Making the Final Table

There is no greater feeling than making the final table of a poker tournament. Its the result of hours and hours of play. Usually you've played in numerous other tournaments struggling to make the money and more often getting eliminated on some bad beat of some kind. But when you've finally made a final table, all that pain is transformed into a wonderful bliss of the spirit.

So now that you've made it, what is the best course of action. The first thing I'd say to keep in mind is forget about all those televised final tables that you've seen on TV. Players are making herculean calls with A4 or 33 and sucking out. Others are making gigantic bluffs against big stacks. etc. Remember that they are only showing selective (usually wild) hands that are not the bread and butter of success.

The key things that I cover in my courses on playing the final table are (1) your chip stack, (2) your relative position, (3) the blind structure, (4) your goals, and (5) your opponents profile.

On top of these factors, you must keep in mind that the cards are going to dictate much (not all) of the action and you must continue to let the tournament come to you. The exception to this rule is if you are playing a short stack. If you only have 7 big blinds or less, be ready to gamble. So lets talk about short stack play first.

Before you sit down be sure to carefully analyze the chip stack situation. If you are ninth (last) in chips, think in terms of having nothing to lose. Most of the time the final results closely mirror the chip stack proportions. That is, the chip leader is most likely to win and the ninth place player (you in this case) is most likely to finish 9th. Realize that if you are able to move up three or four notches, you did a great job.

As a consequence, you do not have the luxury of sitting back and waiting for AA or KK. You gotta play hard while you still have some fold equity. If you win without a caller you can add as much as 25% to your stack and that gets leveraged substantially if you double up in subsequent hands. So you are not only looking to get a playable hand, you are also looking to find a good opportunity to get your money in.

Here are the basics. Don't look to do battle with anyone who has raised ahead of you, unless you have a premium hand. The only exception to this is if you are in the blinds or on the button and you have an ace or king and a loose player raises in late position. There is a good chance that you are ahead. If he decides to gamble and call and you are indeed ahead, that's fine. But there is a good chance that he'll fold and give you a nice pot uncontested - and that's even better.

But mostly you are looking to move in - all in - if you are folded around to and there are four or less players left to act. In this case you may not even choose to look at your cards at all (just pretend to) because if you do get called, the most likely scenario is that your cards are live and you're only a 60/40 dog. You're going to have to gamble. Get that into your head. The absolute worst thing you could do is to get blinded off. The number one rule of short stack play is: Thou shalt not get blinded off. Remember that your opponents don't know what you have and a big bet to them immediately means strength. It might surprise you to see what people will fold in these situations. After all, they want to move up the pay scale as well. Amateurs will tend to tighten up and experienced players are not going to want to risk flop, turn and river.

So these are the very basics. In my course, I get into the nitty gritty in detail. But whatever happens, enjoy the experience. It may be a long time before you make another final table.

I'll talk about playing larger stacks in later posts. I now you can't wait for that.