An Example of When Studying Matters

My bankroll has been inching up toward the $165 (50 buy-ins) that I feel I need to move up to $3.30 SNGs.  But while that's been going on, I've been increasingly uneasy about not playing any MTTs, even though I'm not quite bankrolled to do it.

I'm still studying almost every day, even if my hours are necessarily more limited than was the case a few months ago.  Nearly all of that study is geared toward MTTs, but I have been getting no chance to practice what I learn.

I finally decided to play one or two MTTs a week, just to keep in practice, and to better understand how the things that I'm learning apply in actual tournaments.  I was going to wait to play against a large field of 1,000 or so entries tonight, but I got antsy and played a small one (51 players) yesterday morning.  Entry was $5.50 and I finished 4th of 51 for a cash of $24.22 (net $18.72) which puts my bankroll at $153.31, very close to the $165 bankroll I've been aiming for.

One of the things that I learned from all that studying was largely responsible for my success in that tournament.  A few months ago, I asked Johnathan Little about something in his book, Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1.  Here is the question that I posted on the 2+2 forums on December 31:

In SOPTP1, Kindle location 2718 of 3469, first page of:

"Chapter 11: When you have between 60 and 40 BB",

you talk about the need to be willing to go all in with 60BB or less. Here is one sentence from that page:

"If you raise before the flop with hands like A-Q+ or 10-10+ and are reraised, go all in unless your opponent is extraordinarily passive."

My questions is about online tournaments where your starting stack is that small.

Here are the early levels of the standard MTT structure on the Winning Poker Network:

LEVEL BLINDS ANTES
--1-------15/30
--2------20/40
--3------30/60
--4------50/100----10
--5------75/150----15
--6 ----100/200---20

Starting stacks in these tournaments are as low as 1,500 chips, with either 10 or 15 minute blinds. Some deeper stacked tournaments start with 2,500-5,000 chips, but with a blind structure that fast (blinds starting at level 4) the number of big blinds blinds that you have in these tournaments isn't an accurate measure of how soon you are playing shortstacked.

So, from the first hand of some of these tournaments, and soon afterward with deeper stacks, you can be playing with less than 60 BB. How does playing with online stuctures like the one above change how soon you should be ready to get it all in as your describe in the first page of this chapter of your book?

 

And here is his answer:

 

The structure of the tournament should not define what "short stacked" is. For example, if you start with 10,000 chips at 600/1,200 blinds, you are going to push or fold basically every hand you play. Just because a tournament starts you with some amount of chips does not mean you must have some amount of "play" in it. Obviously if your opponents are playing tight because they think they are supposed to have some "play", you should adjust your game, but hands like QQ+ and AK should basically always be played for stacks, especially online against overly aggressive opponents.

 

I remembered that answer when I was playing yesterday.  It never occured to me that some tournament structures almost force playing all-in-or-fold very early in a tournament, but as I thought about it, it made perfect sense.

 

When I played that tournament yesterday, about 30 minutes in I was one of the top ten stacks, but by any poker definition, I was still short-stacked.  I started looking for spots to be more agressive, including going all-in.  While a lot of other players were protecting their top 10 stack, I was agressive, taking chances to build my stack.  I was probably all-in at least 5 times the first hour, and I was the chip leader at the end of the hour.

 

Without reading Little's book, and getting that answer, I would not have played that aggressively.  I knew something that most of the field clearly did not know--a great example of how studying gives one an edge over other players.