Thinking about Tournament Payout Structure
The /de”pokeronline” tournament and the ring game at the casino online are two totally different beasts in terms of how to win them. See, in a cash game, if you take the table’s money, you’ve taken it, it’s yours and you don’t have to split it with the losers. In a tournament, well, you may win all the chips, but you don’t get all the prize money in the prize pool. So this means, that you have to do a little strategy adjustment. Here’s an example: you’re playing in a small sit-n-go where 8 players get paid, and 12 are left in. You’re 2nd big stack and you get dealt KK. The big stack goes all in and 7 of the other players left are really short stacked. What do you do? You fold of course. Sounds absurd, right? But think about it this way. If 1st bigstack goes all in, and you end up busting out with your kings, you just lost your chance of getting any payout. But if he take out say 3 of the small stacks or even 2, you’re that much closer to getting paid. You don’t have much +EV by busting out to a hand like Ax suited and an ace hits. Besides, you’re most likely going to finish in the money anyway. Why not ensure it by letting the other guy do the work for you. These same principles apply in big online poker tournaments where you make the final table. When there are stepped prizes and the amount increases significantly with each place. Why coinflip a big hand when someone who has you covered goes all-in? Again, it’s letting the other guy make you money. He takes out two players who are already in the money, you just got bumped up two tiers just for folding. It’s kind of counterintuitive, but it’s an interesting concept to adapt when you’re looking to maximize your tournament EV.
