Stu_Ungar
Legend
Silver Level
I have been thinking about this for a few days and thought Id put it to the group for discussion.
How important are outs / draws or pot odds (all different ways of looking at the same thing) in a tournament.
The reason I ask is that in most tournaments you are rarely in a deep stack position. So for the purposes of this discussion lets assume that you have say 50BB
You are not deepstacked but at the same time not short stacked either.
So would you play draws after the flop which dont have top pair or 2 overcards?
In ring game play odds are all important, if you need 4:1 to continue and take 3:1 then you are a long term looser.
However does this apply to tournaments?
Sure you can say I have lots of outs so its likely I hit and i have few outs so its unlikely I will hit.. but in tournament play can you be any more precise than that?
If you hit then you gain chips, but if you miss then you loose chips and its this loss that makes me think odds are no wheer near as important in tournaments.
Its not a mathmatical game like ring games because if you take into account normal varience and couple that with a small sample set (the fact that tournaments are rarely long enough for card distributions to even out) and remove the ability to buy back in. You are left with a situation where odds go out the window.
It dosnt matter if you take short odds because the tournament isnt long enough for the wins and losses to even out. Say you need 4:1 to continue.. that means every 5 times you play you will loose 4 times. With 50 BB can you afford 4 losses?
So the only way I can see this working is if your drawing hand also has imidiate winning possibilities too.. so you have TP or 2 overcards on the flop and also have a good draw.
That way if you miss, you have a second hand which may win.
How important are outs / draws or pot odds (all different ways of looking at the same thing) in a tournament.
The reason I ask is that in most tournaments you are rarely in a deep stack position. So for the purposes of this discussion lets assume that you have say 50BB
You are not deepstacked but at the same time not short stacked either.
So would you play draws after the flop which dont have top pair or 2 overcards?
In ring game play odds are all important, if you need 4:1 to continue and take 3:1 then you are a long term looser.
However does this apply to tournaments?
Sure you can say I have lots of outs so its likely I hit and i have few outs so its unlikely I will hit.. but in tournament play can you be any more precise than that?
If you hit then you gain chips, but if you miss then you loose chips and its this loss that makes me think odds are no wheer near as important in tournaments.
Its not a mathmatical game like ring games because if you take into account normal varience and couple that with a small sample set (the fact that tournaments are rarely long enough for card distributions to even out) and remove the ability to buy back in. You are left with a situation where odds go out the window.
It dosnt matter if you take short odds because the tournament isnt long enough for the wins and losses to even out. Say you need 4:1 to continue.. that means every 5 times you play you will loose 4 times. With 50 BB can you afford 4 losses?
So the only way I can see this working is if your drawing hand also has imidiate winning possibilities too.. so you have TP or 2 overcards on the flop and also have a good draw.
That way if you miss, you have a second hand which may win.