~ P O K E R A R T I C L E S ~
Money Ain't a Thing
The other week I was doing a bit of spectating at one of my favorite online poker rooms, watching a friend of mine play in some little no-name tournament. During the second level, so still relatively early in the tournament, one particular hand played out as follows:
An early position player open raises 5 times the big blind. It folds around to the Small Blind, who is about even in chips and makes the call, with the Big Blind folding. With 11 big blinds in the pot, the flop comes 2-2-3 rainbow. The SB checks, and the EP player quickly pushes all-in for about 9 times the size of the pot, or roughly 99 big blinds total. The SB calls just as quickly and flips over 2-5 suited, much to the chagrin of the EP player and his pocket Queens, who couldn't find a sister to help out and was crippled to the almost certain doom of an early tournament exit.
Now you'd think that these quite donkish plays – the out of position SB pre-flop call with weak "soooted" cards in a heads-up pot, but also the EP players' all-in overbet into a relatively small pot early in the tournament – are typical of what you'd find in a low-limit $5-10 buy-in MTT... and they are. So what's the catch?
Well this wasn't exactly a low-limit $5-10 buy-in tournament. It was actually a $150 buy-in "little no-name tournament." Not exactly the World Series of Poker Main Event, but still a reasonably higher-level tournament with a significant chunk of change in the prize pool. For the most part, I expected to see some solid poker being played. But as I saw in many hands such as the one above, I might as well have been watching the nickel-dime ring games.
This observation would seemingly answer the question that countless poker players are confronted with: what's it like at that next level? For example, "I've been playing $3/6 ring tables and have the bankroll now to move up to $5/10, what should I expect?" or "I've been doing well with $10 sit-n-go's and think I can handle the $25's. How much tougher is the competition?" When moving up in limits, players expect to encounter tighter, trickier, and more solid opponents, and often when making a significant jump (say from $.50/1.00 to $5/10) this is a likely presumption. However, there are two key things to remember. First of all, blinds are blinds, bets are bets, and poker is poker no matter the stakes. Secondly, there are plenty of idiots with money out there, so it's not impossible for a player to be a fish and a cash whale at the same time.
The assumption, and often anxiety, that a lot of players have when moving up limits is that they will need to drastically adjust their game to keep up with the higher rollers. Often times players may tone down their aggression, tighten up, make weak plays, and give opponents too much credit for their hands. Likewise, some players will prepare themselves for tighter opposition by loosening up, making the same bad calls against stronger opponents, and failing to wise up to the new flow of the game.
Again, expecting to alter how you play is realistic. The reason for doing so, however, can be misleading. The fact is that you'll need to adjust your game when moving from table to table, not just when moving up or down limits. You may find yourself playing nickel-dime with a bunch of cheapskate card sharks, while alternatively, you could land in Atlantic City and find yourself at the $10/20 table surrounded by a bunch of old grannies singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and playing any two cards.
Sometimes in poker you just don't know what you'll find yourself up against, and your opponents are going to vary regardless of the limits you play. Certainly there is going to be some correlation between the stakes and the skill level, but you shouldn't let this generalization predetermine or distort your perception of each individual player you encounter. Study your opponents wisely, don't forget the fundamentals, and play your best poker at all times, not just when you think you'll need to.
Best of luck at the tables.
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