The Samurai Warrior Principle - Gone Fishin Part 4

In this month’s article we are going to take a look at what actually constitutes a fish in tournament poker. The pro’s call it “dead money” which basically means the buy-ins made by players who have literally no chance of success in the tournament itself. So just what makes a player a “producer” in tournament poker in the 21st century?

You will no doubt have heard of the expression “changing gears” which really could apply to many things but recently with the boom in poker, it has taken on a whole new meaning. Poker tournaments cannot be played at the same pace throughout if a player wants to be successful in them. Many players do this and are doomed never to win a tournament as long as they live.

Depending on what stage of the tournament a player is at, the pace of play will vary remarkably. It will go from the relatively tranquil pace of the early levels to a much faster pace as it nears a climax with various speed changes along the way.

This is known as “tournament speed” and not to be confused with “player speed”. It is the latter that I will be talking about here. Let’s give a very simple example of a player who never changes gears in a tournament. They start out playing tight solid poker like many others during the early levels. This style of poker may even bring success in many cash games. But tournaments have escalating blind and ante structures which prevents tight play from being successful from start to finish.

So in order to win the tournament, our tight playing “rock” is going to have to loosen up through sheer necessity. The trouble is that many players realise this far too late and end up going all in with insufficient amounts. When our “rock” gets lucky during the early levels and amasses chips, he thinks in his own mind that he is in with a chance of winning the tournament…….an illusion!!

He is merely keeping the chips for a while until he loses them. So how does he lose them? Simple, by never changing gears and still playing tight solid poker even though the blinds are now ten times what they were at the beginning. Worse is to follow, it gets to the final two tables and our hero starts to go into his shell to try and last until the final table. But the semi-short handed action means that the blinds come around terribly quick. Suddenly his stack of 40,000 is down to 18,000 and there is still 12 players left.

He is getting attacked from all sides and being outplayed from the flop onwards. Of course in very big tournaments like last years $10,000 buy-in WSOP main event, over 500 places were paid and many players were happy with this and made getting into the money their only goal. But a top pro does not buy-in to a $10,000 event with the goal of merely doubling their money. It is precisely this kind of outlook that the top players thrive on. A tight solid approach can get you into the money in these tournaments with this many money seats but be advised that this type of play makes you a “fish” to the big boys.

Fear and hesitation are what the pro’s feed on and these are very negative emotions to have in poker. To be successful in big field tournament poker these days requires a lot of heart and courage. You must be prepared to be the one who is walking out of the door at each and every stage. It is the fear of elimination that handicaps many players. The top players obviously do not want to be eliminated from any tournament but the fact of the matter is that if you make avoiding risk your main goal then you are basically beaten already.

So remember that it is better to go down fighting than to just allow yourself to simply fade away or to get slaughtered. The Japanese Samurai warriors were feared worldwide in ancient times. But the truth is that they were not just feared for their fighting ability but also for their attitude towards death. They were brought up and trained not to fear death and this outlook made them almost the ultimate warrior. The analogy with tournament poker is strong because it is the fear of death (elimination) in a tournament that prevents the player from ever succeeding at all.

A player who plays not to lose and with fear has no chance so go out there and be the warrior. Be the Samurai and you may just be surprised at how well you do in your next tournament.

This article was produced for BLUFF EUROPE poker magazine and has been reproduced here with their kind permission.