table management, esp. in tourneys

I want to start a discussion of table management. It's something I've had success with at Ladbrokes but haven't been able to carry over onto other sites.

Table management means that you try to exert control over the decisions of the other players at your table. This seems easiest in tourneys where a player can't just get up and leave. At the simplest level, if some bozo two seats to your left keeps making huge raises to steal blinds, you let him do it twice and then raise before he has a chance to, at least to make him think twice. On a more complex level, suppose the guy opposite you is loose and you're ticked off at him for drawing you out earlier. When a solid player to your right bets or even raises, you can call to increase the loose player's pot odds, and then, when the solid player bets after the flop, you simply fold because the idiot across the table from you won't fold and will get eliminated (if it's a tourney).

If anyone has comments on the above or other table management ideas, let's hear them.

eternitas

The use of the terms bozo, ticked off & idiot tend to indicate that you are reacting to the play at the table rather than analyzing it. Are they actually playing badly, or are they playing differently than you would wish them to, (ie. is one of them named Joosebuck or Stefanicov)?

I've found it easy on UB an AP in smallish tourneys to manage the table but when I move on to other more popular sites it's not as easy.

At PS or FT the smaller the buy-in and less experianced players it's easier, the higher the buy-in the harder. It's also card dependant, if I'm catching good cards and flops it's easier. I have to be in the right frame of mind too.

Most of the time I prefer someone else to be the sheriff and I'll ride shotgun in the passenger seat, but I'll take over if the cards/mind and reads are right.

It also seems more difficult at the intermediate level, which makes sense if you think about it. In the smaller 2 and 3 dollar tournaments there are a lot of inexperianced players they are rather easy to herd. In the 10 and 20 dollar tournaments the players are intermediates and often competing to be the sheriff, unless you have a substancial stack it's practicly impossible to manage them at all.

In the 100 dollar tourney's and up, (of which I've only played a few). Stack size and table image are paramount to table management. Another place I like to let someone else do the sheriff work while I work around them. It's all probably a matter of perspective though. If I played the high dollar tourney's a lot my reads probably would be much differant.

IMO I sometimes think that if u r at a table where 2 or more players are trying to boss the table u r better letting them do it.

I`m not sure if I agree with your comment about "When a solid player to your right bets or even raises, you can call to increase the loose player's pot odds, and then, when the solid player bets after the flop, you simply fold because the idiot across the table from you won't fold and will get eliminated (if it's a tourney)." This seems to be down to you recently taking a bad beat.

If you have an aggressive player at your table the thing u have to accept is that whatever hand you decide to go to war with them with it had better be a hand you are happy to call a reraise with.

I concider myself as a TAG player, until I get a lot more chips than anyone at my table, then I go into steal mode.

What I will not do, however, is get into a me v him battle. I feel this is a sure way to loose all your chips.

I've actually done something similar to this. Lets say the stacks are:

ME: 9,000
Maniac: 3,000
Short: 1,000

Lets say the blinds are 200/400. Basically both of my opponents are waiting for the other to go out so I'm only getting action when either have a good hand. Sometimes I'll dump a couple blinds to the maniac so he might get a chance to both take the shortstack out and have a little more confidence against me, and give me more action, where I can take him out a little easier.

Now it really depends on your opponents. If the maniac is a good player you don't want to give him any chips that you don't have to but if he's gotten to this point with only luck or a good run of cards they he might be a good choice to try this on.