Chapter 8: early final table strategy

Hello, and welcome to the Main Event. Perhaps the entire internet is watching.

Five or six hours of grinding, trapping, stealing, and donking later, you have made it to the place where each knockout means more and more money to reward you for your investment in sweat, grit, and synaptic pulses.

It does not matter how you got there. It may matter where your stack is at. I have two weeks of recent stories from the monster stack and the average stack, but let's start at the bottom.

If your stack is so small the blinds and antes will kill you in ten hands, strategy is simple and has everything to do with where the button lands relative to your seat.

If you start UTG you really only have 2 hands to make a decision, this one and the BB, and if you have a reasonable starting hand, pushing all in may at least be enough the limit the field and pray for a suckout. The problem is we are now ten handed and the prospect of a real hand coming in and raising and isolating or 3 players calling and checking you down means even AA is in trouble here. Good luck.

If you are fortunate enough to start in decent position, you have time. Most importantly, you may have time for another short stack to push and get busted. Given that 10th is often just a little over the buy in, and 8th is double that, finding a way to simply survive while other players die means something. And not necessarily small stacks will die. Story on point will follow. Obviously you will likely put your chips in if any PP or mixed paint arrive. If you can, following the standard hands for stealing/raising is ideal. Maybe just anteing out is the best strategy. You should know the players by now. Naturally aggressive players may prove your best ally here.

If you do get lucky and chip up in a hand, chances are good you are close to 3x your final table starting stack or more as a result, thanks to blinds and antes and that guy who isolated with 77. You have now bought yourself a little more time. Pick that next spot well.

Story time kids, gather round.

I always seem to have a knack for a big hand very early at a final table. Last three games it was AK, AA, and JJ.

In the first of these, my average stack of 22000 got pushed all in in very early position, and the player who called, who had not played with me before, assumed desperation due to the size of the bet and position and called with AQ. The double up would have made me a player, except KK got busted to knock me back down to 30,000 on the very next hand. I still grinded to 3rd although I never had a significant stack.

Game 2, the Donkey-fed monster stack found AA in the BB after the shortest stack went all in UTG and the table folded to me. If you recall, Donkey had blown the rest of his 36ooo chips racing his K8 against my QQ to hit the bricks in 11th. Short stack found not one but two 3s to suck out. It was only 7000 chips against my huge stack, but that more than double was parlayed to 4th, and at one point 5 handed that short stack had 60,000 chips. If fate smiles, ride the smile.

Game 3, I picked up 7th position and Donkey Kong Jr., the loose aggressive player who doubled me up to get the there in my last blog, raised first hand UTG. The play folds to me and all my chips come in with JJ. DKJr. still has a stack of 45,000 if he folds, and he makes a comment like he knows he's beat, and makes the call anyway with A9. JJ holds up. DKJr. will tilt up next hand and throw the rest in and bust out in 10th. Way to make the adjustment.

To continue the theme, the very next hand the short stack who is now UTG puts his remaining 10,ooo chips in and I wake up with JJ again. I go all-in to protect it, and his A10 picks up a full house.

Welcome to the final table! Best roller coaster in town.

Back to basics.

One thing about the final table is that suddenly you are face to face with 5 players whom you have never played against before, and one or two have huge stacks of chips. Obviously, with a monster stack myself, I can afford to be patient to get a feel for the new players. This past Monday, I needed more information. With only 22,000 chips and blinds of 1000/2000, I wouldn't have the time.

The process of moving the players and assigning seats takes a little time, and we happened to be at a break time, so we had some time to chat before play got started.

There are two big stacks who are new to me, but they are no mystery. The one seated two seats left is older, long haired, quiet, relaxed. His demeanour tells me he is comfortable at a final table. This is an experienced player, and I bet he earned his chips. His name was Kirby, and I respect his game, so no nicknames for Kirby. Al thinks he's seen Kirby on TV playing before. Most likely a Canadian Poker Tour event (major hint: PokerMonster is Canadian: all the big games I have described are CPT events, and I am very impressed by both their regularity, and the quality of players they attract)

Big stack #2 is two seats right. He is a big, 30 something Lebanese guy wearing an ethnic skull cap and talking with a street demeanour. He feels the need to share his past victories at the table. I tell him that I was #2 last week and aim to improve. I offer to shake his hand and wish him luck heads up...he seems a little put off by my return volley of trash talk. I have my tell. Lets call him Fezman (he's not wearing a Fez, but Fezman sounds funny).

Incidentally DKJr. decides he needs to announce that this is his 5th final table. I tell him its mine too (although the Pokerdb shows me at 77 top 10 finishes in the last year online, but who's counting). He seems to get a little shy on my response.

Kirby never pipes up during the trash talk. My read is confirmed. He is sucking in the information and offering none. He's a playa.

Okay, basic early tourney strategy is simple. As much patience as you can afford while the table is large and while the short stacks are fighting for their lives. With a big stack, I may be calling or pushing against some short stacks with playable hands AJ or better, 66 or better which could very well be coinflips, as long as my risk is small and I don't find a raiser coming after me for more. A more modest stack requires more action.

This Monday I have already gone up and back down a bit once. The general tightness of the table is my advantage here. Fezman has shown a propensity to just limp in a lot. I tend to stay out of his way early, because he invites raises and usually makes the calls. He really likes small PPs. This is not desirable action for me. Thankfully, I usually have position on Fezman, and Kirby is not the loose aggressive type. He is no hurry. He also has listened to my table talk and recognized my confidence is connected to experience and ability as well. When he raises, he has a raising hand. When I raise, I do to. I have demonstrated that in the first three hands. Kirby and I tend to stay out of each other's way. I am usually doing all in in front of him to target small stacks in the blinds to his left. He knows enough to know I have the goods to showdown my targets.

Fez in fact won a huge pot limping in AJ when Young Rock, still tight as ever, moved all in with 45,000 chips and AK. Fez made the call without thought while we were still 8 handed. YR knew who to target, but Fez sucked out two J's (sound familiar? My play was desperate, Fez's was just ignorant. Respect the quiet guy with the healthy stack who you haven't played with, Fez). In the end, this suckout will be very beneficial, having knocked out a dangerous player to chip up player who will ultimately distribute those chips elsewhere.

Fez had AA early and in early position and went all in to no callers, and then showed and commented his desire to protect it. He then said he might regret not attracting some action. He will prove to be a prophet.

Unlike Fezman, I never limp a hand this early at a final table. If I want to play a hand, I want to represent strength so a short stack is not invited to steal. Most of my play, in fact, is all in where a short stack is in the BB. The short stack respects the raise, and I show AQ to confirm I had a showdown hand. I want to just steal and maintain and target short stacks at this point.

Lets demonstrate one big pot Fezman probably shouldn't have been in.

Let me add that Fezman, who truly had a monster stack, has recently doubled Kirby when he limps in K3 sooted and Kirby makes the call with position. K-10-Q is the flop, and Kirby just calls an initial moderate bet. Turn is nothing and they go check check. River is an A and Fez moves all in. Kirby was slowplaying K10 and doubles.

Fezman again is the first to act and again limps in for 4000. Kirby has the button and raises to 15000. The BB, a lady with a real survival knack moves all her chips in for 18,000: and, conceivably, her read is right: Fez has any hand, Kirby has decided to steal, and she has AQ.

This is my first example of a controversial but universally-applied rule. Kirby's raise of 11,000 requires a legal reraise of at least 11,000 more, for a total of 26,000, but Survival Girl can't make a legal raise: the rule is that no player can reraise over her bet, they can only fold or call.

Fez should have folded, but implied odds and the prospect of knocking out player 7 and the rule induced the call: indeed, Kirby would have gone all in here if he could, and perhaps his 15000 bet was a small mistake on his part for having invoked the rule.

Flop is K 10 9 all diamonds. Fezman checks, and clearly expected Kirby to continue a check down, but Kirby does all in.

Suddenly, Fezman realizes he is down to less than 30 K and that he is bit off more than he can chew. They all show their hands (Fez should also have mucked) His 88 one diamond was currently beat to Kirby's set of 10's. SG has the Q of diamonds but cant catch her J or diamond.

This is a critical example of why NOT to check down. Fezman had flopped huge and was still 24% to get beat with 2 cards to go. I discussed sets against flush draws much earlier in the MONSTER DRAW blogs: a simple reminder: a pair on the board is not all that infrequent and will bust the flush. The possibility that Fezman will get his diamond and move chips will come in creates a need to protect the rest of Kirby's stack, and if SG can still beat a set of 10's she was meant to win and survive yet again. That set is both way too strong and way too vulnerable not to protect it. Add the prospect of keeping Fezman from a monster pot to get back in this, and the move is very, very sound poker.

Now Kirby has, like, all the chips, I am in second with 85,000 and what is left is short. Fez will eventually lose to me in 4th when he limps in with K6 sooted, and I compel the rest of his 30,000 when I push with A10. And no, A10 is not a good pushing hand, but it is against Fez, who never seems to have a sense of where he stands at the table or in a hand. There was an element of surrender to his call.

Other than my AA suckout, very little to tell from my adventures with the big stack from the week before in early play. Had mostly folding hands, and no one wanted to play against me, so I stole a little and waited for the table to thin out. The only bust out of note is when everyone folded to my BB except the SB, who just completes the minbet. I have A10 and push his last 8,0o00 in, and he calls, as if he was trapping, with KJ. Obviously another time to raise with A10 arises here.

Okay, I have a movie I want to watch. So much for early final table play. With the short stacks done, and the table short, its time to loosen up. Next blog.

The Lady of Luck will, eventually, double us all.