Re: Mid-tournament confrontations?

Stephen Jacobs <jacosa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>The assumptions are that it's a stage of a proportional-payout tournament
>where special issues of moving one place in the standings don't dictate
>strategy, and that neither featured player is really short-stacked (say M-s
>in the 15-25 range).
>As the early betting develops, it appears that I am being offered an all-in
>confrontation with another player who has me covered by relatively a lot. I
>can set a pretty reliable range on my adversary's possible hands. What
>dictates the odds wanted before going all-in?

Tournament EV. Easier said than calculated, of course.

Factors to consider:
1) Do you play better as a big stack? In a perfect world, chips have
declining marginal tourney value, but that's not where I play. In the
middle stages of a tourney, a big stack gives me the confidence and
intimidation power to steal a lot of pots. There are spots in some tourneys
where I think a big stack may be worth more than two medium stacks.

2) What better opportunities are coming your way? If you're not going to be
left short-stacked, and you think you outplay the average remaining player,
you can give up some chip EV here, to survive to the better EV opportunities.
Note that the better opportunity may be later in this hand, if you're
considering a call vs a raise.

3) What's your time worth? It may be worth accepting an early coinflip to
reduce the chance that you'll spend a bunch of hours bleeding away to go out
near the bubble.

>If the pot isn't really huge already, I want better-than-even odds with the
>shorter stack, because each of my chips is worth more than each of his
>chips.

I claim there are times when this isn't the case. More importantly, I claim
there are LOTS of times when the pot isn't huge, but unless it's tiny you
still have enough overlay to influence your decision.
--
Mark Rafn dagon@xxxxxxxxx <http://www.dagon.net/>
.

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