Climbing That Mountain

We all know that to finish off a tournament, we need to become ruthless beasts of hostility, forcing our foes into constant pressure situations and creating opportunities where they can make mistakes, and we can find ourselves finally at the summit of our event. There has been so much focus on how to take over tournament events toward the end that it occurred to me that many players aren't sure how to navigate the initial steps at the base camp; that is how to begin a tournament rather than end it. After all, if you don't make it out of those early levels in good shape, you won't have any opportunity to breathe the rarified air in those late levels.



Let's take a look at a few ways that players can trip themselves up in those crucial early levels:



Overly Eager Early Aggression
Many players are so used to the idea of hostility being the way to go in poker that they fail to understand that there is a time and a place for everything. I often see players begin big events by trying to steal blinds immediately and getting themselves into early trouble unnecessarily. The pots are small enough in the early going that rarely is it worth it to get into huge altercations at this point. It's best to leave the real fighting for when the pots are actually worth fighting over.



To start, one huge rule of thumb for my own play is not to get too involved prior to the antes coming into play; pots are rarely large enough at that point to warrant making many risky plays. In those first few levels, I often find myself routinely folding hands like the A 3 and the Q 6 on the button when everyone has folded to me. In the past when I have played these hands, I have often either won a meager pot, usually just the blinds at a point where they are pretty inconsequential, or gotten involved in a big pot in which I have a weak holding with which I can't feel comfortable.



Imagine that you hold that Q 6 and are called by the blinds. Then, the flop comes down Q 10 5. How are you going to be able to play that hand with any amount of comfort? Even though you hit your queen, it is susceptible to many hands. Your kicker is very weak, yet you often won't want to let the hand go once you have been raised. That's big trouble that early in the event. It's so much better to just let that hand go preflop with no damage to your stack whatsoever. I see this kind of play all the time.



At the $15,000 buy-in Bellagio Five-Diamond World Poker Classic championship event a few months back, I saw a player commit this sin on the very first hand of the tournament – against Dan Harrington, no less, a player who is known for his solid and smart play. Everyone folded to this player and Dan, who were in the small and big blinds, respectively, and the small-blind player repeatedly attempted to take the pot away from Dan. When all was said and done, Dan raked in about an $11,000 pot on the first hand – when the blinds were $50-$100! The other player never recovered and ended up going out in the second level. I rest my case. Just relax and let the game come to you in the early levels.



Author's note: For the A♥K♥ example listed below, the figures are for when you believe your opponent to be holding a paired and dry Q, and thus making your six hole card outs still live. This will generally not be true early, but is used to illustrate a big draw here.



Fear of Big Draws
You are playing well and picking up several small pots in the second level of an event. You are a known aggressive player and can tell that the others at the table are getting a little sick of you for taking so many chips from them early. In the current hand, you are lucky enough to look down at the A K, and you bring it in for your normal raise. You get one call, from the button, and head to the flop. It comes down with all kinds of potential, but no real delivery: Q 8 4. Still, you are feeling good and lead out with a bet. Unfortunately, you are greeted with an all-in raise from your opponent. You have roughly the same amount of chips as your opponent, so this is a big decision. What should you do now?



Most players will be chased out quickly by such an aggressive move this early in an event. They don't want to be knocked out early, regardless of the circumstances of the hand. The bottom line is that they aren't playing to win the tournament; they are playing to go broke the slowest. Don't fall into that trap.



Let's take a closer look at this specific hand: Let's say we put our opponent on a queen here, and assume he is afraid of the flush draw on the board. This definitely gives him the upper hand, at this point at least. There still is quite a high probability that the A-K suited will wind up being the best hand on the river, though. So many players are so focused on the flush draw they have that they forget that their ace and king are probably still live, as well. This gives them an additional six outs to the nine that they already have with the draw, which gives them a total of 15 outs. In my book, that is easily enough to be able to make the call here.



Remember, these are the types of hands that enable you to accumulate lots of chips and make yourself a factor later. Don't be afraid to make these big calls when you have odds in your favor early. You may be letting some amazing opportunities slip through your fingers early by letting yourself be scared off by big bets. There are times when you should be aggressive early and times when you shouldn't. Don't be afraid to get involved when the action warrants it early.



Tensing Up Early Because of a Slow Start
Many players begin to tense up a little if a few levels have gone by and they haven't been able to improve much, and I have fallen victim to this bogus feeling before, as well. In reality, the early stages of an event are truly when a player can get himself knocked out but can make only so much headway toward winning. Of course, it's always a big plus when you can get off to a quick start, but it in no way ensures that you are going to be sitting at the final table.



You need to be able to wait out those poor starts and give yourself a chance later when you get your shot. If a few levels have gone by and you haven't made any headway, don't overreact and start making moves prematurely. That is one of the surest ways to get yourself knocked out quickly. It's important that you don't fall into the trap of thinking you need to make moves just to be doing something.



At some Bellagio events a few months back, I found myself hanging around the same amount of chips for the first seven hours. You read that right – the first seven hours. Tim Phan came up to me later and made a comment that I didn't need chips at all … until the end of the tournament. That is the right mentality to have if that's the situation you find yourself in, and it served me well in that event. I went on a huge rush toward the end of the day and just narrowly missed out on making the final table, finishing 10th. Whenever I begin getting frustrated and feeling like the field is passing me by early, I always think of this day and let it calm me and my play down.



As I said earlier, it's always nice to jump out to a huge start, but it's not required. You need to learn to assess situations independently and decide when they are worth getting involved in and when they aren't. Sometimes it's correct to push the pedal down to the floor, and sometimes it is right to just cruise in the slow lane and wait until your spot comes.



Either is playable, and you can't let yourself being forced into one for a while shake you off your game.



Of course, these are just a few of the mistakes that we all sometimes make in the early stages of events. There undoubtedly are more that I haven't mentioned, and probably some specific ones that you may be committing. As is the case with everything else in poker, you need to figure out what works for you in the first couple of levels and play accordingly. Don't fall into the trap of trying to emulate a specific player's early-stages style when you might not be able to pull it off.



Joe Sebok loves to know when you think he's off base. You can e-mail him at [email protected].