Desperation, Fear, and Implied Collusion

Here's a scenario that every tournament player should always be aware of: blinds and antes are constantly going up, and they are often rising faster than the average stack in the tournament. Eventually, especially if you sit back and wait for pocket aces to play, you'll ultimately have all your chips swallowed by the inevitable costs to play.

Well, there is something else to consider. In a tournament, you never want to enter a desperation stage, as that is when the wolves at the table will circle around you and silently collude in order to watch you croak. When Dan Harringon talks about "M", or the number of times you can go around the table paying only blinds and antes before you fall out of the tournament, he talks about different zones, or levels of M, where you should act differently for proper tournament strategy.

Well, I think a lot of it boils down to this: installing fear in your opponents is very, very important. It is always easier to win a pot uncontested than to win one that goes to showdown on the river. Therefore, you want to avoid that situation as much as possible. So, establishing a tight image and pushing with any two cards while the chips still scare opponents is a very important concept. They don't want to lose their chips, and when your M gets too low, the cost to them will be insignificant. Never reach this point. It is very important that you consider pushing with a very, very wide range of hands when your chips can still intimidate and you are short, stacked. An M of 3 is often quoted as the desperation point, so well before then, you need to start pushing.

The risk of being knocked out of the tournament is obviously present, but your risk is enormously greater for waiting and hoping for a favorable result with your inevitable short stack shove and subsequent call by a vulture. Be proactive. Push your opponents out of pots while you still can.