Big Stack Play in Poker Tournaments

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Wielding a big stack in a poker tournament is easily one of the best positions to be in; not only do your opponents have to fear you and your ability to end their tournament in a single hand, but as a big stack you have obviously been winning, which means you are likely playing at the top of your game –or running good, which many people would argue is better than playing good in the short-term!

In this column I’ll take a look at big stack play in poker tournaments, and how you can use a big stack to your advantage when playing real money poker online!

The two paths to a big stack

• Path #1: Running Good

Sometimes you just get lucky in poker. Even if you are a good player, luck plays a critical role when you look at small sample sets like a single tournament. Getting lucky doesn’t just mean that you hit a two-outer, as it can also materialize in the form of hitting set-over-set, or having a player move all-in with his KK against your AA. But no matter how it occurs, the outcome of “getting lucky” in a poker tournament is usually some time spent stacking a mountain of chips.

If you’ve flopped a set and doubled through someone’s AA you are running good. And while it’s awesome to be playing perfectly, the table image of being hit by the deck is one of the best images you can possess as well.

• Path #2: Playing Good

Playing good is a bit different than getting lucky (although, no matter how good you are playing, you still have to avoid getting “unlucky” to keep your chips) in that your big stack is usually built over a number of hands, where you have been able to manipulate your opponents into folding and calling at your behest.

If you built up your stack slowly and steadily with well-timed bluffs and strong value bets than you are likely “in the zone” and playing your A-game.

Wielding a Big Stack

Regardless of how you amassed your chips there is a general methodology you should follow when you have a big stack, which I’ll characterize by bastardizing a familiar poker maxim:

With a big stack you want to play big pots with your big hands.

What I mean by this is that when you have built up a big stack you want to keep the pressure on your opponents, but you don’t want to go nuts and send off stacks of chips on bluffs or making hero calls. If you have a big stack, as soon as your opponents start pushing back you should be looking for reasons to fold and not for reasons to call –unless you have a strong hand of course. I say this for a few reasons:

• #1 – with a big stack you are not under the same pressure from increasing blinds as the other players.

One of the reasons you need to “open-up” as a tournament player is because of the increasing blinds and the pressure it puts on your stack, so when this is no longer an issue (i.e. you have a big stack) you don’t need to make high-risk/low-reward plays, and can pick your spots a bit more selectively.

• #2 – Small stacks generally show a lot of respect towards big stacks.

Small stacks (as well as medium stacks) tend to try to avoid big stacks unless they have a hand, because they know you can eliminate them, and in general most players feel that big stacks are more willing to call light, so players tend to bluff less against them. When a player decides to make a stand against a big stack, they are more likely to “have it.”

• #3 – With a big stack your best weapon is in making players fold.

With a big stack your #1 goal should be to punish the aggressive players after they enter the pot, and to bully the tight/passive players before they enter the pot. What you don’t want to do is start playing big pots when you are simply making a move or when your opponent is committed to the pot.

So you want to apply pressure but leave yourself a way out when you are making a move. For example, if an aggressive player who started the hand with 20BB’s opens to 3BB you can make a move and move all-in if you feel he is weak. On the flip side, if a player has only 15BB’s at the beginning of a hand and makes the same raise they are far more likely to call, so you should switch from 3-betting based on your fold equity to 3-betting for value.

The Pitfalls of a Big Stack

Even if you follow the advice above, not everything is sunshine and roses when you have a big stack. Keep in mind that possessing a big stack does have a few potential disadvantages, especially for less experienced players who might over-think the situation or get a false sense of confidence from their early success.

• #1 – The psychological impact of shifting from an importer of poker chips to an exporter.

One of the most depressing things in poker is building up a huge chip stack and then slowly watching it erode like a sandcastle as the tide rolls in. If you want to see the definition of a “dejected face” go find a player who was the early chip leader and is now back to an average stack. Even though they are still in fine shape, their confidence is usually somewhere between Shaggy from Scooby Doo and the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz.

• #2 – Feeling obligated to use the power of your chips.

Very few tournament players understand the nuance of playing with super-deep stacks (even cash-game players don’t have tons of experience with 200BB stacks) so possessing a huge stack can often put you outside of your comfort zone, while your opponents are perfectly content playing average or small stacks.

One issue I see arise quite often for players who rush out of the gates and build a big stack is that they know they are suppose to use their chips to “bully” the table, but they don’t know how to put this into practice. So what you get is what I warned against above; players making a massive all-in bluff and doubling through another player.

• #3 – Simply hanging on with your huge chip stack.

Conversely, some players think that once they build up a big stack they can just cruise to the money, to the final table, and then to the win. Unfortunately, poker tournaments don’t work this way, so you can’t just turn into a super-nit and expect to get too far in a tournament. The power of a big stack doesn’t come from giving you more time to catch another big hand; the power comes from giving you the leverage to attack the other players.