Part #1 and part #2 of this series of
articles looked at the start and the mid to end stages of multi-table
tournaments. This article focuses on the final table. Final tables are
characterized by 3 things, short stacks in comparison to the blinds and antes, a
mix of stack sizes among the remaining players – and most important of all
significant prizes and gaps between the prizes of each place.
All of these affect your multi-table tournament final table strategy – yet it is
the inter-relationship between all three which is the most significant factor of
all.
Do you want to play heads up poker online? If so, we suggest you check out these top rated online poker sites - the best online poker sites for heads up games
Firstly the relationship between stack sizes and the blinds and antes affects
what hands you can play and how they should be played. If you have less than 10
big blinds in your stack then it often becomes incorrect to raise and then fold
to a re-raise, this is because of the pot odds being offered to call the
re-raise are so high. If this is the case then it makes more sense to move
all-in with many of your raising hands. This maximizes the chance of winning the
blinds (pre-flop) or current pot after the flop. Your own stack size is only one
aspect of this – for example you may have 20 blinds but the players yet to act
only 8 each, in this case you would be forced to call any re-raise by the
pot-odds (mathematically speaking) so move in first!
The mix of stack sizes at a multi-table tournament final table often means that
players have different strategy objectives in their play. For example the
presence of a very short stack will tend to cause those players with
medium-small stacks to tighten up. They would rather wait for the micro-stack to
bust. Conversely, a player with a big stack may be happy to push the table
around in order to accumulate chips – however this player would tend to avoid
confrontations with other large stacks as these carry a bigger risk of busting
out early.
Your own play should center on the objectives and stack sizes of your opponents.
Your objective is to reach the final few places and there will often be many
opportunities to accumulate chips with minimal risk from those players simply
wanting to move up in the prize money.
The gaps in the prize structure are important, especially when you get down to
the last few players. As you get to the last few players the ‘gap concept’
(requirement for a stronger hand to call a raise than to raise with yourself)
becomes very important. For example if there were a $1000 jump from 3rd to 2nd
you should only call a large raise with a hand that is likely to be well ahead
of your opponent’s raising range. This is due to the large amount of ‘prize pool
equity’ you are risking by taking a close positive expectation gamble.
Once you reach the final two players an understanding of how relative hand
strength changes when heads-up is an important factor. Since blinds will be very large as a percentage of your
stacks aggressive and positive play should be employed.
To summarize, final table strategy involves three inter-related strategy
adjustments. Firstly you need to adjust your play for the short-stacked
environment, secondly you must take advantage of the stack size constraints and
objectives of your opponents and finally you must adjust again for the jumps in
payouts as you reach the final few players.
