Table of Contents
What Does Chip Leader Mean in Poker?
Being the chip leader at any
given moment in a poker tournament makes for a pretty incredible feeling. In addition
to that, being chip leader can also have significant financial implications: The closer
you are the top of the leaderboard, the higher you increase your chances of cashing and
making a deep run (when you’re still in the initial stages). You can also win the whole
tournament by taking down the entire final table (if you’re chip leader in the later
stages)!
Being chip leader isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, though. It usually takes a
lot of effort to get there, and in one misstep, things can all come crashing down, and
you could find yourself back in the middle of the pack (or worse).
Therefore, it’s
important to follow certain strategies when you do find yourself atop the leaderboard
to increase the chances of you making it deep and simultaneously not jeopardise the
tournament stack you’ve worked so hard to achieve. This article aims to help illuminate
these strategies whenever you are the chip leader in a poker tournament.
How to Play as
the Chip Leader?
Just because you’ve amassed a large chip stack doesn’t mean that you
can be overly reckless with it (i.e. playing every hand and always trying to make your
opponents fold through your aggression). This is a sure-fire way to go broke and lose
your chip advantage, if you don’t use the strategies for “selective aggression”
explained in bullet points later.
This point especially true for the earlier tournament
stages with smaller blinds and deeper stacks overall.
First, usually when players are
deepstacked in the beginning stages, many of them will play a much wider range of hands
preflop, putting pressure on them thru aggression. The big stack won’t be as effective
as when payouts are looming and/or they’re shorter stacked and don’t want to risk their
tournament life as easily.
Secondly, in the early stages, there are no significant pots
to be won preflop from stealing just the blinds (as stack-to-pot ratios are huge, and
antes are typically not yet involved). Therefore, as chip leader, you should aim to
play tight in the preliminary stages. You should only start opening up your aggression
when antes are involved (more chips to steal and take advantage of) and/or when players
will have to play a bit more straightforward from being shorter stacked (i.e. 30bb or
less). The tight image you established from earlier will also carry over nicely when
stealing pots preflop will start to mean something significant (i.e. with the addition
of the antes and the increasing dollar value of each chip in play once in the
money).
When to Be Aggressive as Chip Leader?
There are many situations in which being
the chip leader should call for more aggressive play, in general:
Bubble Situations:
This is a great time to apply pressure on everyone with a wider range of steals and
re-steals preflop, especially from late position. Short-stacks will be looking to
min-cash and will likely be playing super nitty, as a result. Subsequently, you can
widen your opening ranges when they are left to act behind. On a similar note, most
medium stacks will want to preserve their stacks first-off, while attempting to steal
from the short stacks, too. Versus these players, you can 3bet bluff with increased
aggression, and often times get folds out of them because of the unique play
surrounding the bubble.
Versus “Fit-or-Fold” Opponents: If certain villains at the
table play very straightforwardly post-flop (i.e. tight passive), you can raise
liberally preflop in later positions with a wider range of hands than normal to simply
aim to take down the pot and chip up with a cbet. Careful, though – always be assessing
and re-assessing your opponents’ tendencies. If certain players start adjusting their
gameplay towards you, you might need to counter back accordingly and tighten your range
slightly.
Applying Pressure on Medium-Sized Stacks: Especially surrounding significant
pay-jumps (i.e. at the final table), chip leaders can very much exploit the
medium-stacks in a poker tournament. The mid-stacks won’t want to needlessly jeopardise
their tournament life or stack as long as a short stack is still in the game.
ICM / Pay
Jumps / Final Table Gameplay: This point is quite similar to the last point. When you
are chip leader and in spots in tournaments where other players are going to be playing
snug due to payout considerations, open your range and steal and re-steal wider. Every
blind you add to your stack could translate into huge dollar amounts in terms of ICM.
Never overlook your steal spots.
Chopping: If you’re ever discussing a chop in a
tournament (i.e. when there are only a select number of players left at the final
table), always take any significant chip advantage you might have into account when
deciding on the payouts. For example, if you’re chopping 3-way and you have 30bb, and
the other two players have 20bb, your chop amount should appropriately reflect your
chip advantage. This factor is especially true in live tournaments, where ICM
calculators are not automatically integrated.
Chip Leader Tournament Strategy and
Tips:
Avoid Unnecessary Risks for Sizable Portions of Your Stack: Preserving your chips
versus other big stacks (by making more cautious calls instead of aggressive value
raises) will help set you up for long-term success in tournament poker.
EXAMPLE: Let’s
take a situation where you’re facing a river bet, and you think your hand is ahead. If
you raise, you think your opponent will call with a worse hand 60% of the time, meaning
you’ll win 60% of the time and lose 40% of the time, making a raise justifiable.
If you
just call and lose, you’ll have 20bb; if you win, you’ll have 60bb.
If you shove for
15bb effective more and lose, you’ll have 5bb; if you win, you’ll have 75bb.
In this
case, both calling and raising will leave you happy with a big stack, one being
slightly larger than the other, but with not too much difference relative to standings
and gameplay moving forward. However, the benefits of just calling (leaving yourself
with a workable, 20bb stack if you lose) far outweigh the risks of raising (trying to
climb back from a 5bb stack that doesn’t give you much room to work with).
As a result,
you should just call here and take the safer option versus the other deepstack player.
You don’t need to take the thin +EV spots in tournaments like you always should in cash
games because of the value that keeping your tournament life holds.
Don’t Have Lofty
Expectations: When you’re chip leader earlier on in a tournament, it can be fun to
dream about making it to the final table, but be careful not to get too ahead of
yourself and have elevated expectations. The same should be true even when you’re in
the money with 4 tables left, and you’re chip leader – there’s a good chance that you
won’t end up being the player who takes down the tournament. Always take things one
hand at a time while playing and make each decision optimally without any worries or
massive expectations. This thought process will help you succeed in poker tournaments,
especially when your stack fluctuates.
Implement Strategies to Eliminate Tilt: While
this should apply to any scenario in poker, it especially applies when playing as the
chip leader – or even after becoming a mid-stack after losing the chip leader position.
For example, if you lose 80% of your stack vs another deepstack player and it leaves
you with 20bb. Don’t fret – especially if the 20bb is still in sight of the average
chip stack! Just because you had a big stack before doesn’t mean you’re entitled to one
through each stage of the tournament. Besides, 20bb is a very workable stack and leaves
you still in the thick of things. Always work with whatever you have in your current
chip stack without any worries about where you might have been a few hands ago.
Remember, tilt is created when expectations (i.e. winning a certain hand) are not met.
In poker, there are rarely ever any 100% hand winning situations, and as a result, you
must learn to effectively and swiftly deal when the beats go against you so as not to
affect your gameplay in future hands.
You Can Increase Your Post-Flop Fold Equity
Through Aggression: Being chip leader doesn’t mean you should just be looser with
preflop steals. To be extra effective, you must put your opponents in tough spots
post-flop with similar aggression (while simultaneously not being overly reckless). For
example, if the board is great for your range and not so great for your opponents, it
might make for a great spot to triple as a bluff, if you think doing so will force
villain off his entire range of hands. When the correct time calls for it, don’t be
afraid to be the “big stack bully” and put your opponents in tough spots.
Always Keep
in Mind the Tournament Types and Stage of Gameplay: Always keep in mind how (and even
if) you can use your big stack to your advantage, relative to the tournament type and
stage of gameplay. If you’re in a winner-take-all tournament, for example, being chip
leader might increase your likelihood of winning. But, it will also give incentive for
other players to take more chances and risks, in general, to try and amass a stack.
Subsequently, following a looser play style versus your opponents while you’re chip
leader might not be ideal for this situation.
Always Keep in Mind Your Opponents’
Tendencies and Adjust: While it might be profitable to follow the strategies listed
earlier in this article, always remember that you must adapt to how your opponents are
playing to play profitably. If you’re at a looser table, for example, that seemingly
doesn’t care about cashing or going broke, then it’s likely not going to be profitable
to use the looser chip leader approach in this situation
In Conclusion
Hopefully, the
above tips and strategies for how to effectively play when chip leader will help you
out in your next poker tournament.
In summary, don’t be afraid to open up your
aggression as chip leader when the situation is right to abuse the shorter stacks and
chip up.
Pick your spots and use your stack to your advantage to put your opponents in
tough situations where your aggression will likely be enough to fold your opponents out
of the hand ultimately.
In the later stages especially, those small blind steals can be
worth huge amount of dollars (re: ICM)!
Good luck at the felts!
For our web story about
poker chip leader tips, just click here.
