As I’ve mentioned before I do a lot of reading and studying in my spare time, attempting to evolve and improve my poker game. Most recently, I’ve been going through “Harrington on Holdem Vol. 2″ – (twoplustwo publishing) with a fine tooth comb. I’m definitely not breezing through this book, although it is a relatively easy read. I’m going through in attempts to committing each area of the book to mastery level memory, wanting to know not only what he’s saying, but why… Throughout the next few posts, I’m going to discuss his endgame strategy from the eyes of the drunken one.

Endgame Poker Tournament Strategy

Dan Harrington lists his “theory of inflection points” as the single most important aspect of a player’s poker game. This inflection theory dictates that when your chip count is x relative to the blinds, you should use y methods in your tournament play. Let me explain this in another way.

Playing Poker tournaments can be like coaching football

During the football season, I had offered commentary regarding Schottenheimer as a coach, and getting too conservative at the wrong times with his play calling. Harrington and I are obviously on the same page, as he discusses how when playing football, providing there is lots of time left in the game, and the score is close, the teams have the entire playbook to work with.

However, when a team is down by a few TD’s and the clock is winding down, the offensive coordinator really only has a few options available to him. Running up the middle is not a viable option, as it allows the clock to run. Additionally, passing short down the middle is not a legit option either, considering the receiver has to again get out of bounds, which is no easy task.

Most of the two minute offenses tend to pick the sidelines at 10-15 yards, in between throwing the bomb. And really, these plays are pretty much the only plays that make sense in the context of the game. They need to move the ball, and they need to move it both quickly and efficiently — lower percentage, higher reward plays.

The team that are up by two TDs late in the game, however, wants to run the clock down. Consequently, they run up the gut. When necessary, they can throw in the middle, lay out a screen play, or pretty much anything they choose. Their goal is to run out the clock in the most efficient manner possible. And hell, they’re in the lead, thus they can afford to play conservatively. They don’t need the bomb to work for them. They must sit on the lead and select their plays carefully and efficiently, the ones designed to both move the ball and burn the clock — high percentage plays.

Relating back to poker

When late in a tourney, is this not the similar problem you have? When you’re short stacking, the blinds and antes eating away, don’t ya need to pick the sidelines and convert the long bombs? When way ahead, do you really need to get mixed up in running a low percentage high reward play?

Tomorrow, we’ll discuss the logical play-book for different poker tournament scenarios. Ponder the above, and reflect on how it relates to your late game play.