To win in any poker tournament, you need to eliminate every other player. It is essentially a competition where the last man standing is the only winner who takes the jackpot. However, at my last tournament, something interesting happened, that made me realize that many players in tournaments might just have the wrong focus, possibly caused by the tournament itself.
The first round saw eight tables of twelve players and as the poker30 tournament progressed, players went out for a variety of reasons: Bad plays, bad luck, bad beats amongst many others reasons. The tournament was down to five tables and there were three other players left on my table. The game was Texas Hold’em and the flop was up. I checked the stacks: 100, 110, 35 and me in the middle with 95. My hole cards (QJ) and the flop, (Q, 9, 10) gave me a strong hand with a pair of queens. Betting progressed and the Turn was a J. Suddenly, I was sitting on a strong two pair, with the possibility of a straight if the River was a K or 8.
That was when my last opponent standing made a strange comment, nodding towards my cards, “Weird play.” That left me, confused. What was so weird? I thought it was clear that I was playing to win: I was sitting pretty on 130 and the big stack. Then he said, “Figured that you would want to take as many other players, not make money.”
I bit my tongue, then my lip. I tasted copper in my mouth. I must have drawn blood. However, that taste prevented me from blurting out my objective: Win. Not just win the tournament but to win as much money as possible. Mt stack was still middling compared to some of the other tables and knew I would need the bankroll to give myself a little cushion at the next table. Of course, I was in this to win! Eliminating another player is anecdotal at best.
I realize now the trap of full tilt tournament poker: Last man standing wins. There are players interested in being that last man but go about it by eliminating as many players as possible. My opponent was not focused on winning, but on eliminating players. His misdirected focus was an advantage to me so a little blood was a small price to pay.
How I made out in the end is not relevant (but for those interested I made it to the top 20 before making my last stand with 35 chips). The point is that in a tournament or a ring game, you need to have one focus: Winning. Eliminating players is a secondary consideration sometimes but it should be a trivial consideration at best, because when you win you have eliminated every other player. This can mean not eliminating players so you can steal blinds and enlarge your stack at their expense.
Every action you take in a tournament should be about winning, not player elimination.