playstyle before prizes in tournament

[Lucho.riv9]

When there are very few players left to get into prizes, and you have enough big blinds to reach the bubble just by folding, but you aren't the chip leader at your table, you have to play tight. My question is, if you have a really good hand like KK or AKs but you will play against the chip leader in a heads-up. Will you play the hand anyway? Is it worth taking the risk of not getting into prizes even if that probability is less than 25%? I'd like to hear your opinions.

 

[rsparente]

I always play these hands, more conservatively, but play. They are very premium, and as you said you have enough chips to min raise. Now, if the scenario was that you are very low on chips, I might not min raise, unfortunately, but also play with a limp.

 

[Funtast]

When there are very few players left to get into prizes, and you have enough big blinds to reach the bubble just by folding, but you aren't the chip leader at your table, you have to play tight. My question is, if you have a really good hand like KK or AKs but you will play against the chip leader in a heads-up. Will you play the hand anyway? Is it worth taking the risk of not getting into prizes even if that probability is less than 25%? I'd like to hear your opinions.

Hey there,
first of all the question is:
is it a normal tournament where the pricepool is devided in a common way?
Or is it somehow different where after bubble you already get a lot like for example in satelite tourneys where after the bubble you basically won the tournament.

In case of common tournament you should always play AKs and KK as the nuts preflop, especially against the chipleader who is supposed to play very wide in all spots. If you start playing AK and KK like a nit you will simply not getting paid of enough of the time which will hurt your winrate a lot. KK is preflop all in all day long against anyone anytime in a normal tournament. AKs can be played cautious if villain is known to be a nit, if villain is not a nit though, get it in if possible.
If there are other factors other than overall winrate that come into place, as for example that that tournament buyin is as much as your bankroll and you won a ticket and your biggest goal is to mincash: well yeah even then I could not resist to stick it in with KK 😀 but I understand reasons not to do so. In that case AKs becomes a hand like JTs and KK probably a hand like AQ-AK or JJ-QQ.

Altogether: if you want to have a solid overall winrate AKs and KK are both shoves pre, anytime.
If your big goal is to mincash for some reason its reasonable to play then cautious. (God jam that KK though 😄)

Greetings

 

[black and]

When there are very few players left to get into prizes, and you have enough big blinds to reach the bubble just by folding, but you aren't the chip leader at your table, you have to play tight. My question is, if you have a really good hand like KK or AKs but you will play against the chip leader in a heads-up. Will you play the hand anyway? Is it worth taking the risk of not getting into prizes even if that probability is less than 25%? I'd like to hear your opinions.

I definitely wouldn't risk it if I knew the probability of my winning was less than 25%. But there are different situations, and I am definitely willing to take risks if my cards are strong enough. For example, KK is a strong enough hand. AK is also a pretty strong hand, but in this case you need to consider more factors, such as your position at the table.

 

[Igor Popadyk]

in such a situation, I often play aggressively, even pushing preflop, because getting into the prize is good, but if you play on a bankroll, then your goal is to win the tournament

 

[bowserdon]

Play for the win

 

[Poker Orifice]

Based on the vagueness of your question, it is not possible to give you the best or most accurate response (although it'd be near impossible to picture not wanting to attempt to be getting it allin with KK... maybe we are much deeper stacked though... seems most of the responses are assuming we're 20bb's deep'ish')

What I am getting at is >> it is always situational ie. are there any very short stacks? What are the payjumps? etc. etc.

 

[Poker Orifice]

I always play these hands, more conservatively, but play. They are very premium, and as you said you have enough chips to min raise. Now, if the scenario was that you are very low on chips, I might not min raise, unfortunately, but also play with a limp.

Why limp? Unless you're hoping to induce a raise or something. For me it doesn't seem optimal.

 

[hilary antonik filho]

I'm not worried about taking risks in freerolls, the same doesn't happen in big tournaments or live, I play with caution or even discard

 

[Gritz18]

My question is, if you have a really good hand like KK or AKs but you will play against the chip leader in a heads-up. Will you play the hand anyway? Is it worth taking the risk of not getting into prizes even if that probability is less than 25%? I'd like to hear your opinions.

It will depend a lot on what type of tournament you are playing, but if it is in a freeroll I will definitely play aggressively against the chip leader, at this point we have to take into account that the chip leader will put a lot of pressure on the smaller chips.

 

[mariale_1990]

In these types of situations I tend to play more carefully, but everything depends on how the play develops, also on the reading that I have of that player, on some occasions the leader usually plays more conservative than aggressive, but they also tend to be aggressive taking advantage of the fact that they have more chips and that is when you have to play more carefully.

 

[takinitSLEAZEE]

It depends on how bad you want to cash. Are you a gambling fellow? If you're near or at the bubble do not play crap unless you have a good read on your villains in the blinds to your left. You don't want the time you've spent building a stack to be in vain.

 

[burba]

I would give it a go. I'd suggest to raise as also the chip leader knows, that near the bubble the play is more tight.

Consider that you maybe won't get a better hand till the end of the turnament....

 

[Berandir]

Very good question raised! I think that close to the ITM, getting involved with the cheap leader is not the best thing to do! Although we don't have ICM involved at this time, the variance could play out and you will lose the best hand! But it says that premium hands like AA, KK or QQ have to be played.

 

[Veralt]

It's a situation that occurs more often than I would like. In my case, I would say it depends on the prize pool. If getting into the bubble doesn't really mean winning much, I would definitely play strong hands. Now, if the prize is high enough, even for finishing in the last positions, I would avoid getting involved with the chip leader and settle for just making it into the money.