Head Games

Craig Tapscott: Once the antes kick in as the event heads into the middle stages, how does your strategy change or does it?

Bryan Piccioli: Once the antes kick in, my game definitely changes up. I start to open up my ranges a little bit. Pre-ante, my opening ranges are generally a decent bit tighter, especially from early position. When antes start, there’s more money in the middle so there’s more incentive to win any given pot. When it folds to me in middle to late position, I like opening a pretty wide range of hands if the effective stack sizes call for it. Some things to take into consideration when deciding which hands to open are who the opponents to your left are. If you know the players to your left are prone to aggression, you obviously will want to tighten up your ranges accordingly. I think getting a feel for how your table is playing before the antes kick in is a good idea so that once antes start you can get a better idea of what things will and won’t work. I think one important thing is to notice how often certain opponents defend from the blinds. You want to play pots in position, so if you notice someone likes to call out of the blinds a lot, you should be trying to play a lot of pots when those players are in the blinds.  

Jonathan Karamalikis: I’m pretty nebulous about when the antes kick in; I’m still playing against the same people and the same stacks. For me it’s more about how opponents adapt to antes kicking in, because a lot of aggressive players like to ramp up their raising frequency preflop. I like to three-bet these people pretty relentlessly and take advantage of their initiative. This tends to create some metagame with the table, which should usually work in my favor if I’m well aware of my image. However, it certainly leads to higher variance play. If the table is soft I try to avoid this and am more inclined to flat more to lower variance. Also realize that players in the blinds find more reason to flat when antes come in, which is understandable as their pot odds are greater. Yet I’ll keep opening the same percentage of hands if not more, if those players are not experienced in postflop play. If they start three-betting me, I tend to generally tighten up my game. But mostly it’s a good thing if people flat you out of the blinds; you can always adjust your preflop raise size accordingly.

Carter Swidler: Once the antes kick in I’m looking for any opportunity to pick up much needed chips in as many uncontested pots as possible. Obviously I’m always looking to do this, but it is way less important at the earlier stages, as the blinds, antes and stacks are much smaller. I look more specifically for players who are playing tighter than optimal and try and steal lots of blinds and pots from them. I’m also looking for more inexperienced players so that I can take advantage of the fact that they play much more of an ABC style poker then most regulars at this stage of an multitable tournaments. I look to three-bet the fish in position a lot and win lots of small pots from them. I focus solely on chipping up and preparing myself (if all goes well) to have an above average stack once I reach the final table.

Craig Tapscott: How do you approach the middle stages as a big stack or as a shorter stack? What kinds of situations with those stack sizes are you trying to create and versus what type(s) of opponent?

Bryan Piccioli: When approaching the middle stages with a lot of chips, you want to be opening a lot of pots. Also, seeing hands in position (both flatting and three-betting opponents) is important. Before antes start, three-betting as a bluff is something I do very, very seldom. However, I definitely like to mix in some light three-bets after the antes kick in. Certain hands that I like to do this with are ace-X hands, or suited and connected hands. On the other hand, when you are short stacked in the mid stages of a tournament you need to find spots to accumulate chips quickly. When you are very short (around 5 to 12 big blinds), you need to know what kinds of hands to open shove with. There are plenty of shove charts available online to study up on, and when you’re playing online, you can even have one up on the side of your tables while you play. When you are moderately short stacked (somewhere from 12 to 25 big blinds), you want to be re-shoving over active opponents to your right. If you notice someone is opening a lot, you can definitely re-shove a wider range of hands over their opens. Hands like any pocket pair, broadway hands, and suited aces are good hands to do this with.

Jonathan Karamalikis: It’s so hard to say because structures vary so much and no table is ever the same. But with a big stack I target another big stack that I think I’m better than or have position on. Playing pots against other big stacks can be very valuable. You can win the same amount of chips against them in one hand as opposed to playing several hands with other, shorter opponents. A lot of the time big stacks tend to be careless of the stack sizes on their table. If there are a lot of re-shove stacks at your table, then it’s a good idea to tighten up your opening frequencies. As a shorter stack I’m wary of who’s opening a lot. Once you can target a few of those players you can shove over them a little lighter. There may also be some nice spots to cold four-bet all-in preflop if your table is super aggressive and you have 25-35 big blinds. This way you can increase your stack up to around 40 percent sometimes without a showdown.

Carter Swidler: As a shorter stack in the middle stages of a tournament my one and only objective is not to bleed chips unnecessarily. I will look to find a good spot to get all-in and hopefully double up. I really focus on not raise/folding much if my stack is below 15 big blinds, and look for three-bet jam spots versus bigger stacks who will be opening and folding to my all-ins at a high frequency. If you plan to play a hand as a short stack, make up your mind preflop as to whether you want to go with your hand, as seeing too many flops bleeds away chips. As a bigger stack in the middle stages, my plan is usually to open a lot of pots and try to pick up as many blinds and antes as possible. This depends on the table draw a lot though. If the table is filled with 10-15 big blind stacks they will be moving all-in over lots of my opens, so I tighten up preflop in those spots. At a table versus big stacks, I like to open a lot more and play my opponents postflop, as most fish and even some regulars play sub-optimally postflop. As stated before, I will also be looking for tighter opponents to three-bet in position and will be trying to pick up as many uncontested pots as possible. ♠

Bryan Piccioli has combined live and online cashes for over $5,000,000. He final tabled NL Event #53 at the 2012 WSOP. Bryan recently moved to Cabo, Mexico to continue playing online events.

Jonathan Karamalikis hails from Australia and has had some impressive results over the last few years. He most recently took ninth in the PokerStars $10,000 entry 2012 WCOOP fall event. He has over $3,800,000 in career earnings.

Carter Swidler, 25, lives in Montreal, Canada and holds a degree in Business from McGill University. He is ranked 26th in the world of online poker and has career cashes of $2,098,000. He recently won a WCOOP 2nd Chance event on PokerStars for $115,600.