Final Table Tournament Play and Your Poker Calculator.

Title: Final Table Tournament Play and Your Poker Calculator.

Author: Marty Smith

Article:
So many dynamics of the game come together at the final table. A
mixture of stack sizes, experience, excitement, anxiety, and the
thought of having that message pop up on your computer saying,
Congratulations, You Placed First in the Tournament and
$2,375.00 has been deposited into your account! Nice!

You may have been using your poker calculator
during the tournament to help get you to the final table, but
now with this new mixture of dynamics present, it may not be as
useful to you in moving up pay-out positions. I never play an
online tournament without using my Holdem Pirate Poker
Calculator. I use the VPIP meter to keep close tabs on the
type of player I am paying against, as it truly helps in
identifying what they may be raising with. All of this changes
at the final table, particularly as a result of short stacks
combined with huge blinds and position.

First of all if you are a big stack you are going to be playing
a lot more hands than your poker calculator is recommending.
This is especially true of you are up against a short stack who
is all in and you are last to act. Your poker calculator will
say to fold hands like QTs, or AJos, but if your stack is 4 or 5
times bigger than his, this is an automatic call. I would even
play more speculative hands in that spot like T9s, and pocket
pairs right down to deuces.

Conversely if you are a short stack your play is wide open as
you have nothing to lose but move up. In position if your stack
can cause some damage to some medium stacks to your left in the
blinds you are actually situated better than it may seem. Post
flop aggression with first in pressure is your move here with
hands that could range from Ace-anything, any pair, suited
connectors and any two paint cards. Most of these combinations
are instant fold warnings from your poker calculator. So you
really should only use it as an indicator of hand strength. When
I am short stack I am looking for anything over 75% in position.
Thats one of the reasons I really like using VPIP meter because
it will give you a percentage strength on your hand, but more
importantly a indication of the aggression at your table. From
that information, you may, even being a short stack may want to
survive just past the next round of blinds if you figure you can
move up a pay scale or two just by sitting and folding. I have
done exactly this too, earning an extra thousand dollars in the
process. In that game I was happy to blind out!

So when you get to the final table, a quick glance at the VPIP
meter is about all youll need to determine your strategy, and do
you best to move up the money.

About the author:
Marty Smith is an online poker player and webmaster of
http://PokerCalculatorReport.com. He has tested all of the
popular poker calculators and rated them on his website. He also
writes for http://www.PokerStrategyArticles.com