No-Limit Hold'em Truths

Is there a big difference in strategy between a no-limit hold'em money game and a no-limit tournament game? If you peruse the poker literature on this subject – including my own writing – the impression is that there is a great gulf in strategy between the two poker arenas. But perhaps we poker writers have been a bit misleading. Let us examine these differences and see why they occur.

In any form of poker, tournament play will reach a point where strategy becomes heavily dependent on the payoff schedule. This strategy normally comes into play only when the event reaches the point where prize money is being paid, or will be paid very soon. Let's look at an example. You are playing in a no-limit hold'em supersatellite that awards seats in the World Series of Poker. The top three finishers get a seat (a $10,000 value) and the fourth-place finisher gets a grand. There are four of you left in the event, with exactly equal chip counts. Player A moves all in, Player B folds, Player C calls, and it is up to you. What should you do? (This is a specially created scenario, but not that far from what could actually occur in the real world, to illustrate the profound effect that a tournament payoff structure can have on poker strategy.) It should be obvious that you must fold regardless of whether you hold the extremes of A-A or 7-2. Unless the two players tie, you will be getting a plane ticket to Vegas. Poker strategy has been completely corrupted, to the point that your cards are absolutely meaningless, because you are in a tournament. In a money game, this degree of strategy corruption could be attained only by playing a Mafia member heads up and being told after the game starts that if you win, you will be accused of cheating and will get an all-expense-paid trip to the East River.

Tournament poker, in which strategy gets profoundly affected by the prize structure, can be a world away from money poker games. But what about the early and middle rounds of tournament play? They also are portrayed as being greatly different from money games, but it is worthwhile to examine the basis of that difference.

Here is a hand to consider: In a no-limit hold'em game, you are dealt pocket tens. The blinds are $5-$10, and you are in middle position. Let's see how the amount of money in front of you affects your strategy.

1. You have $80. Here, there is only one correct play; go all in for your whole stack. If you win the blind money, that represents a nice-sized increase in your stack. If you get played with, you probably have a decent chance to win. It is a serious poker error to open for $30, because if someone raises the rest of your money, it would be foolish to fold. You are in too deep to get out. Since it is better to win the blind money than get played with, make it as tough as you can for someone to call, and scoot all your loot. Limping with this large a pair is undesirable, since your hand merits a play for the pot.

2. You have $800. Now, you can either limp in or open for a small raise. In any event, you have a clear game plan of trying to flop a set and double up. If the flop does not help, you are not planning on investing a lot of chips to go after the pot.

If I were playing in a money game, scenario No. 1 would be unlikely to arise. The only time I would be sitting with only $80 in front of me in that game would be if I had just lost a big pot and was waiting for the button to go by before buying more chips. But in a tournament, such a layout would not be unusual at all. We associate tournament play with a high blind structure relative to our stack. Your stack size has a profound effect on your strategy, especially with an intermediate pair. A pocket pair is hard to improve. Your choice is to play it for being the best hand without help, or to try to improve it, and stack size is the main factor in this decision. If you try to help the hand, you want a big payoff in proportion to your investment, meaning you want deep money.

Now, here is my question, and the main point of this column: If you are given a no-limit hold'em hand and asked the correct play of it, and the blind structure and your stack size are specified, do you need to know whether the hand arose in a money game or in a tournament (at a point where the prize structure had not entered the picture)?

In my opinion, there is very little difference in your strategy between money play and tournament play. The big gulf between the two is caused by the fact that tournament play normally uses a high blind structure in proportion to your stack, and money play normally uses a low blind structure in proportion to your stack. However, if the size of your stack and the blind structure are specified in the problem, you do not need any more information to make an intelligent decision.

I am sure that what I am saying will be a little controversial, and I am always willing to learn a little more about poker myself. A half-century of experience is definitely not enough to learn everything about the game. This is what I have been told by some tournament stars. Star No. 1 says, "You have to start firing chips right away, to give yourself a chance to accumulate a decent-size stack for when the blinds go up later on and put you under money pressure." Star No. 2 says, "You have to go slowly at the start, because the crazies have not busted out yet, and you do not want to put everything on one pot where you could get knocked out." Can these two stars both be right? One wouldn't think so, but they both do well in tournaments.

Until someone can convince me that there is a clear difference between tournament strategy and money strategy when they are both using the same blind structure and stack size, I am going to continue to preach the following advice: Tournament final tables excepted, there really is no difference between tournament strategy and money strategy. There is only one strategy, and it is based on the ratio of the blinds to stack size. The gulf between tournament and money play is actually a mirage, created by the fact that a tournament will normally have a much higher blind and ante structure relative to your stack size. Learn how to play a hand properly relative to your stack size, and you will do well regardless of the arena where it takes place.