Playing For The Win vs Playing Passive While Deep In A Poker Tournament

On the newest episodes of Cracking Aces, we talk about the cheapest things poker players and gamblers do

And also get into two questions related to tournament poker that we get asked a lot: 1) How do you know if you're good or if you're just running good/getting lucky, and 2) how do you balance going for the win in a tournament vs playing passive and grinding payjumps? 

Both of those questions sort of go hand in hand. It's interesting- you can be one of the best poker players in the world, but you need to play so much volume to balance out the negative variance you'll run into. We talk about the hypothetical- there's 14 people left in a tournament a 1 million dollars for first. You have pocket tens and get it all in preflop vs AK. An ace on the flop, you're out in 14th. Orrrr you win that flip, have the chip lead, and go on to win the million dollars and it springs a run of great finishes in high buy-in tournaments. So are you lucky…or good? A lot of players who are on the upside of variance think they are much better than they are, and there are players who are world class poker players who lose that flip 5 times in a row and wonder what the fuck they have to do differently. But if you play enough, it will, and does, even out. The whole concept is super fascinating, and Jake digs deep into the theories behind both concepts.

PS: I would like to start doing more poker strategy/theory blogs. We answer them on the podcast (more so Jake, as he's a world class poker player) but maybe I'l bring that strat over to the blog. Never too late to learn how to make money playing poker.