[BigAlK]

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Poker is a wagering game. Every time it’s your turn you are giving an option to place a wager. If its +EV you make the wager you take it otherwise you don’t. That’s is not much else to poker.

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Absolutely true. +EV in a tournament is making the decisions that give you the best chance of making it in the money and, often more importantly, making it deep. I don't think anything in the book contridicts this with the exception of the section on chopping at the final table that has already been mentioned.

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Short stack tournament situations are all about getting your whole stack in with the best of it. Once the M’s get down below 7 the games is virtually solvable, and I assume that many people have already approximately solved it.

You gain over others in these ‘crap shoots’ in two ways.

1) By failing to get your stack in when you are not getting the right money odds.
2) Your opponents missing profitable opportunities to get their stack in with good money odds in situations, which you would not miss.

It’s not all luck, it just might appear that way.


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If you get your whole stack in as a 55/45 favorite 5 times in a row what is your chance of surviving? One premise of the book is that you have to build your stack early so that in the end game you can absorb some beats when you're the favorite which will happen.

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There are four factors to take into consideration, your cards, the stack sizes, your position and the range of hands your opponents are playing. None of these factors should take presidency over the others. The speed of the tournament is irrelevant. You can usually treat each hand in isolation.

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You have to make your decision based on the situation. Part of the situation is all the factors you've described. I disagree that no factor takes precedence over the other. Instead blending all of the factors into your decision and deciding on the relative importance of each at that specific point is what's needed. Here's an extreme example. It's folded to you in the small blind. A case could be made that you could (maybe should) attempt a blind steal with any 2 cards. However if it's been folded to you the last 2 times you were in the SB and you've stolen from the BB each time you might not want to do this with a weak holding since he's probably looking for a chance to play back at you (no longer considering each hand in isolation). If you haven't stolen from him in this situation lately it makes more sense. But what if the BB is all in or only has 1 BB left. Stack size now take on increased importance. Now you might not want to raise with any 2 because you're virtually guaranteed to be called.


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At the final table or with over 10% of the tournament chips ICM reasoning takes precedence. As a rough guide play about 50-70% tighter with an average stack, play ChipEV=moneEV poker with the smallest or largest stack, even looser with a very large stack in situations when you can knock someone out. Play with ‘Sit and Go Power tools’ to get a better feel.

Ask your self what use you can put your time if you get knocked out of the tournament. If you’re a significantly better than average player and you will not be able to play at a similar level if you get knocked out, you might want to tighten up a little as you get down to the last few tables. There was article in the 2+2 magazine a little while ago putting numbers on this effect.

If you have an M around 1-3, you’re in danger of being blinded out. Going all in in the big blind is a very bad bet, you should play slightly more loosely before this happens to reduce its likely hood. E.g. UTG with an M of 3, I might treat this as an M of 2.5 for purposes of selecting a pushing range.

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Nothing in the book contridicts any of this. The premise is that you need to get to the "crapshoot" with more chips and taking a "wait for premium cards" approach in the early going gives you no chance of going deep when the premium cards don't come and you've got very little time until the blinds start eating you alive.


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During the rebuy period, if you are significantly better than average player you should loosen up in situations where you could get busted. Each time you rebuy you are getting to buy chips at a significant discount. Just don’t overestimate your ability.

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As I remember it the section on the impact of rebuys and playing in the rebuy period coincides with convential 2+2 wisdom and doesn't contridict anything you're saying here.

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Remember the all in hand races is the backbone of poker. There is an illusion people have that they can somehow escape the race effect by superior play even in low M situations. They can’t, and not only because they are usually overestimating their ability.

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You're right. To go deep or win you're going to be racing. As mentioned above it is just better to be racing with the larger chip stack.