Patience vs. Stack Building in Poker Tournaments

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After 15 years in the poker world I can honestly say that I’ve seen a lot of strategies come and go over the years, and I’ve taken part in my fair share of debates over what the “correct” strategy is, and what theory that is currently the flavor of the month is butkus. And during my many years in poker one of the most hotly debated topics was, and still is, whether it’s more valuable to build a big stack early on in a poker tournament, or if early survival is the key to success.

In recent years the “standard” way of thinking has been to build a big stack and go for the win, but like most things in poker, this depends on a lot of factors, and to be entirely honest, the two are not mutually exclusive –playing tight early on doesn’t mean you can’t “go for the win” later. And like many aspects of the game, the data is hard to quantify, so we will probably never have a real answer, or even a general consensus.

Below I will try to explain the different times to use each approach and why you should take care not to read too much into the latest poker fad.

The arguments for each side

Each side in this debate has valid points and logical arguments; the “tight is right” crowd will make the case that you can’t win if you’re sitting on the rail, while the “go big or go home early” crowd will hammer home the idea that you can’t be a profitable tournament player if you routinely min-cash; you need to have big scores.

The problem is that most of these players making these statements (on both sides) don’t have the capability to adjust mid-stream. They are either balls to the wall agro, or they play tight until they have no other options but to push their stack in the middle hoping to survive another round of blinds.

I’m of the opinion that many of the new-school players have taken the idea of playing for the win a bit too far, in the same way that the players whose first goal is to make the money have gone too far in the opposite direction.

Why most “tight” players deserve their bad reputation for failing to finish

When we talk about the dreaded min-casher, one name in particular usually comes to mind, Allen Kessler. Kessler is known for his tight play and his uncanny ability to squeak into the money (among some other “interesting” personality traits), but his critics argue that he is not a winning player because you need to be able to close out tournaments, or at least make the Top 3, to get a significant percentage of the prize-pool.

I certainly agree that players who are so tight that they routinely get blinded down to push/fold stacks near the bubble are unlikely to show a long-term profit, but I disagree that playing tight early on in a tournament makes someone a min-casher.

How to play tight but still finish strong

I use my chips to determine to determine how loose or aggressive I want to play. If I double-up early and have a massive 300 Big Blind stack I tend to look for good spots and prefer to play post-flop poker, or if my opponents allow it, I will splash around if the price to play is cheap.

On the other hand, if I have a 60 Big Blind stack I know I have fewer weapons at my disposal, and as my chip-stack to big blind ratio decreases there are fewer and fewer weapons in my arsenal.

So, unlike the players who are trying to squeak into the money, I change my willingness to get involved in a pot and my aggression not on the bubble, but on my relative place in the tournament, among other factors –obviously if I have a small stack and can fold my way to the money I would, but I’m not going to shy away when I have a 30BB stack just because I can fold my way into the money. And there is the difference between a player who is cautious early on and one who is playing to cash and not playing for the win.

When to ‘Nit it Up’ in the early stages

I can think of several situations where you should place more value on cautious play over building a big stack:

• When the stack to blind ratio is large or when the structure is extremely slow

The larger your stack and the slower structure the better the situation is for cautious play. This is one of the reasons players will show up late to tournaments, but an even better way to take advantage of these early levels is to hope you pick up a big hand and get paid off, or at the very least, cultivate an image of a super-nit.

• When you have a hard time reading the hands of unknown players

If you have a difficult time reading unknown players [read as: you have a tendency to make big mistakes when you are more or less guessing] your best course of action is to sit on the sidelines and watch for a while.

• When your opponents are really bad

One of the reasons poker players advocate for looser play is so you can get paid off with your good hands, but if your opponents are bad you don’t have to worry about your image and can pretty much sit around and wait for the goods.

When to be more aggressive

Conversely, there are situations where building a big stack early on is extremely important:

• Shorter stacks or a faster structure

When you’re playing in fast structured events you should come out firing right out of the gate. It won’t be long before you’re playing push/fold poker, and fast structured events are generally smaller buy-in events (Daily or STT tournaments at the casino or online tournaments), which means you can just hop in another one and maximize your hourly rate.

• When you are facing solid opposition

Solid opponents will have a better read on the situation and where a calling station might pay you off when you play Aces, a good player will be far more careful. It’s hard to get paid off with your good hands against top level players if you’re a nit.

• Playing online

As I alluded to above, an overlooked aspect of your ROI is your hourly rate. Online poker allows you to maximize your hourly rate because there is always another tournament you can play.

Think of it this way: Even if playing to win in $10 buy-in tournaments, drops your ROI from 50% to 30% (a huge drop) but you can get in twice the volume? You’ll actually make more money as your hourly rate will go from $5 to $6.

It will be hard to determine the right balance, but this is one of the best reasons to play online.

• Top-heavy payout structures

The more money that goes to the top finishers the more you should be playing for the win. Conversely, in a satellite tournament where 1^st through 10^th place all receive the same prize you may want to play tight if the structure and # of entrants allows it.