More Ways to Adjust to the Changing Tournament Scene - Part II

Another tournament trend in the new millennium is the dramatic increase in the number of players entering tournaments. Tournaments with all sizes of buy-ins have experienced enormous increases in the number of entrants. It is not at all unusual to have 400-plus entrants in medium buy-in events ($300 to $500). Amazingly, the 2001 World Series of Poker $10,000 main event topped the 500-player mark (613 entrants, to be exact) for the first time in history, and the top prize was elevated to $1.5 million for the first time ever. This year's winner of the 631-player field won $2 million – not a bad payoff for five days' work.

As a result of big-field tournament action, new faces keep emerging, some of whom remain viable as tournament contenders, while others are one-shot wonders and then disappear from the pack, never to lead it again. The potential profit in these huge tournaments is enormous. Things feed upon themselves: the more entrants, the greater the prize money, and the greater the prize money, the more people want to play and the more attendance swells.

In huge-field tournaments that still retain the "double" increases in the blinds and antes at each level, the luck factor increases enormously, but in those events where the increases are kept to 50 percent, skill prevails. Nonetheless, big-field tournaments are harder to win due to the sheer volume of players. Also, the skill level of players continues to increase dramatically because of several factors: (a) more legal places to play tournament poker; (b) online poker tournaments at major Internet gaming sites; © software programs with which people can practice poker; and (d) more good, strategically sound poker books for all levels of play.

What does this mean to you? First, don't let the numbers overwhelm you. Remember that you have to beat the field only one table at a time – your table. You cannot control events occurring at other tables; you have control over only your own. Second, you must maintain more patience and discipline than ever before; you cannot try to win the tournament too soon. One of the dangers in a big tournament is that when some players get off to a flying start and accumulate a big stack of chips, they try to run over their opponents too early and end up blowing off lots of their chips. This is one of the biggest flaws I see in the play of aggressive players who have big stacks early in a tournament – they make too many plays with marginal hands. Do not fall into this trap. You must protect those chips and continually pace yourself.

There also is a trend these days to flatten the payout structure, making the payout less top-heavy and paying more tables. Quite often, the flatter pay scale results in less deal-making at the final table because the differences in payout percentages between first, second, and third places are smaller. For example, in the traditional structure, first place may pay 40 percent, second place 20 percent, and third place 10 percent, whereas flattened structures might award 28 percent for first, 22 percent for second, and 16 percent for third. If I am playing a tournament in which the differences in payouts are smaller and I have a decent amount of chips, I will have a greater tendency to play for the top prize than negotiate a money deal. If a more traditional payout structure is used, I will have more reason to negotiate a deal, which is why more than 80 percent of tournament finalists have negotiated a modified payout in the past. Many people believe that deal-making needs to be eliminated in order to attract corporate sponsorship, and they view the flattening of payouts as a way to discourage deals.

Even with the popularity of more gradual increases in the blinds and longer rounds, fast-action tournaments with double increases and short time periods are still on the rise, because so many casinos now are sponsoring tournaments to stimulate live-action games. The advantage of playing these low buy-in, fast-paced tournaments is that they attract many less-skilled players who don't know proper tournament strategy and therefore make many mistakes that more sophisticated players can capitalize on to accumulate large stacks of chips. The disadvantage is that some of these weak players will make the wrong play at the right time and put a beat on you that cripples you and greatly reduces your chances of winning the event, especially if they draw out on you in the later stages of the tournament when you don't have enough time to make a comeback.

You can adjust to these fast-action events by playing a solid, selectively aggressive game. If you've accumulated chips, you don't need to gamble, because the weaker players will be doing that for you. You don't have to force the action, because they will be coming to you. Weak players usually are either too passive or too aggressive. If they're too passive, you can be aggressive against them. If they're too aggressive, you can lie in the weeds and pick them off with your stronger hands.

In the final segment of this three-part series in the next issue, look for more ways to adjust to today's changing tournament scene. Until then, I hope to meet you in the winner's circle one day soon.

Editor's note: You will find 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.