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effective stack sizes

PokerNun

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October 1, 2017 - 7:52 pm

I’m new to tournament poker. If we’re playing blind vs blind at the final table and I’m in the SB, should I play based on effective stacks? So if I have 30bb and he has 10bb, should I open a range as if I have 10bb? I was wondering if I need to consider ICM here. Should I be playing tighter than I would if I had effective 10bb?

Hope that makes sense 🙂

DuckinDaDeck

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October 2, 2017 - 4:47 am

You’ll usually want to make your decisions based on effective stacks, and mostly ignore your actual stack size. On final tables, having more chips than your opponent allows you to apply a lot of pressure. You’re able to threaten their tournament life without risking your own. They need to consider pay jumps before committing chips against you, and should play much tighter than they would otherwise. One important exception is that the shortest stack at the table will probably still be happy to gamble, as they’re unlikely to move up the pay ladder if they don’t win some pots.

In your example, if your usual 10bb approach is to shove ~72% of hands, you could probably get away with shoving 85% or more. Unless the BB is the shortest stack, in which case you probably want to stick to your standard range.

PokerNun

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October 2, 2017 - 3:14 pm

Thanks! That makes sense 🙂

theginger45

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October 13, 2017 - 12:38 pm

Worth pointing out also that it’s entirely correct for players to be slightly tighter when their tournament life is at risk than when it isn’t, and thus it’s very different when you have 30bb and they have 10bb than when you have 10bb and they have 30bb, even though the effective stacks are the same.

I think a good way to look at it is to always be heavily focused on effective stacks in every situation, but to recognize that once we get past the early stages of a tournament, we should be shifting more towards applying more pressure when we’re the covering stack, and backing away a little when we’re not. Many players will over-adjust to this advice, so bear in mind I’m talking only about the marginal spots – we’re not folding strong hands with 10bb just because the guy behind us has 20bb. We’re just making very slight shifts in one direction or the other.

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