Importance of tight play early in the WSOP
Posted: 2008-05-16 11:48:42
The importance of tight play in the beginning of a tournament is very important for the following reasons.
- Losing half your stack is far worse to you than it is an advantage to increasing your stack by 50% . Say your tourney starts you out with 5000 chips and you lose 2500 of these chips, now you are putting yourself in a spot to be desperate before others at the table.
- You can use your image of being a tight player later on when you need to make a play at the pot without a hand because they will give you much more respect than a player playing a high percent of the hands dealt.
- Early on in a tourney there are no antes and it's very hard to get chips early stealing blinds without antes.
- You can get a better feel of the other players and how they are playing their normal game if you are not always raising them and having them sit back and trying to trap you because they figure you are overplaying your hands.
- It's a lot easier on your bankroll when you are playing more conservative, The swings will be much more if you are always pushing a lot. The upside is that you will sometimes get chips. Most players whom get rewarded for playing a little more reckless seemingly do not know when to slow down.
- Your top world class players play tighter in the beginning because the math is right to do so. It's hard to play many pots when the cost per round is very cheap. That means it's not costing much to wait for a really good hand. When you are only showing good hand this leads to you getting the respect you will need later as the blinds and antes get much higher.
Good Luck with your early tight play
Proud UB Team Member
Shawn Rice
