Knockout Tournament Strategy Part Two – Adjusting to Your Opponents

In my last article, we covered the essentials of bounty tournaments, but I barely mentioned how to alter your play against opponents who are also cognizant of bounty strategy. This was a glaring, though intentional omission given that poker fundamentally involves adjusting to the strategy of others. Make no mistake, your tablemates will be working hard to not only win your bounty, but also compete against you for the other bounties in the field. This piece examines adjustments other players are likely to make and the proper responses to them.

Pay Attention To Stack Sizes, Specifically Who Covers Who

Regular freezeout tournaments are already described as a test of stack-size management, such that you should go to incredible lengths to keep track of how many chips your opponents have. In these vanilla tournaments, stack sizes matter mostly from a playability standpoint — you want to know what the effective stack depth is to see if you should three-bet, or whether you are deep enough to make a speculative call. Bounties add an additional dimension to the mix that is necessary to consider.

If two players are both on 15 big blind stacks in the early stages of the tournament, the player who covers the other, even if it is only by a single chip, holds a significant advantage in a confrontation between the two. In an extreme case, if everyone at the table has said 15 big blind stack, a player under the gun can open-raise significantly looser with just one extra chip to their name. The converse is also true, as that player should be tightening up if they have even one less ante than everyone else has.

Set Up Situations Where You Can Win Bounties, and Make It Awkward For Others

Now that we are paying attention, let’s use this information to our advantage, starting with those we are most likely to win a bounty from. Anticipating when short-stacked players are likely to commit their chips is a large part of the bounty-hunting sub-game. If a player has been crippled on a hand and is likely to tilt-shove their last chips with any holding, it’s acceptable to open-raise with a much looser range and hope to get isolated by them.

Position is pivotal in these scenarios. The player to the immediate left of a microstack has first dibs on choosing whether to isolate the all-in player. Someone who acts before them is at a disadvantage because they don’t even know whether a bounty will be in play during the hand, but the players acting after always have perfect information.

In certain situations, it is possible to size your bets to take advantage of this dynamic. Let’s say we are in a pot heads up on the river. Stack sizes at the table are close enough such that the results of pot will likely change who covers who for the hands that follow. There are situations where no matter what we bet, what we lose we will always be the fifth-biggest chip stack at the table, but if we bet a little more than we are accustomed to, we can jump into fourth or third if we’re called by a worse hand. The opposite can also be true. If we can’t catch the table chipleader no matter what we wager, it might be correct to bet a little less so we still cover a couple other players even if we lose the pot.

This is similar to wagering on final Jeopardy! or in a blackjack tournament, though instead of winning the game outright, you get a significant advantage for later hands. Oftentimes, being aware to bet 62 percent of the pot instead of 60 percent will cost almost nothing, but provide you with an additional chance to acquire bounties in future hands.

As A Short Stack, Bluff Less Preflop and Play More Hands For Value

Most of this discussion has focused on winning bounties, which tells you what to do when you have more chips than your opponents, but what happens when you are the player with the target on their back?

With 15 big blinds or less, there are combinations of stack depths and bounty values where it’s correct for at least one player to call a shortstacks’ all ins with any two cards. From 15 to 25 big blinds, open-raises will be three-bet even with very weak holdings and opponents can guiltlessly call off a four-bet all in. At slightly bigger stack depths, opponents will not be as maniacal about trying to go for a knockout, but they can still justify loose play. Given these factors, short-stack play should be based predominantly on hand strength and not fold equity.

With opponents eager to get all in against short stacks, it is imperative to widen your value range when you are in that position and jam normally marginal hands for value. Oftentimes, this results in it being correct for both players to go all in with weak holdings. The covering stack drives this phenomenon as she wants a chance at the bounty, while the shortstack can take advantage of this by simply getting the opportunity to run the cards against marginal hands.

Ascertain To What Degree Your Opponents Are Aware Of Bounty Dynamics

The above relationship is mutually beneficial to both players, however, some players stubbornly stick to a set of hands they are willing to commit their stack with. Essentially, they are ignoring the bounty aspect of the tournament, which is incorrect, so it’s important to recognize where their head is and turn off some of these adjustments.

This can be difficult because the degree to which bounties are important changes with each hand. These dynamics are not particularly relevant early in the tournament when stacks are deep and it is unlikely for the bounty to be in play, as well as towards the end of the tournament when the value of bounties are dwarfed compared to the large stakes at play. During the meat of the tournament, though, they are paramount and those who are able to accurately figure out how their opponents are playing gain a compelling advantage. ♠

Ben Yu discovered poker while at Stanford University where he developed his prowess for mixed games. He has lived for the WSOP ever since 2010 when he broke out with a 2nd place finish in the World Series of Poker $1500 limit holdem shootout. His poker-induced adventures have included living abroad in Rosarito, Mexico and Toronto, Canada to continue playing online and traveling the European Poker Tour circuit to in search of the most delicious schnitzels and pierogies.