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 he Guardian Poker Column |
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| Victoria
Coren |
| Friday May 12, 2006
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How to play poker
(How to play has been running from issue 16) |
In order to win a poker tournament, you must feel a greed
for every chip in the game. You want them all, by any means necessary. Except
actually cheating. In that sense, it doesn't really matter how many chips you
have at any point while fellow players remain in contention: however many
you've got, it isn't enough. Nevertheless, you should not play in blind
disregard of your chip stack's relative size.
Last week we discussed
staying aware (and ahead) of the average number of chips per remaining player.
You also need a sense of your chips relative to the increasing blinds. So: how
many big blinds should your stack contain, for decent tournament health? The
short answer is that you want enough chips to give yourself plenty of options.
Poker is all about decisions, and you need the freedom to make them. Let's say
that your stack equals the sum of one big blind. This gives you only two
choices: call before the big blind gets around to you, or be forced all-in when
it does. In that situation, you are not playing poker. You're tossing a
coin. |
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Now let's say that you have five big
blinds. You don't have enough chips to call and then pass - you can't afford
the loss - but this does give you a further option of the all-in raise. You
would be advised to make this move the first time you find half a hand, or even
just the opportunity to be the first player voluntarily joining the pot. But
for the chance to eliminate a player this cheaply, at least one opponent is
likely to call. So you're still gambling.
With 10 big blinds, another
option joins the party; the all-in reraise. In this spot (and certainly if you
can make an ordinary raise all-in), you might force opponents to pass. Now you
are starting to play poker. But you can't really afford to make an ordinary
raise and then pass for a reraise, so your options are still limited.
If
you have 20 big blinds, you can put in (or even call) a standard raise and
still be in a position to make decisions after the flop. This flexibility means
that you are reasonably healthy. But with more than 30 or 40 big blinds, pretty
much every option is available to you; this is the state you should be aiming
for.
Incidentally, if you ever find yourself in a tournament situation
where everybody has 10 big blinds or fewer, you are in what they call a "crap
shoot", and you should not play this tournament again.
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