Mixed-max Tournaments – The Pivot Point of Heads Up Play

The invention of mixed-max tournaments spawned an interesting format testing players in full-ring, short-handed, and heads-up play normally experienced only at final tables. A typical mix-max tournament starts nine-handed, moves to six and/or four-handed play before culminating in a series of heads up matches.

These elimination matches typically begin when the four, eight, 16, or 32 players left are seeded into a bracket based on how many chips they have. This confers an enormous advantage to the chip leaders, because they are paired against shortstacks. All players who advance are rewarded with the same pay jumps, so being seeded higher in the field makes them a bigger favorite to win those earnings.

Normally, the adage is, “every additional chip you earn in a tournament is worth less than the previous one,” but before the mixed-max format, the opposite can be true. At pivotal junctures, some chips are worth significantly more because acquiring them confers the advantage of playing an opponent with fewer chips.

Before the tournament condenses into two-person battles, it becomes imperative to leapfrog other chipstacks as increasing your position amongst the remaining players makes it easier to attain payjumps. Normally, middling stacks on the bubble are rewarded for playing tight and punished for putting money in marginally, but these situations can embrace looser play and coinflips.

Here’s an unrealistic, extreme example to illustrate my point. There is one more hand  before the eight remaining players will be seeded. Seven of them have 20 big blinds, while the remaining player has only one. The player with a single blind folds under the gun. Now, whichever player wins the pot, even if it’s just the blinds, will be the chip leader.

In heads up play, they will be paired against the microstack and be a large favorite to make it to the round of four, while all remaining match ups are essentially coinflips. If only four players make the money, the chipleader who picked up the blinds at the end of the night is the only person who is a large favorite to cash.

Enough with the made up examples, let’s take a look at some real tournaments from the World Series of Poker.

In 2012, the first year the WSOP had a mixed-max event, heads up play began when there were 31 players left. The chip leader at the time, Warwick Mirzikinian (467,500) received a bye because two players were eliminated when 33 players remained. The player behind him, Fabrizio Baldassari only had 6,500 fewer chips (461,000). He was still a major favorite to make the round of 16 because his opponent only had 19,000 chips, but that is not quite the same as a bye. Had he won just three more big blinds before the night had ended, he would have been locked into the round of 16.

Here’s a four-player pod from the 2013 $3,000 No-Limit Holdem (Mixed Max) round of 32:

12th Jason Koon 185,100
21st Taylor Paur 85,100
13th Barry Lang 124,300
20th Dario Sammartino 88,200

While the 20th and 21st stacks are relatively close, there is a large disparity between 13th and 12th place. If skill was not a factor at all, Taylor Paur wins his round of 32 match 31.5 percent of the time, while Dario Sammartino does so significantly more often at 41.5 percent. This means that if Paur had just won 3,200 more chips during six-handed play, he’d have a significantly easier time making the top 16.

With this many players left, it can be difficult to figure out how many chips other players have and what the incentives for jumping them are, though the benefits of realizing them are crucial. It’s much easier to be aware of this dynamic when there are only a handful of players remaining, like in our last example.

Here’s a snapshot of the 2014 $1,500 Mixed-Max No-Limit Holdem with five players remaining:

Player Chipcount Place Payouts
Jared Jaffee 3,300,000 1st $405,428
Mike Watson 1,800,000 2nd $246,068
Mark Herm 905,000 3rd $126,882
Joseph Alban 330,000 4th $126,882
Xiao Peng 260,000 5th $53,614

The most likely outcome in this scenario is that when fifth place is eliminated, the chip leader will battle a shortstack and be a monster favorite to reach the finals of the tournament. The two remaining stacks will face each other in a even-matched battle. This scenario is magnified because there is an enormous payjump from fifth place to fourth, meaning that the number one priority for all remaining players is to avoid elimination.

Mike Watson is in a very interesting position despite only having half the stack of the chip leader. If he loses a million or so chips before fifth place is eliminated, he will still enter heads up play in second or third place. If he wins a million chips, especially if it’s predominantly from Jared Jaffee, he is now in contention for the first seed, which would markedly increase his chances of making the finals, as he will be paired against the baby stack. His top priority is still to avoid getting eliminated, but there is definitely some incentive for trying to jump into the top spot before another player’s tournament run ends.

It’s worth noting that these ideas can be taken too far. Loose does not mean reckless. Having more chips is still a good thing and having a smaller stack is still a bad thing no matter who you end up playing heads-up. It is still important to get the money in good. You are getting slightly better odds every time you enter the pot, not a carte blanche mandate to do whatever you want.

Looking forward to 2015

The 2015’s WSOP $1,500 Split Format tournament (Event #34) provides a new wrinkle on mixed-max play. In all previous years, the end of each tournament was strictly heads-up, this year’s version features only two rounds of such play once there are 32 players left in the tournament. The eight players that emerge from these battles reconvene on a traditional final table. While the format has changed, the same strategies still apply. Jumping other players in seeding is still valuable, as it provides an easier chance to win matches and hit pay jumps. I’m excited to see how this all plays out again. ♠

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.