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I hear a lot of people say "Take EV where ever you see it in a tournament" basically refering to not being scared from busting out of a tournament. However, say you are deep in a large prize pool tournament that you satalited into, say the Stars 1M guaranteed. Chances are you are not going to be playing for this kind of money again. At this point should you be trying to fold your up as much as possible, or still taking every edge you can get?
It's all perspective Oak. If you need some cash and think you can c/f your way to a large amount of money, I'd suggest doing that. If you came to win and need a larger stack to have a chance, then go for there. Some of these tourneys ARE once in a lifetime opportunities, why not go for it? Poker IS gambling, so go ahead and gamble a little. If you feel you have the best hand go ahead and play. Just remember, you'll need to splash some chips around to accumulate a large enough stack in order to compete at the final table of these large multis.
Just for the record, I've never seriously considered trying to satalitte into one of these large tournaments, and if i did I would probablly sell the seat.
The question came to me when I was watching the final table commetary with Rizen and he mentioned "I can take EV where ever I see it because I will be deep playing for this kind of a cash again. My sample size is big enough."- Which made me wonder what would be mathamatically correct if you weren't going to be playing for that kind of cash again.
In that case the math would tell you to play to win. If you have the chance to win $100K once and never again you damn well better go for it. However, that is a large assumption. Let me ask you this, you are at the WSOP this yr in the main event and are 30th in chips with 60 people left. You pick up two queens, put in a raise and a large stack puts you all in. Theoretically, what would you do? You could c/f your way to about $300K or you could call, double up, become a chip leader and have a great chance to win the damn thing! Of course, you could bust out in 60th and probably not win 100K. So, what's your decision?
Most likely I would call since I would figure QQ would be way ahead of his range.
If I know he has AK, which I think is the most relevant hand for this situation, I would probablly call because folding leaves me with a below average chip stack, and I don't know how much value I would be getting trying to fold up from there. At the final table however I would probablly fold, even though I understand the correct play would be to call.
I think I read about this a few times already. In tournaments it's usually not a good idea to go for it, if you only have a very small edge in a situation. In cash games you should exploit even tiny edges like 3 or 4% as it is all about the long run.
But in tournaments, you have to take into account how much you risk with only a small edge. You dont have an unlimited stack like in ring games. If you are deep in a tournament, it is often right I think, to wait for better opportunities than risk your stack in a hand where you have a few % edge over the other players.