Playing your chips instead of your cards(tourneys)

Someone to watch for in tourneys as you can get chipped up from them.

Seen this numerous times especially when someone gets chipped up early. I even catch myself doing this occasionaly.

Someone has around 4 times(or more) as many chips as anyone else on the table so they start calling everything just to see, raises do not effect them, and they bluff almost everyhand they know they will lose because of the amount of chips they have.

This is when you have to play proper poker, nothing lose and free. You get a strong hand raise it before the flop to try and isolate them and then slow play them to the end(of course that is if you hit). You might get burned with the slow play sometimes, but more often than not you will end up taking most of their chips in the end.


g/l

That is a very good approach, I have often played on the fact that I had the most chips, and slowplaying a "chipsplayer" is always good, because he thinks you wont have anything and call (I do it myself)....

Askman

its great to use your chip stack as a weapon late in tournaments. ppl fear getting knocked out so you can use that as a tool to make your stack bigger and better

Big chip pile = big stick. You can swing it around alot and knock people out.

I met one in the pacific freeroll. He kept raisin and i called each time.
when i re-raised him, he checked after the next card.
When i raised a lot he folded and i took a nice big pot.

If i have the big stack I will take more chances against players who have limped in or small raise. When in late position you can really bully players around. Im not going to play crap cards but take some chances I enjoy going for the kill and its good way to steal blinds and small raises.

I firmly beleive that the big stack had a huge advantage to the smaller ones, he can bully other players out of the pot by raising and re raising. This is just my opinion though.

It all depends on what you call a bit stack. Final table in MTT, double 2nd..thats a big stack. 2,000 ahead with 200 ppl left, not a big stack. I have seen ppl with a larger stack than they think crash and burn chasing or bullying. Just play your normal game (if its good enough!) and you will still do well. I saw a guy in an MTT a few days ago, was a good bit ahead of the field but started calling 500/600 chips raises every hand hoping to hit something and he was out well before the final table

A bad beat I had also in Ladbrokes $5NL MTT. Down to final table, all in 25,00 chips with AA, get called. He holds 55. He hits a 5 on the river and I got out in 8th. I dont know why but this really hurt!! Oh well

Greg Raymer has his picture on the wall at Binion's Horseshoe as 2004 WSOP Main Event winner, a nice flashy bracelet, and several million dollars in the bank for two basic reasons...he was lucky/good enough to accumulate a large stack early in the tournament, and he was smart enough to play the "bully" with it late in the tournament. There's a huge difference between making dumb plays because you can afford to do so, and applying pressure to your opponents because it's smart poker.

One of the biggest weaknesses in my own game is my tendency to play tighter with a big stack to preserve it when I should be using it as a bludgeon to pound opponents into submission. If it's not your nature to kick someone when they're down, bullying the table can be a tough trait to learn. But cold-blooded aggression is an absolute must.

using your chps as a weapon is great. But make sure you dont get a nice call.

When I get on the short stack or at the least 10x the big blind I play All in or fold. with exception of a horrible hand as big blind with no raise. very unlikely most people try to raise you out of the hand when your short

I find that the best time to use the big stack is late in a tournament. If you are well ahead of the field in the middle of a MTT, you should just sit back and play premium hands...don't take too many risks. But when the blinds and antes get big and you have a sizeable chip lead, you should put people to a decision for all of their chips...Often they will fold, and if by chance you don't have the best hand, you can always get lucky (any hand can win).

A great time to take advantage of people in a MTT is when you approach "the bubble". Lots of people tighten up here...if you have a stack, take those blinds and antes that aren't being defended.

Knock out those short stacks!

Using your big chip stack to bully people out of pots is smart poker. Just calling a bet hoping to hit something is stupid. Re-raise or fold.