Not all players will admit to it, but no one, absolutely no one, desires to bust a last table first -- and it is the guys within the middle who get squeezed essentially the most.
The big stacks have the chips to permit for a few mis-steps, while the fast stacks can do their best to ladder up. But it is the players who maybe have hopes of pushing into contention who may be nervously eyeing the payout ladder, wondering what their best strategy is, especially if a bully starts applying the pressure.
In this tournament, for instance, the pay jump between eighth and seventh is £24,000, which isn't to be sniffed at. And the players with a medium-sized stack, in positions six and seventh within the leader board, are in an actual bind, especially as they grapple with ICM considerations.
As level 28, with blinds of 30,000/60,000 ante 10,000 started it was Jonathan Bensadoun (1,120,000, 18.66 big blinds) and Pablo Gordillo (1,360,000, 22.66 big blinds) who found themselves on this awkward spot. The PokerStars Blog isn't knowledgeable in traversing the sort of sticky, tricky landscape but luckily we all know a person who is.
"They must tighten up a bit, however it will depend on who you are going up against in a hand and in the event that they can knock you out," says David Lappin, who's a part of the Firm and railing Kevin Killeen. "THE FELLOW in eighth place has absolutely no ICM considerations rather than that he is looking to make life awkward by hanging around and he's being patient.
"On the opposite side of the equation the chip leader is making the most of this and he's looking to pick up soft chips because players aren't going so as to play back as much. As an example if Sebastian Pauli (the chip leader) opens from the cut-off, Jake Cody isn't going to defend as widely from the massive blind as he might do because he doesn't wish to get right into a potential big ICM punt with him."
But it isn't just the players in sixth and seventh who've ICM considerations. "I FEEL the fellows who're in second through fifth are really wary about entering pots with players who can knock them out, whereas sixth and seventh are fascinated about outlasting the shortstack," Lappin says. "THEY HAVE GOT pretty significant ICM considerations."
He continues: "Some people can take that too far though. Of their position, while numerous their money is locked into two ladder spots a few of their equity is within the top two or three prizes as well."
So typically what adjustments do you want to make when you are within the 15-20 big blind zone but you are not the shortest stack?
"You can't turn down premium hands but ICM considerations will dictate that you can proabably fold the ground 5% of your range that you would usually re-shove with," Lappin says. "Also your induce range goes to be so much tighter. With a 14-20 big blind stack with ace-queen, ace-jack suited, eights and nines, you'd usually open those hands so a worse range will re-ship. But on this situation you'd just open shove them. So your inducing range gets narrower because more of that range will come into your open shove range since you wish to avoid showdown in the event you can. When you simply open shove a hand like eights, in place of opening it with the intention of calling it off, you avoid situations where a king-queen, ace-nine type hand will reship on you."
As well as where you stand within the chip charts, additionally it is a case of size matters.
"One of the important thing things to keep in mind is your stack size because whether it is in a undeniable zone then so that it will affect your decision greater than anything else," Lappin says. "Say the short-stack is as little as seven big blinds and you're in sixth or seventh with 14 or 15 big blinds. You're paralysed, because you're looking forward to him to make his move first since you need to make that ladder jump. That's a very bad spot."
And it's often here that the professionals really know what to do. "What you can see is nice players like Jake Cody and Kevin MacPhee if they're up against the large stack or each other, they will not have a large three-bet range as they'll flat their monsters. If the large stack opens and they are sitting there with ace-queen, that's usually a pleasing three-bet spot to urge or play a larger pot. They are going to flat that each one day as they would like to maintain the pot smaller and never put an excessive amount of in their stack at risk."
As it stands nobody is. We've still got an entire compliment of players here in London.
Follow our coverage of the EPT London festival via the primary EPT London page, where there are hand-by-hand updates and chip counts within the panel on the top and have pieces below. And, of course, you'll follow all of it live at EPT Live.
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: European Poker Tour]
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