I just generally play the small ball approach a good percentage of the time. Only in the first couple of levels do I make 3x my standard open. The reason min raising works so well in tournaments is because with the increasing blinds, a min raise becomes a higher percentage of your opponents stack thus meaning a min bet accomplishes the same as a larger open but getting a much better price on your steals. Yes you will get called more frequently but then a c bet usually takes it down anyway. It also disguises your range meaning you can steal cheaply so your steals don't need a very high success rate to be profitable.
Another point is I like to play post flop poker and although there is less post flop poker in tournaments you're still going to have to see a lot of flops over the course of the tournament. Making 2x instead of 3x means the effective stacked are a little deeper post flop giving me a chance to actually utilise my edge more effectivly than in the case with big bet poker.
To be honest I thought almost everyone had adopted the min raise approach in tournament play. Don't all the pros do this now, I thought it was the current trend?
good post!
yes...it is DEFINITELY the trend in major live tourneys.
in the early levels when blinds are 25/50 everyone is open raising to 125. If somebody raises to 150 they actually kind of look like they are behind the trend; it makes them appear inexperienced. (like they're on MySpace and haven't signed up with Facebook yet)
as the blinds go up to 100/200 they'll make it 225 or 250
when blinds are 200/400 they'll make it 825 or 850
it gets smaller and smaller to where it is eventually just a min raise plus an ante.
I don't see a straight up min raise too often...it's usually 2.5x before the antes and then min raise plus 1 or 2 antes once antes are introduced.
just beware that this "small ball" approach is ideal for players with better than average post flop skills. And "average" is a constantly changing grade based on what tournament you're in and what table you're at.
