Large Field Do Not Equal Large Bets

Filed in archive Poker Strategies on September 28, 2007

If you are a primarily online poker player then fields of two to three thousand runners for a tournament are the norm. Granted if the tourney was live a few football fields worth of poker players would be scattered around and it may last two or days before a winner is determined.

Howard Lederer dropped by FullTilt.com's "Tips From The Pros" to pass on some advice on how to beat this fields the size of tourneys like the World Series of Poker's Main Event. Basically the article touches on the ability of the player to see where you are at in relation to the blinds and how long it will take to get into the money.

Playing like a maniac in the early goings of a freezeout tourney (rebuys are a whole different skill set) get net you very small gains as you muscle out opponents for fairly small pots in relation to a starting chip stack. Most of those chip stacks are deep compared to the blinds that taking a risk on a shaky hand simply isn't worth it.

Here's a chunk of the Professor's sage advice in tackling these mountainous tourneys:

In any tournament, the determining factor in whether you should play a given hand is the size of the blinds. If you have 10,000 in chips and the blinds are 50 and 100, there's no need to play A-J in early position. But if you have 10,000 in chips and the blinds are 1,000 and 2,000, you need to move in with that same hand. It's the blind structure that should determine how you play, not the number of players in the event.

In the WSOP* Main Event, I've seen a lot of players feel pressured by the vast size of the field. But it's a false pressure. The Main Event has a great structure. The blinds increase slowly, so you can play patiently and look for your spots.