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Tournament Pressure & The Gear Of Fear
By Marcel "The Flying Dutchman" Luske
The middle stage of a tournament is when the pressure and stress really set in. Shortstacks are looking to survive, and the chances that a relatively inexperienced player will make an incorrect decision under this kind of pressure increases. I try to always keep in mind that a decision based on fear is not a solid one, and is usually the beginning of the end.
There are many ways to navigate through this risky part of a tournament, and sound strategies that will take you as far as possible. But a lot depends on whether you are getting the cards to work with. If you are not, you only have so much room to move. We all know that there are different gears in a game and all of us have had experience playing the short stack. When the blinds have gone up, and your stack is dwindling, you will need to make a stand, and all the other players know it. Sometimes a player feels he really has no chance to make a move to double up. Very often he has had a very good chance, but didn’t take it because of the fear of busting out of the tournament. This, then, is the “Gear of Fear.”
In any part of a tournament, when a player can see he is running out of power, (a bit of poker math for you: Chips = Power) he knows he will have to make a move. Nobody likes to make this move, but the experienced players make them based on logical calculation.
Let me try to be the “Gear of Fear Expert” for a moment. The start of a tournament is easy, as every participant gets the same amount of chips to play with. However, the value of chips is actually different to each player, since they are not in the same league in terms of poker
knowledge and experience. Therefore, a top professional player like Phil Hellmuth will not risk all his chips with a draw like A-K if the blind levels are still reasonable and there is plenty of play left in the game – just ask him. Dan Harrington can make his moves whenever he wants, because he has already instilled the idea into his opponents that he is a truly tight player. Most of the top players know instinctively, based on experience and their skills of intuition, when to make the stand. Let me elaborate:
Knowing When to Make a Stand
1. Use blind stealing as a strategy: Learn when to make a move that has a realistic chance of picking up the antes and blinds, without it being obvious to your opponents that you are stealing.
2. Use your table-image to your advantage: The pro player will use his table-image, as well as his knowledge of his opponents’ play, to choose the moment to make a stand, which he hopes he can win without a battle.
3. Gain experience – spend time playing: Good players try to frame their opponents in the player categories to which they think they belong. This is based on many years of experience and stands them in good stead when it becomes time to pick their spot.
4. Risk a move before your stack is too short: If a pro player feels he is at risk of becoming low
stacked, he will try to make a move before he gets to the low stack, so no other player will suspect he is making a steal.
A great example of a player who uses these strategies to perfection is Howard Lederer. Not only does he protect his stack and blinds by raising, or reraising the raiser, but he is, by the same token, protecting himself from the possibility of becoming low stacked in the near future, and so gets through the battlefield in early stages using his powerful and experienced game. Dangerous? Yes, occasionally, but it’s generally a very successful strategy, as he is able to draw on years of experience in order to maximize its success.
How does this help you?
It doesn’t, unless you accept the fact that in order to have a better chance of becoming a winner, you always need to have a plan and strategy ready. The Gear of Fear is always waiting around the corner for any tournament player. If you are not willing to battle, then don’t start the fight. Good luck with your game and try to be the aggressor before your opponents realize that they can eat you alive.
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