Poker is a game of adjustments, and those adjustments can take place on a micro and macro level. But some poker adjustments occur on a larger scale, they could be classified more as generalizations I suppose, such as the adjustments one has to make when switching from an online to a live tournament or when switching from a freeroll to a high-roller event.
In this column I’ll discuss some of the differences tournament poker players need to be aware of when they switch between four distinct tournament types, and the strategy adjustments/generalizations that go along with them:check out casinokiwi.co.nz to read about other types of casino tournaments.
- Online Tournaments
- Live Daily Tournaments
- Live Tournament Series
- Home Game Tournaments
Keep in mind that these are merely general suggestions and blanket statements about what you can expect to typically see, you’ll also need to make those micro and macro adjustments I mentioned above depending on the table dynamics, specific opponents, and other factors.
Online Tournaments
When it comes to offering choice, online tournaments basically have it all.
With literally hundreds of different options ranging from the start time, to blind and stack structure, to the poker format, there is no other place where you’ll have more selection and the capability to pick and choose to enter tournaments that play to your strengths as a poker player more than in online events.
Because of this, online tournaments are less about general adjustments and more about finding a structure that plays to your strengths.
The adjustments you make to an online tournament depend on a number of factors, so remember that the skill level of your opponents will vary based on the buy-in and other factors, such as how many low-cost satellites the site ran for the tournament – which is why many players find the $215 Sunday Million an easier field to navigate than a typical $55 buy-in tournament.
Live Daily Tournaments
Live daily tournaments have four key components:
- A fast blind structure that increases the luck factor
- High rake
- A majority of casual poker players
- Final table deals
The fast blind structure in daily tournaments (where you maybe have an hour or so to get something going before the blinds eat you up) requires you to possess a deep understanding of push/fold scenarios and ICM implications. If you are looking for a tournament where you can “play some post-flop poker” you are looking in the wrong place if you enter a daily.
The fast structure also attracts a lot of “wild” gambling-type players, who will make crazy bluffs and play super-aggressive, so you can also expect a lot of bad beats in these tourneys too, but you can also build a big stack as well.
With this in mind, if you are going to be a regular participant in daily tournaments you will need to spend a lot of time learning these push/fold situations, and perhaps putting in some practice at the turbo and hyper-turbo events online.
While they are not “unbeatable,” daily tournaments are tough to beat considering the fast blinds as well as the high rake the casino charges for these events –often 20% or more. Still with a lot of bad players there is some room for profit if you’re a skilled player.
One non-standard way to increase your profit in these events is to become a master negotiator, as daily tournaments tend to end in final table deals (with as many as six players involved). As the blinds increase, players start to realize they all have less than 10 Big Blinds left and that they are essentially in a crap-shoot. The ability to negotiate a better payout for yourself will go a long way towards making you a profitable player in these tournaments, especially when the other players really want to cut a deal!
Live Tournament Series
Unlike a fast-paced daily tournament, when a major (or even mid-tier) tournament series rolls into town you can expect three things:
- Skill will play a larger role as the blind structures are slower-paced
- The rake will be lower
- The field will have more good players, especially after the donks are eliminated early on; so expect the play after the bubble to be tough
So if you plan on playing in events included in a tournament series you need to realize they play more like a weekly guarantee at an online site than like a daily tournament at the casino. The players are better on the average and there are more professionals in the event.
Because of this, you’ll need to be proficient in all aspects of the game, not just push/fold charts and deal-making, and you can expect to run into far more sophisticated players.
Even with a better rake structure, live tournament series are the domain of winning, experienced players, and few people have the skill to be consistent long-term winners in these events.
Home Games
Home games are basically the extreme of a daily tournament in a casino.
Not only are the players by and large unskilled, but unlike the agro’s in a casino, in home games the vast majority of them are passive and play a very ABC style: Which requires a complete retooling of your strategies to counteract.
Calling down light and making a three-barrel bluff are not going to get you too far when you’re dealing with ABC players who like to call a lot.
One similarity you will find between a home game and a live daily tournament is that here is generally little time to “play poker” after the first couple of levels, and you’re likely reduced to about 20 Big Blinds before ½ the field has even been eliminated; most of the final table will be played with 10BB stacks.
So like Daily’s, you’ll need to become proficient at push/fold strategies (but not quite as much, which I’ll explain in the next paragraph) and the art of the deal.
The reason push/fold strategies are not as important in home games are that the general passivity of a home-game player allows you to make profitable non-standard plays.
One example would be raising 2x with a 10BB stack and then c-betting 2BB on the flop if your opponent checks to you. The reason you can do this, and even consider folding if check-raised is because they play their cards face-up a lot of the time. Normally this would be a horrid strategy, but when everyone is short-stacked, and players are incorrectly folding their blinds or folding to shoves, a 5 or 6 BB stack plays more like a 10-12BB stack.
Another thing to consider is that since the structure and prize-pool of home games are generally created on the fly, you should be in there lobbying for as slow a structure as you can (see if they will add a 400/800 level or a 700/1,400 level), and if you are a good dealmaker you should be shooting for a very top heavy pay-out, since you can later flatten the payout with a deal if you are deep in the tourney unlikely to win.
Here are a couple of other things you will notice at home game tournaments:
- You’ll encounter players that seem like caricatures of the descriptions you read about in poker books
- People tend to call lighter since they didn’t drive to the casino to play and the money is usually insignificant
- You will encounter true Level 0 thinkers