New Tournament Trends and How to Adjust to Them - Part I

The new millennium has brought a new and expanding horizon to the tournament poker landscape. No longer do tournaments have 20-minute or one-hour rounds – some have 15-minute or 45-minute rounds. Nor does every event double the blinds at the beginning of each new round – many now increase the limits far more gradually. Further, the trend these days is for a flatter payout schedule, with more money going to more players and less money being awarded to the top three finishers. What do these changes mean to the average tournament poker player? They call for refining your tournament strategy for special situations and making adjustments in order to maximize your tournament rewards.

This column is the first in a three-part series. To kick things off, let's examine two innovative changes in tournament structures that call for certain modifications in your tournament strategy.

(1) The TEARS structure: Without a doubt, the greatest innovation in tournament structures is Tex Morgan's computer software program TEARS, which stands for Tournament Evaluation and Rating System. The way it works is that the tournament director tells the computer how long he wants the event to last and how many entrants there are in the event. The computer then calculates the required length of the rounds to achieve the desired results. The major feature of the program is that the incremental increases in the blinds are only 50 percent (or sometimes less) in each round. "Players see more 'play' for their buy-in than they did in the past," Morgan said. "Smaller blind increases and shorter rounds reduce the luck factor." In my opinion, this type of structure favors the more skilled player because it gives him more time to ply his tournament skills, but it also requires some fine-tuning of his overall tournament strategy.

(2) Playing the final table on day No. 2: Most major tournaments now conclude the first day's play when the action gets down to the final table. The typical tournament that used to end in the wee hours of the morning now is shortened on the first day with final-table play resuming on the afternoon of the second day. (At this year's World Series of Poker, no new level began after 2 a.m. on day No. 1, and everyone still in action returned on day No. 2 for the final playoff.) Tournaments that are using the TEARS format use the same slower increases at the final table, and often add some additional playing time to each round. In my opinion, playing the final table on day No. 2 after a night's rest, rather than playing one marathon session, definitely favors the more highly skilled tournament players and reduces the luck factor even further.

The growing tendency to stage tournaments with slow increases in the blinds and final-table play on day No. 2 has led to some very strong final tables. Here's how you can refine your strategy to take advantage of these two major changes. The main thing that you gain when the limits increase more gradually is more maneuverability, even with a shorter stack. Shorter stacks have more time to adjust and more time to wait for premium starting hands. This doesn't mean that you can sit indefinitely waiting for a premium hand; it merely means that you can be more selective about the hands with which you enter pots.

The bigger stacks need to be even more patient, and not go for the kill too quickly. If you have a big stack and gamble too much, you risk doubling up the shorter stacks and reducing your own chances of winning or placing in the top three.

As is the case with other structures, the medium stacks have the most difficult decisions to make. They have to know when to go after the tall stacks as well as the short stacks, and when to back off from either of them. They must try not to get crippled by the tall stacks and double up a short stack (thereby becoming short-stacked themselves). Knowing when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em is the challenge of the medium stack.

Look for more ways to adjust your strategy to today's new trends in tournament play in my next column. Until then, I hope to meet you in the winner's circle.

Editor's note: You will find many more practical tournament strategies in Tom McEvoy's book Tournament Poker (2001 Millennium Edition), which is available through Card Player. For more details, visit www.pokerbooks.com.