Strategy: Playing a big stack
June 04, 2008 - Thomas Clarke
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So you are flying along in a tournament, you've had the nuts and been called several times, and you have the chip lead. But now you have all these chips what on earth do you do with them?
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Things to do
Raise Don't Call
The true power of the big stack is the ability to force opponents off weaker/medium hands. So don't allow people to see cheap flops, they might get lucky. Raise them and knock them off the hand.
Don't get involved with other big stacks
You can take a bad beat off a smaller stack and get away with it, but if you suddenly get into a massive hand with another big stack then there is always a chance that you can get beaten and one bad card can knock you out. Choose your time to attack carefully!
Don't Underestimate Your Opponents
You can get into a flow where it seems all of your raises are resulting in the others around the table folding. While this works for a while, at some point the big stack will run up against a monster hand, make sure that you notice this and fold before it is too late!
Things not to do:
Sitting out
Not a very good strategy as you give up your huge tactical advantage and you learn nothing in the process. You don't lose what you don't put in, but still you should at least practice self-discipline by seeing cards and folding if you need to.
Raising every Hand
Although it is good to raise as mentioned above, be careful not to do it too often, as people will begin calling and re-raising you and you will end up throwing away your chips needlessly.
Over-calling
Like the players who raise too much, some players get a big stack and then instead of re-raising these players fail to take advantage of the big stack and allow players in the blinds and others to see flops cheaply.
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