Hello everyone, in this thread about different views on strategies and tricks at the final table or just late in the tournament. Many textbooks, videos and the like say that you need to play more safely, but personally, as a more aggressive player, I like to come on the flop with cards of border strength and suited semi-connectors (10 and jack; 9 and jack) for example, and this has its fruits , what can you say or what can you tell me about this? thanks in advance everyone for the answer)

According to my observations, at this stage of the tournament you should play tight-aggressive. After all, opponents do not always play adequately. Therefore, I believe that in general, the approach with adjustment to the opponents is the most rational.

The main thing is to be aware of ICM, which basically mean, chips won are not as valuable as chips lost. Its kind of intuitive, even if you dont know the exact math. If you have a 35BB stack, its obviously very bad to go broke before someone with a 2BB stack, when there are payjumps. ICM is explained here:

You Tube

Thank you for your opinion) It's great that at least someone answered and shared their opinion and experience) Good luck in the game and in life)

Originally Posted by fundiver199

The main thing is to be aware of ICM, which basically mean, chips won are not as valuable as chips lost. Its kind of intuitive, even if you dont know the exact math. If you have a 35BB stack, its obviously very bad to go broke before someone with a 2BB stack, when there are payjumps. ICM is explained here:

Fundiver hits the nail on the head again here!

Also OP, as you learn about ICM, make sure to look for spots to apply ICM pressure as the chipleader!

For me, it depends largely on tournament structure and my objective for the tournament. I generally prefer to open up my range a bit at the end of tourneys and especially at the final table for a couple reasons.

Either a) I have a large stack and can afford to open up my range to exploit smaller stacks (i.e., ICM advantage), or b) I have an average-to-small stack and the blinds are getting large, which means that you can't simply wait around for premium hands that have a decent chance of running out badly against looser players with larger stacks and wider ranges that flop better. No sense getting blinded out waiting for AA just to get a straight or flush run out on you with mid-range cards (e.g., your coveted J10 or J9).

Additionally, the pay jumps can sometimes be meaningless in a tourney until you get to the final table and even the final top three to five players. So to start playing tighter deep in a tourney for which the next pay jump is several players and about equivalent to a min cash, it's up to you whether you want to secure that additional minor cash or give yourself a chance to run it deep to where the real money is. If I've gotten pretty deep in the first place, I'm content with the fact that I've cashed and I transition into "going for gold" mode. That's not to say I play like an idiot all of a sudden--but I try to play as many decent hands for as cheap as possible to run that stack to the final few players.

Good question and good luck in your upcoming tourneys!