When to Gamble in Poker Tournaments 

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This is a great vid. I saw something, can't remember where, that touched on this but they talked about it in the "luck" concept. In that a lot say pro's are just lucky because they hit in those perfect spots, but how in fact it's a calculated call taking into account both the math and whether or not it's tournament life or not and so on. So what seems like luck to the casual viewer is in fact a very calculated skill related call or shove.

Played the big $22 on a whim the other day and placed 19th. Reshipped from button with 20BBs and KQs against the cutoff, small blind woke up with AJ and it held. 700k pot with 12M chips in play.

choose your spots more carefully. decide your self which is more important to you staying in the tourney and going up the pay jumps or stacking chips and going for the win by taking chances. how are you losing your chips by calling all ins? 3betting light? calling light and stacking off on dry boards? it all depends on what your doing wrong to start with. don't focus on looking at lobby to see where you are just play your cards and keep note of who can bust you at table and who cant.

Avoid huge multi way pots unless you are certain you have the best of it. I have won many tournaments utilizing this as part of my strategy.

One of the things I learned from the book "Kill Everyone" is that if you are the big stack you should put pressure the middle stacks and avoid other big stacks. There are some other guidelines as well, so some general advice does exist.

the lowest stakes are 1c/2c which i think you'll agree qualifies as micro :p click on the tab that says 'micro', or remove any filter that you might have on by clicking the green button

Great video as always, thanks

In tournaments like this additional chips aren't worth that much. Being in the tournament is generally the priority. In these events your goal is simply to make the money, so you should play in accordance with that, going for first place serves no purpose in satellite tourneys. Studying this is going to be my next priority. Once I have a good feel for it, I'll get some content out to on it!

thank you very much for this video im a mtt player and ive always had that question, I will let you know how it goes. keep up with the project!

its a call. maybe if its the stack utg and the stack utg+1 its a little harder but mostly a call.

You should not let the bubble disturb you. You are holding a very good hand and if both players are shoving with an Ace it reduces their chances of hitting. You need to clarify though, from what position are they acting? Did player 1 shove UTG or with 3 remaining to act ? Is player 2 Isolating? Can you survive with your current stack if you pass your kings? You need to think further ahead.

*When to Gamble in Tournaments* To win a poker tournament you have to acquire all the chips. Playing a strategy of trying to go broke slower than your opponents is a recipe for min cashing and slowing bleeding away your bankroll. buff.ly/1zjCAtE

I saw you on my table at the sunday storm! Keep those good vids coming!

I see the ring game filter but it lists the lowest stakes as 1/2. I don't see a micro tab, but I guess I'm just an idiot. Don't actually have an account yet if it makes a difference...just seeing if it made sense to establish residency outside US

When I looked on Pokerstars it appeared that the lowest stakes were 1/2. Are there actually no micros there and if not what is the best site for multitabling micros? (US or not)

Evan, check out 'Kill Everyone' (Lee Nelson) - it covers this topic really well.

It's basically raising smaller amounts. Like open raising 2.5x BBs and betting around %40-50 of pot on the flop (generally even smaller % on the turn and the river) It's better suited for MTTs because it focuses on the importance of tournament life.

i think you're in the play money option!!! if the numbers don't have £/$ signs in front of them, you're not looking at the real money games, which, if you're in the us, may not be listed at all

Thank You Gripsed! Im thankful that i can learn from you. Your videos is interesting and excitig to listen, youre very very good teacher. Love to learn from you! Keep Up GetStackin! Peace

probably call

Ahh I think you're right lol. 400k/1m blinds seemed kind of ridiculous. You wouldn't happen to know anything about playing on Stars within the US using a VPN would you?

subscribe, like, comment, engage with everyone...probably all the things you're already doing :)

Just right off the bat, whenever your stack has dropped significantly below the average stack of the remaining players, its typically time to look for a chance to dubble up. Whereas if your stacksize is already above the average, you probably dont wont to put your entire stack or the majority of it at risk, unless you can do it with a big edge. Also once you have reached the payout, you generally dont want to go broke, as long as there are other players with significantly shorter stacks left hanging around. Say you have 25 BB, and 3 other players are down to 5-6 BB. If you go to war against another 25 BB stack, and one of you bust, you have just given the guys with 5-6 BB stacks a completely free payjump. And thats just not something, you want to do. You want to let them have fun with the blinds and antes eating away at their stack, and go for their attempt to dubble up, before you put your own tournament life at risk against one of the big stacks.

mostly each time I get it in in tourneys I am 2/1 favourite or 4/1 favourite. I flat a lot of my big hands in pos and 3bet when out of pos. don't take too many risks avoid the bigger stacks at table. do you think u should be folding : AK off suit to a 3betshove if you are say 3rd in chips with 15 players left and a loose player with big stack puts u all in? on stars you see a lot of the same players running deep in the big games mostly because they avoid variance and take it in the right spots.

the guys at those stakes are on a complete different thinking level unless you plan on playing in these larger events this wont help much and u will end up over thinking hands in smaller buy in games.

covers some good content, earlier today is a $30 sng 45 man i had a 10k stack in 3rd at the final table and i was in 3rd by only a few chips, i called an all in with KK and lost to AA to the big stack and busted 8th on the bubble where top 7 get paid >< a good thing to keep in mind is weighing the gain vs the loss and the loss was much worse than a nearly almost guaranteed payout. good vids man! anyway to become a gripster right now?

I luv this channel.awesome job dude

lately in mmt and sngs i start off really strong and and often times find my self in the chip lead or far above the bubble, but as blinds start going up i start to break down and usually bust on the bubble trying to build a crazy lead. FUCK im about to watch this vid, but if it doesnt entail later tourney play please make a vid concerning how to hold on to your lead

I've been in this position a number of times playing sit n go's. I've nearly always folded and let the 2 idiots fight while almost guaranteeing me getting in the money. . If I know the two idiots have been shoving with a wide range of hands then I might consider a call but most of the time I'd fold and make sure I got some money.

Awesome tips, thanks!

Great Videos!! Could you do a video about what "Small Ball" really is? I have seen multiple and sometimes condtradictory explanations. Thanks.

I would call every time! (unless MAYBE, if I had won the seat on satelite and min-cash is huge money for me)

is there a way that I can stop losing 70/30 and 50/50 all ins.. cause no matter what I can never win.. AQ vs AJ end up runner runner JJ.. or AQ vs A10 and end up hitting a str on the riv.. in my last 3 turnys, I won 3/10 all ins and 3/4 of them I was ahead. its not like im a bad player.. in a week ive won over $500. is it just bad luck and should I just continue and maybe my streak will change or change my play style?

Just wondering when is part 4 of the last tournament play review coming up?

What do you do when you have K K, 2 idiots go all in which they have you covered, and only 1 more needs to go out before you are in the money? Do you go all in to double up or do you risk being the bubble boy?

of course it does. if you haven't seen it you haven't played as much poker as the rest of us.

boom goes the dynamite

Evan, thank you so much for these videos. They are excellent. This kind of topic came up recently in a discussion thread on Facebook in the group The Poker Forum on Friday May 26 at 7:21 p.m. CDT. The poster went out early in a tournament with AK. There were some who thought he made a good play because it had good EV. Others, including myself, thought it's important to avoid races early in tournaments. My question is: Can the ICM or some version of it be used to evaluate EV in situations like this? Can this evaluation be used to decide on strategy in the early to middle levels of a tournament?

forget Rob Ford, Professor GRIPSED for Mayor of Toronto!

it happens a lot! how can u even say to someone that " you will not get a big hand near a bubble with players putting pressure on you so don't worry about it " maybe not right on the bubble but final few players on bubble you will likely get a strong hand at some point and bigger stacks putting pressure on and a decision to make. look at other peoples comments about it. It happens to all of us but not you lol so you mus tnot have played as many hands. whats your name on stars ?

love your video bro thanks!!! ive got a hand history file for a tournment that i played not long ago, its just a small tournment but would love it if you review my hands and let me know how i can improve my game. big fan from Australia!!!!

the thought process of your opponents in $2100 games is nowhere near the micro players thought process. I suppose the $320 Wednesday and Sunday million are different because there is a lot of bad players in these games as well through winning seats. there are not a lot of bad players in the $2100 games so you cant compare that to your micro game opponents. if you start giving your opponents in the micros the credit for the plays your seeing in the high stakes games you will lose in the long run

i mean it comes up very rarely, it doesnt come up anywhere frequently enough to have to enquire about it.. and i imagine i've played a lot more poker than you

I think this is what you're looking for: "No Cards late in a tournament, How do i survive? | Poker Tips" Search and ye shall find the answers you seek.

Hi I just wanted to get your perspective on whether or not I should have made the called in a tournament. This was the situation blinds were 75 150 I had an above average stack of about 8500. I was in the bb when the person under the gun raised 500 fold sm call I raised to 1375 with 88 under the gun raised all in sb folds I called. Dude shoved with ak suited and had a stack of about 6000. I lost ace on river Did I make the right decision

Hi Evan, Thanks for answering my question! You helped me, and I think may other pokerfans, alot. :) Keep on stakin’ Rudolf van Rooij (pronouns it as r-o-o-i) ;-)

your changing the subject each time now I can see how you could pick things up from the 1000nl and 10nl its a lot of the same players and same type of players but u cannot no way compare like u said the micros $10 and under with the skillset of players playing $2100 no matter what u say there is no comparison between the 2 if you have learned a lot and added from that my guess is u didn't know a lot in the first place.

that situation never comes up

Hahaha yeah :p and sorry no idea

Did you fart at 05:29 ?? :P

I'm not folding that hand over that.

nice video

yeah my parents were high when they thought that was a good idea

You have an unusual last name!

there is no point having a debate with you you just don't take it in! the full point in watching training videos is to look at situations and how people deal with them right? you cannot compare any of the situation you will be in in a 2100 game to a micro game. how fucking hard is that to understand ? if you don't get that goodluck 4 and 5bet folding in the micros

your not even making sense lol! unless you are a really bad player to start with and don't know the basic tournament strategy then you are not going to improve your micro stakes game by watching plays in a $2100 game. do you not understand that the opponents are no were near the same! what have u learned from the $2100 games that u didn't know before that will make u more profitable in the micros? the skill level of opponent is miles apart!