Head Games: Tom Schneider, Sorel Mizzi and Steve O'Dwyer

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Craig Tapscott: What situations or opportunities are you keeping a keen eye out for during the early stages of a tournament?

Tom Schneider: There are several factors for me: How many players are at the table, the starting stack size compared to the blinds, what is the table breaking order, how active or aggressive do I think the players will be, and the blind and ante structure. Next, if the table is nine or ten-handed and the tournament has a reasonably slow structure and my table is not going to break soon, I would rather not be too active in the early stages so I can create an image of patience and solid starting hand selection.

The early stages are the time to pay attention to how others are playing and try to pick up reads on people. After the antes kick in, I believe there is a lot of value in raising the aggressive players preflop using the solid image I created in earlier stages. If the table has eight or fewer players and the structure is moderately fast, I’m going to play many hands in position against aggressive players. I will often try to build a stack early and then be aggressive the rest of the way through.

Sorel Mizzi: It is totally dependent on the table and my position on it. If you mean early stages as in pre-ante or early antes, I’m really not explicitly “looking” to build a good stack in the early stages, but I guess my playing style often renders that outcome. The only thing I’m looking to do is play to the best of my ability and make optimal decisions every hand and on every street. That includes targeting specific weaker players who I feel I could out-maneuver or outplay post-flop who will have more of a tendency to stack off light. I’m also interested in playing a lot of pots with people in position and developing the maniacal image that I’m so used to playing under. In general, I try not to be too active early in the tournament, because the biggest edge for me comes post-antes when making hands isn’t as important as applying pressure.

Steve O’Dwyer: During the early stages, I’m putting the most focus on profiling the players who I am facing for the first time. I am trying to grade them on two scales. The first is my immediate perception of their technical skill level at the game of poker. Is this person playing hands poorly or skillfully? You must always be on the lookout for information that will get you closer to understanding how an opponent plays their hands and find ways to use what you have gathered to your advantage. The second scale is an overall judgment of an opponent’s level of comfort or unease at the table, which can come from several sources. The stakes being played for often have the biggest effect on this scale. You must also be on the lookout for the unique aspects of the live game that provide tells, such as the handling of chips, talking mid-hand, body language, and facial expressions. Players lacking experience in live poker are often revealing goldmines of information. All you need to be is observant enough to take notice. Then you can channel your inner Jedi knight to get them to reveal the strength or weakness of their hand the next time you clash. When you can put a player at the low end of the scale of technical poker ability and comfort at the table, you have identified a target and you need to work hard to get their chips before someone else does.

Craig Tapscott: How important is it to steal blinds from various positions at the table during the early stages?

Tom Schneider: The need to pick up blinds has a lot to do with the structure and the image that I’m trying to create for future blind levels. I believe most people think that blind stealing is not that important when there are no antes. I agree with this unless the starting stack sizes are small in comparison to the blinds or if there is great value by creating an extremely aggressive image early. The flavor of the table will dictate how often I try to steal blinds. If there are a lot of players seeing flops, I would prefer to try to re-steal in position from aggressive players that have wide open starting ranges as opposed to raising and getting 3-5 callers behind me. This way I can see the flop heads up or take the pot down with extra money in it.

One of the most important factors in determining how easy it will be to steal blinds and antes is how smart are the players that are behind me and in the blinds, and what their stack sizes are. If I have been very active and there are smart players behind me with shoving size stacks, I’m less likely to try to steal, knowing that they know what I’m doing and that I won’t be able to call them if they shove. This is a great way to deplete your stack and must be avoided. If the players behind me aren’t familiar with how to use their stack size, then I’m very inclined to try to accumulate chips by being very active.

Sorel Mizzi: Early in the tournament, without antes, “stealing the blinds,” assuming that means raising with air in order to win the blinds, is not really necessary. I think everything comes down to risk and reward. If you start with 30,000 chips and the blinds are 50-100, winning 150 really doesn’t do much to your stack and you risk getting involved in a pot with an indecisive hand that may be hard to get away from. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t play mediocre hands early in tournaments, but you should play them not with the intention to steal the blinds, but to build pots confident that your post-flop game is strong enough to extract value when you hit and minimize losses when you’re beat. I’m an advocate for playing a lot of hands when you have a deep stack early in a tournament. But playing them for the right reason is very important. I’d rather be involved in a pot with a hand like 2-5 suited in early position then I would with A-8 offsuit trying to steal the blinds from middle position. The reason being is 2-5 suited is more decisive than A-8, because I will be a lot more confident where I stand in the pot post-flop.

Steve O’Dwyer: In the opening pre-ante levels of a tournament when the blind-to-stack ratio is high there is little need to try and steal blinds with hands you should normally fold. Mainly because risking two blinds with a min-raise or more will only earn you a 1.5 big blind profit if successful, and when you find action from other players your reverse implied odds are terrible. Once the ante arrives, you should have plenty of information on how your opponents are playing and you can target the players who are not defending their blinds as often as they should, and you are getting great odds on your steal attempt. Always be on the lookout for timid players who will never be seen making a loose defend of their big blind, even when your min-raise presents them with 4.5:1 odds and they should be calling (or 3-betting) a very wide range against your relentless theft. ♠