Head Games: Tournament Strategies for Big Draws and Avoiding Big Mistakes During the Early Stages

The Pros: Steve Gross, Ryan Eriquezzo and Alex Masek

Craig Tapscott: Share your advice on how to play big straight or flush draws during the early stages of tournaments? Are you always thinking about doubling up or should you be more cautious?

Steve Gross: I play them differently depending on a bunch of variables. The range I put my opponent on, stack sizes, and if I think they’ll fold at some point, etcetera. Say it’s early on and I’m the third caller on the button for 300 of my 10,000 chips with A 10. The flop is 8-7-3 with two hearts and the original raiser puts a healthy bet into everyone. Here I’m likely to just call and play a smaller pot as he’s playing a strong range and playing it fast. We could be up against big hands that aren’t likely to fold. We’re an underdog against two black jacks, A Q would be a small underdog to kings, and a small favorite versus jacks. But say we were the initial raiser holding A 10 and get one caller and then the big blind calls. We now see that same 8-7-3 two-heart flop with the same 10,000 stack. Here if the big blind check-raised me I would likely play it fast because we’re dealing with a weaker range of hands. We can blow him off the best hand, get it in versus worse draws, and still be a favorite against almost all his one pair hands. Or perhaps the first caller or big blind just calls us on that flop, we can play it fast and potentially get the caller off say 6-6 or the big blind off J-8 suited by applying enough pressure on all three streets, or we can always just hit our hand. If I could think of a mistake, it would be playing big draws too fast when your opponents are likely very strong, or too slow when they’re likely not as strong.

Ryan Eriquezzo: The key factors are the structure of the event, and the player you are playing the pot against. In a fast live structure, where the blinds are going to be increasing rapidly or in a re-entry prelim event, I like to play these draws faster. It’s necessary to take a few more risks in a faster shallower structure than need be in say a $1,500 or $3,500 main event. In those instances, I tend to play my big draws more slowly because there are so many more opportunities in a slow progressive structure to accumulate chips in higher equity spots. The other factor that is extremely important is my opponent. If I’m in a pot with a competent player who is capable of playing back at me with lighter holdings, I’m way more likely to play a  pot for my whole stack than I would be against a more inexperienced opponent that has no bluff range and consequently gives me no fold equity. For example, today I played a pot where I three-bet J 9 to an aggressive competent player’s open. The flop came 10 7 4x for a gutshot straight-flush draw. He ended up check-raising the flop, and I decided I was going to three-bet, and get it in against his range because he was capable of being empty in this spot, and I had fold equity against a decent percentage of his range. This is not optimal to do if I’m getting check-raised by an older player who is never bluffing, and therefore never folding whatever his check-raise range is. It is only equitable to play these draws for a double if you also have fold equity to add to your aggressive line. Against tighter and less creative players, I would simply call the check-raise on the flop and put minimal chips in until I made my hand.
 
Alex Masek: I think it’s important to evaluate your risk tolerance in a tournament based on the strength of the field and the event’s structure. Generally, the softer the field the less you should want to play big draws very aggressively since there should be plenty of great low-variance spots to pick up chips later on if you can maintain a healthy stack. On the other hand, in a tougher field I think you should play your big draws more aggressively, because there won’t always be many great spots to accumulate chips later on. Also, in tougher tournaments players tend to play big pots without always having big hands, so pushing your big draws in such spots works better since you should have significant fold equity as well. Likewise, in faster structured tournaments you should play big flush/combo draws more aggressively than in deep-stacked tournaments, since you usually won’t be able to avoid high-variance spots due to the quick blind increases.

Craig Tapscott: Early in events, what mistakes do you see players making in various scenarios: holding overpairs, when continuation betting, or not knowing when to slow down or speed up on scary turn cards, etcetera?

Steve Gross: Overpairs are tough to get. I’m usually fine just betting a bunch when I have one early on a good board, especially against a weaker opponent. But say you raise K-K and get one caller out of the small blind who you expect to have a small-to-medium pocket pair or a suited connector; or even if you three-bet a guy preflop with the same hand. The flop comes 9-7-2 rainbow and he calls your bet, and the turn is an offsuit queen. Sometimes I’ll check here when I think he’s unlikely to call down all three streets; like if he had a 8-7 suited or pocket sixes. He might convince himself to call a river bet if you check where he would have let it go on the turn otherwise. They could also bluff misses or random hands. But that’s more geared towards stronger opponents who can fold. If I’m playing against someone I think is likely to call me down the whole way with worse I’ll just keep betting.

Ryan Eriquezzo: For the most part, the biggest mistake I see being made regularly pre-ante and in the early stages of tournaments, especially from more competent players, are needless aggressive bluff lines being taken. They do this when no image has been set up for them to succeed and no real information has been gathered on the opponents at the table. So often I see someone make a standard 2.5 times the blind open pre-ante with a marginal holding and dust off one-third of their stack barreling a garbage holding into a player who refuses to fold one pair. I have been guilty of this in the past, and the fact is that it’s just unnecessary. Those chips are extremely valuable to have to maneuver post-ante, once we have established reads and more accurate ranges on the players at our table. Poker is a game of information, and while aggression and strong bluff lines are two very valuable aspects of a successful player’s repertoire, they need to be used in situations where they have the best chance of succeeding, and when the pot is actually worth going after.  

Alex Masek: Let me address the turn card scenario. The turn card can affect the board a number of ways. The most likely and best reason for it is to improve your perceived range. If you continuation bet (c-bet) a flop of Q-2-4 rainbow with K-J, most players will call this flop with all pocket pairs from 10-10/3-3, because they want to see if you will bet the turn and because most players automatically assign you a range of A-K when you raise preflop. So if you decide to get crazy and raise K-J and you c-bet a flop of Q-2-4, and they call with their 9-9 and then then the turn comes an ace, you can now bet the turn and most likely get a fold out of most of his range since you’re credibly representing an ace. However on the opposite end, the turn could hurt your betting range. Mainly because if you are raising A-J offsuit and get a flop of 10-6-2 and you have a plan of barreling turn and river, but then after you c-bet the turn comes another deuce, now you have to realize the board texture did not change so your opponent’s calling range shouldn’t change either. So all hands he calls on the flop he would most likely call on the turn, so to counter this, you should be check/folding this type of turn card a lot. ♠