There are various tournament types. A tournament may be a freezeout, rebuy, reentry, bounty, or a satellite – to name just a few. Whatever tournament types you enter, you need to consider how you will maximize your ROI. Common tournament types Freezeout / Rebuy / Reentry In a freezout tournament each player is allowed to …
Tournament phases can affect your tournament incentives. Unlike a cash game, you may be looking to control your volatility (and not necessarily take the highest chip EV decision) depending on what phase of the tournament you are in. In some phases, your potential future skill edge will mean you prioritize survival in the tournament over …
A player has a future skill edge (FSE), in a poker tournament, if on average he or she will be able to make better decisions than his opponents during the rest of the tournament. The better you are at implementing a strategy superior to your opponents (on average), the more your future skill edge will …
Once there are a few remaining players in a tournament, you may be proposed a deal by your opponent(s) or you may wish to propose a deal yourself. Tournament deals may involve ending the tournament immediately and splitting the prize pool in a certain way, or perhaps guaranteeing each remaining player a certain amount of …
In a tournament, you need to balance accumulating chips with surviving in the tournament. What are your tournament stack size incentives? At shorter stacks accumulation trumps survival, whilst the opposite is true at larger stacks. In between, you need to balance these two incentives carefully. The BB numbers below assume a tournament with standard antes, …
One of the keys to success in tournaments, is understanding volatility incentives. When you are incentivized to take on volatility, and when to shy away from volatility? What is volatility? The more inclined you are to take on big possible swings (by committing a big proportion of your chip stack, where the chance of winning …
What is the independent chip model? The Independent chip model (ICM) converts tournament chip stacks, to real money equities. It assigns a $ (or £, €, etc.) value to the current chips stacks. For any given player, these real money equities are worked out by taking the probability of that player finishing in each of …
A player can increase their average return on investment (ROI), by hand picking profitable poker tournaments. What should you look for? Low rake Most of the money paid by players to enter tournaments usually goes into the prize pool. However, some money goes to the cardroom. How much this is can vary. Sometimes the split …