| Timing
the Blinds
This section is all about how
and why you should or should not time the blinds in an online no
limit texas
holdem tournament. Usually when you are playing in an online
no limit holdem tournament you have access to a lobby area where
you can see how many players are left in the tournament and when
(in minutes) the blinds increase (and to what new blind level).
This information is vital to you as a player since you always want
to know your position in the tournament relative to your opponents
and more importantly you want to know when the blinds are changing
and where you will be seated at your table when those blinds change.
Like most players in a no limit holdem tournament you will spend
most of your time folding. In an online no limit holdem tournament
you can fold by simply checking off inside a little box before your
turn to play when you want to fold and when your turn arrives the
software will automatically fold your hand. I do not support the
use of automatic decision making options in order to play a tournament.
If you have ever been at a table where 6 people in a row fold in
rapid succession you have just witnessed the speed and ease at which
the auto fold function can be applied. Please do not use this auto
fold feature if at all possible. The reasons behind not using this
feature are two fold:
1 – other players will know that you use the auto fold and
perhaps auto bet or auto check feature and they will alter their
betting
patterns against you based on this knowledge. In other words
the use of the auto play function is a tell and you really do not
want to give your opponents information on how you play (even when
you fold) if at all possible.
2 – the use of the auto play function eliminates your ability
to influence the time it takes to play each round. If you have 12
minutes total in each level and if you have 20 seconds to make up
your mind at a table of ten players then in fact from the button
you can burn 160 seconds or 2 minutes and 40 seconds off the clock
while folding before you reach the big blind. This maximum time
you take to play a hand from the button and the big blind may be
the difference between the blind changing on you in the BB or on
the button (when you get there). Clearly if you use auto play functions
you take away your option to impact the time it takes to complete
each round.
Most great players do not argue the fact that early in an online
no limit holdem tournament you do not want to get involved in marginal
hands or really bother with any pots other than your big and small
blind hands. Some players even stay "away" until the third
or fourth round. This is considered the best strategy right up to
the point where your chip count divided by the sum of the blinds
(commonly referred to as your “M” value) goes below
15. In other words you don’t need to participate in a hand
in approximately the first four rounds of play. As you may notice
after you have played several online no limit texas holdem tournaments
that few online texas holdem players have the patience required
in the initial stages of a tournament to last past the first break.
It is in the initial stages of a tournament where you want to reduce
your chances of getting beat for all your chips while your initial
investment in any given hand is small in comparison to your total
chip count. This is why in most small online no limit holdem tournaments
usually half the field is gone in the first hour of play. Statistically
the good players should never be out of the tournament in the first
hour and should not even have risked much of their chips. Ideally
the good players will wait until the blinds creep up to a level
where the big blind represents approximately one 15th of their total
stack before they start to play. It is only when the sum of the
blinds are relatively important in terms of your chip count that
you will be able to make serious moves with good starting
hands and even make a few bluffs at pots that you will be able
to play your best against other good players. In fact some expert
online poker players have suggested to me that any play in the first
hour should only be defensive. In fact if you charted the most successful
online poker players in terms of their position
in a tournament and their chips risked at any point in time you
would note that they aggressively go after pots after most of the
weak players are out of the tournament and they never worry about
being relatively short stacked in any phase of the tournament. As
a matter of fact most good players prefer to play short stacked
since it allows them to play with the aggression required to accumulate
chips rapidly and to eventually win tournaments.
How the aggressive behavior relates to blind timing is very interesting
indeed. Timing your blinds requires patience while playing no limit
holdem requires the willingness to be aggressive with your chips.
In fact all the best players who do not consider the timing of the
blinds at one point in the tournament or another will fall victim
to the blinds. The basic reason why timing the blinds becomes important
goes back to the ratio of your chip count to the total blinds. Imagine
for a moment that you have 6,000 in chips and the blinds are about
to change from 400/800 to 500/1000. Let us also imagine that once
through the blinds you will get a wonderful hand that will allow
you to double up against an opponent with more chips than your holdings.
In scenario one you make it through the blinds at 400/800 and in
scenario number two (where you do not time the blinds) you go through
the blinds at 500/1000. The resulting difference in your chip count
will be only 300 chips however the impact on your chip count given
your willingness to gamble at some point before the next round of
blinds will be 600 chips or more. As a percentage of your total
chips prior to this exercise you can estimate a net loss of at least
10% of your current chip count by not timing the blinds. To complete
this example your total chip count would go from 6,000 down to 4,800
and then up to at least 9,600 in the case where you timed the blinds
whereas your total chip count would go from 6,000 down to 4,500
and then up to 9,000 in the case where you didn’t time the
blinds. So by timing the blinds you have gained at least 600 chips
in this scenario. Now for arguments sake let us assume here that
on the subsequent round you also missed the blinds or hit the blinds
again and then engaged your chips so as to double up again. Now
this difference would expand from 600 chips to 1,800 chips (or the
value of the increased blinds). So in fact if you didn’t play
a hand for a round you would be just as poorly off as if you didn’t
even time the blinds at all. Now that 1,800 chip difference (16,200
less 14,400) would expand even more if you continued to disregard
the blind timing as a part of your tournament strategy. It is important
to note this difference expands geometrically depending on your
circumstances in the tournament. The point here is that if you fold
every hand for the first four rounds and then you correctly time
the blinds on every round after that you will have saved yourself
(and earned yourself) thousands and thousands of chips by the time
you reach the final table (assuming the field is sufficiently large).
Course you still need to play the game itself very well and you
need some sort of lucky break or two to reach the final table. This
luck factor aside the timing of the blinds is something you can
do without any regard for the task at hand (that is to win the tournament)
that will keep you focused on your game and not on any other external
distractions.
Now when I say time the blinds I mean you arrive at the theoretical
dealer position (known as the button) when the blinds change. In
fact if you are really good at timing the blinds you will arrive
on or one to the right of the button every time the blinds change
throughout the entire tournament. Of course when a player is busted
out on your table or if you get moved to another table you have
to recalculate the time required to get to the button when the blinds
change. Having said this you need to figure 30 to 45 seconds per
hand. Now you can add 0 to 30 seconds a hand onto that figure by
playing fast or by stalling. In the event that you get moved to
another table in between blind changes and you have calculated that
it is impossible for you to time the blinds then you have to try
to time the next blind at the same table. Yes you lose one blind
but you will make up for it on the next blind. As the blinds continue
to rise throughout a no limit tournament the need to time the blinds
increases (ie it becomes more important). Of course at the same
time as you are doing this you still have to play the game carefully
and aggressively.
The fun part about timing blinds is that in the period of the tournament
when you get 93os or 72os or similarly unplayable hands you just
sit back and focus on the clock. It keeps you in the game while
your cards are pathetic.
Few appreciate the value of timing the blinds throughout a tournament.
I can tell you even if your cards run cold to the extent that you
are forced all in on the big blind at least you know that you saved
three or four rounds of play during the tournament and this additional
savings could result in your cashing versus your finishing just
out of the money.
This article is the first in a serious of topics geared towards
online texas holdem and specifically no limit texas
holdem tournament play that nobody wants you to know –
or at least I think so since I have never heard or read about this
subject matter in any book or magazine or web site.
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