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POKER TOURNAMENT TIME
It`s Poker tournament time!
Anybody of you who needs help translating that short sentence?
No?
Well, nevertheless, just to be on the safe side AND because this is so ridiculously important -
in fact so extremely important that we can`t stress this enough -
we are going to translate this sentence or better say extract the real meaning.
It`s Poker tournament time simply translates to TAKE YOUR TIME before you act! Whenever you play a poker tournament, no matter if it is online or offline, take your time before deciding how to proceed. Sounds simple, but for the majority of players it`s not.
Always - and we mean always - replay the hand you are in from the beginning.
What were the actions pre-flop, on the flop, on the turn or river? Always replay and try to analyze what your opponent is trying to tell you or what poker hand he is representing (or is trying to represent). For instance, a weak preflop play like calling usually takes away a lot of hands, namely Aces, Kings, Queens, Ace-King or Jacks. There are very few people who only call with these hands on a full table. Figuring out your opponent`s action on every single street is like listening to a story he is telling you.
Just train your brain to replay the whole hand in your head and use this analyses before you decide to act. Get in the habit of doing it not only for all of your critical situations but for every call, raise or fold you do at any given time. This advice alone will make you a better player.
People, this is so important and you will really hurt yourself and your bankroll if you don`t do it. Lots of bad calls or bust outs are avoidable if you take your time and think it all through. We have seen far too many who instantly call or fold too quickly.
Poker, especially tournament holdem poker, is not only about your cards, it is about the whole situation you are in. And if you are a no limit player then a single bad call can leave you short stacked or busted. So never think that you have to call. Visualize and replay the whole situation before hammering that call button.
This brings us to our next concept, which is by far the most important concept when it comes to tournament poker. Invented and named after Paul Magriel, we are now going to discuss "the M" or the "M Zone". You will find M-Zone discussions throughout a flood of poker books, forums and blogs.
So what exactly is the M? Basically, it is how you talk about tournament hands. You could also say it is how many rounds of poker you have left in a tournament when you compare your chip stack to the current level of the blinds and antes.
The good news is that you don`t have to be a math genius when you try to calculate your M. Add the big blind plus the small blind plus the antes - then you get 1 M. Take this number and divide your chip stack by it and then you know the number of M`s you have left or in what M-Zone you are currently in.
For example, say you are in the middle of a tournament at a 10 man table. The Blinds are 200/400 with a 50 antes.
So we have 200+400=600 from the blinds plus 10x50=500 from the antes, which adds up to 1100. So 1100 is one M.
For the sake of an easy calculation say your stack size is 11.000 chips - divide it by 1100 (1 M) and you get 10 M.
Once you know how high or low your M is you have to adapt your playing style and aggression. Early in a tournament your M is always high, say between 20 or 30. This means you can wait many many rounds for a good hand to play. Later in a tournament or after your stack has suffered a damaging blow your M becomes low. If it`s like 3 or 4 this means you need to push almost any two cards regardless of your position, so having an M of 3 means pushing all-in with King-five is mathematically correct.
A lot more of M discussions will follow, so for now remember the concept of M and remember to always take your time for your poker tournament decisions.
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