Middle Game Targets = Middle Stacks
Friday, February 26th, 2010After the initial few levels of a poker online tournament, especially in a rebuy event, the poker online play tightens up a lot. The hasty players have either doubled up and don’t want to lose their stack by playing risky anymore, or they’ve been eliminated. People are less likely to throw their chips away in a dumb spot after they’ve invested an hour of time in a game, rather than just a few minutes. Also, this is about the same time that antes are introduced to the poker game. With a decent sized stack, it becomes your obligation to start playing more aggressively. The blinds, combined with antes are now worth stealing, especially if your opponents with lesser chips are beginning to contemplate their inevitable fate (forcing them to tighten up even further) That being said, you have to be careful of very short stacks because obviously they will be committed to any raise they make; meaning as a big stack you don’t want to be bluffing against them. This makes the middle stacks your targets. They are the ones who are likely to see a hand like A-10, A-J, K-Q and feel like they have to raise preflop. To them, this type of hand is too strong just to open-fold without an attempt at stealing the blinds, but when put to the test, they don’t want to risk their tournament life with it. The middle stacks have enough of a chip stack to make mistakes with. They are the players who will raise preflop, but can fold to an all-in. The short stacks simply are waiting for a hand and must go with it. When being aggressive, know your opponents. Since the short stacks are very obvious with their strategy, it’s not a bad idea to keep them around. Almost like a Robin Hood ethos: steal from the rich (not really the super stacks but maybe the middle class) and give to the poor. Sometimes keeping short stacks to your right and left makes your decisions easier when you are in the blinds.