Should play and actions vary dependant on size and price of tournament?

[AMRN]

Last night I was knocked out of an $11 MTT early, holding KK. In level 1 I open-raised in early position, and watched everyone fold round to the BB, who went all in with a full starting stack. I was asked to call my entire stack with the KK.... and quite obviously i couldn"t call fast enough. He had AK and hit his ace, and I was left picking up the bits of my broken laptop off the floor.

Clearly I was ahead here - surely the guy would not make the big overplay with AA.

Given that the buy in was cheap, and an early exit would not be painful, it made the call an easy decision.

However, I"m not sure that I would have called to put myself at risk if I came across this situation in the first round of the WSOP Main Event, or some other high status event.  Does that make me a stronger or a weaker player?  

In the WSOP scenario, am I demonstrating stength by resisting the urge to put myself at unnecessary risk so early on with so much potential for poker to be played, or am I weak by running scared of early knockout?

[Jon MW]

I think the best analysis of this type of problem I read narrowed it down to there being 2 scenarios: either you"re better than the other people in the tournament, or you"re not.

(1) If you think you have an edge over the field, or more specifically you"re better than the other people on the table, then don"t risk your tournament life.

Even if you"re 80% favourite to win the all in, that still means you have a 20% chance of being knocked out. So if you"re better than them, it"s better to fold here and just take chunks of their chips away a bit at a time (which you will do because of your superior skill).

(2) If you think you"re possibly a little outclassed (if for example you satellite into a major tournament and find yourself at a table full of bracelet winners) then you are better off taking the gambles to win big stacks of chips at a time - otherwise they"ll do to you what you plan on doing to others in the first scenario.


Obviously there are other factors that could come into play - if it"s a super fast tournament, for example then the early double up can really help - but generally I think this covers how I would approach these sort of risks in tournaments.

[Eck]

http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=619.75

http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=844.0

http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=882.0

[kinboshi]

Online, in a non-deepstack MTT, this is an instacall.

The debate for me is when it"s a deepstack tourney.  First link that Eck posted pretty much covers the debate.  No definitive answer though, looks like it"s one of those that people are set to differ on, the majority going for the call with KK though.

[AMRN]

Online, in a non-deepstack MTT, this is an instacall.

The debate for me is when it"s a deepstack tourney.  First link that Eck posted pretty much covers the debate.  No definitive answer though, looks like it"s one of those that people are set to differ on, the majority going for the call with KK though.

I agree and i did instacall. But my question is, if the odds are right, should the circumstances of the tourney make a difference. You say you might not call if it was a deepstack game, and my original post suggested that my thoughts would differ in the first round of a major live event....... but surely when it comes down to the two cards in your hand and the play that has just been made, the odds are the same whatever the circumstance and we should make our decision based on the cards and the facts, rather than the emotion of the circumstance.....

If it"s right to fold it in the WSOP main event, then it is also right to fold it in a $11 MTT event........ or is it?

[kinboshi]

It"s down to what Jon said about opportunities, and also ranges.

In a deepstack, I give my opponent a range of cards that"s either AA or AA (even though I"m going to be wrong about this some of the time, if it"s an unknown, they get the benefit of the doubt until I know better).  In a shorter-stack tourney, his range grows to include AA, AK, QQ and maybe even more.  This changes the odds, and makes the call right for me.

[WarBwastardo]

The main event is right at the opposite end of the spectrum to an $11 online MTT.

To win the main event you need to accumulate approximately 130,000,000 chips I think, (20,000 x 6,500) so doubling through on the first hand is not something that"s going to give your progress through the tournament an edge commensurate to the risk, which is essentially how your should consider all poker decisions.  Risk reward and what not.

[Jon MW]

...  Risk reward and what not.

Risk, Reward and What Not
Your Essential Guide to Winning Poker
Written by the APAT Forum

Do you think we could get a publisher for this book?  

[monkeyman]

Its a more interesting sounding title than "Super System", I thnik this could be a goer.

[kinboshi]

Is it the sequel to Hole Cards, Flops and other Stuff?

[WarBwastardo]

Would need to be read in tandem with "Bluffing and recognising body language thingys."