact that no two cards are particularly big favourites, so you really want to be minimising showdowns. If you lose heads up with aces the third time you pick it up, that's not unlucky, that's the outcome that's statistically favoured. Which isn't to say you should be shutting other players out of every pot, but in terms of risk exposure playing stacks and position is the lesser of two evils. Edit: Terrible grammar

[georgej]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked Never thought of it like that, but seems to fit the way i play. If you're short stacked and have a good hand - let any bets you make show that a good hand is required to win. As i very rarely bluff and am not overly aggressive, am quite often the short stack. Aggression seems to be the key in the later part of any game. A few times i have changed my tactics recently while shortstacked in STT's and if someone puts in a large raise while i hold top pair after the flop, i went allin. Most times they have had A and high kicker - which hasn't hit. Definately food for thought there GaF. Will need to win a few games to buy some books methinks. Thanks for posting :ok

[BAM]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked

Never thought of it like that, but seems to fit the way i play. If you're short stacked and have a good hand - let any bets you make show that a good hand is required to win. As i very rarely bluff and am not overly aggressive, am quite often the short stack. Aggression seems to be the key in the later part of any game. A few times i have changed my tactics recently while shortstacked in STT's and if someone puts in a large raise while i hold top pair after the flop, i went allin. Most times they have had A and high kicker - which hasn't hit. Definately food for thought there GaF. Will need to win a few games to buy some books methinks. Thanks for posting :ok

I have managed to get volume 1 as download PDF :ok (working on the others) If anyone wants a copy I could email I'm at work now but could do it later when I get home

[uglycow]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked I think my game probably could benefit from reading some more ... throw one in my direction: [email protected] ... thanks :o)))

[guesswest]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked I've got volume 1 on my bookshelf, but if you manage to find volume 2 I'd love a copy - I did own it but my copy has gone astray. [email protected] :)

[georgej]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked Tried sending you a PM, but din't think you've got enough posts yet. Would love a copy if you can manage it. [email protected]

[The Rivers]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked i'd love a copy if you wouldn't mind sending me one. i don't own any poker books yet and harrington's at the top of my list. [email protected]

[Mr Intensity]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked MCFC66, a copy would be great:ok [email protected]

[moFace]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked haha youve done it now, do me one [email protected]

[Norfolk Enchance]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked I've got the book myself but should all be here in PDF format http://www.geocities.com/hugh_young/ Its not my web page and I can't remember where I got the link from now was so long ago. Anyway, if it is all there it saves sending a load of emails out.

[jeffers]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked Very interesting stuff GaF, I'd never really thought about it in that way exactly, but it makes good strategic sense. :ok

[mrmuzeman]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked Just buy the book cheapskates! :lol I go by the rule that if I have less than 10bb left then im all in or fold, thats it.

[BAM]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked Sent out with Vol 2 as well Give me a shout if there are any probs

[GaF]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked The book goes on to run through "Red Zone Strategy in Action" - I found this an interesting demonstration of what he talks about over a series of 11 hands - will try and get a summary of these up over the next few days :ok Just to emphasise Guesswest's comment - cos it is so important - your primary objective, especially in the red zone, is to win blinds as often as you can pre flop without being called.........

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: Playing an MTT when Short Stacked

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Buy Harrington on Hold'em Vol I (Strategic Play) from Amazon Buy Harrington on Hold'em Vol II (The Endgame) from Amazon Buy Harrington on Hold'em Vol III from (Expert Strategy) Amazon

Just bought all 3, my poker life is still only about 6 months old so I need to do mor reading, although I believe that playing is the best way to learn overall. :ok