Short Stackin’ it to the Final Table
Mar 12th, 2006 by Dave
I’ve played poker for money less times than I have fingers, so take this for what it’s worth. I’ve played thousands of hands for play money online so I’m not a total neophyte but the game is different if you’re playing for money.
I went to my first home game not too long ago and found out what it means to be the first one out of the tournament. You get to serve beer and snacks to the other players until the next player busts out. That experience convinced me to become a much more conservative player and not to fight for the pot unless I’ve got really good odds at winning it. The conservative strategy has turned out to be a pretty good one for me - since I’ve used it I’ve come away with more than my buy-in every time. Basically you’re fighting your tendency to be in on the action on every hand. You remember the big pots you missed out on by folding too soon more than you remember the antes you saved on the other hands. The other part of it is to be adjust your strategy as the head count at the table changes - common sense tells you that on average you win 1/nth of the time with n people at the table, and as people drop out your odds of winning improve so you need to be in on more hands to get your share of the winnings.
Short stackin’ it to the final table while other players with bigger starting stacks bust out can be a great source of amusement for you; if you find it as hilarious as I find it keep it to yourself because your opponents won’t find it it quite as entertaining.