To be successful in tournament play, one has to make certain moves when their chips are running low. Once you are chip dead, even lucking out and doubling up once is not going to do much for you.
Think of the number of times you would have trippled up or better if you had taken a risk preflop with any late position ranked hand, regardless of your position. Better to take your shot while you have enough chips to make a difference, than seeing your monsters cracked because your chip dead.
I just won a SNG using this strategy. I was forced to make a loose push with K 10 off because I was down to 5 BB. I cracked Aces that someone with 3x my chips min raised with, I pushed back and lucked out. Shortly after that a good player pushed all in preflop with Aces. I called because I had the big stack by then and their bullets went down to my KJ. I was able to take full control and won the tournament, after being in 5th postion with 5 left to play.
By the way, being agressive from early position on a table full of passive players is also worth doing when your chips are dwindling. The same objective is in play here, buliding up enough chips to make a run to the real money. In most cases this means a top 3 finish, or at least making the top 10 of any large tournament, where the real money starts to be paid out.
Play to win. Never play just to make it in the money or mentally you may make some bad choices when the big stacks take advantage of the bubble drawing near.
1 comment:
Playing a home game a few weeks ago and I was down to about 10 BB. Two players got very agressive ahead of me, I was in late position with AK off. I was all ready to call as I was close to chip dead anyways. I would have hit a runner runner straight had I listened to my own advice. I went out a few hands later when the blinds forced me to make a move with a weak pair.
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