What to do if you keep just missing out on the money in tournaments

It’s one of the most irritating consequences of playing tournament poker – just missing out on the money.

You play for hours, ride your luck, suffer the odd bad beat but keep you game under control. There’s just a few players left to drop out then it’s pay day – you’ll be in profit and the further you go the more you will win. End up the last one at the table and you’ll have raked in the cash.

But does it seem that more often than not when you get this far you somehow crash out just shy of the money? The same familiar faces frequently just pushing you out of the cash places?

To make it that far in a tournament regularly players must be good. Certainly in the top 10 or 15 per cent of all entrants. It’s safe to assume players making it this far play a good game and understand optimum tournament strategy is different to that in cash games.

So the chances are the reason other players often seem to make the money when you fail is they are adapting their strategies to suit the situation. Their play is evolving with the game.

Which leaves the question what can you do to improve your tournament play at this stage? Here’s the Big Slick guide to improving your play when you’re closing in on the money places.

The first consideration at this stage of the game is stack size. How does yours compare to your opponents’? Well that’s easy to find out. Get up from your seat and have a look around. Compare them. If you’re playing online it’s even easier – just pop into the lobby and all the information you need is already neatly worked out for you.

Let’s say you’re one of the bigger stacks. Great! But what should you do? The mistake many players make is they assume they’ll make the money, tighten up their play, sit back and wait for the short stacks to drop out.

This is wrong!! You are in one of the most profitable situations in tournament poker and should be taking advantage of it and accumulating chips. Sure, confrontations with big stacks are not wise. You don’t want to bust out or lose a hand that leaves you seriously short stacked.

But consider this. Many of those short stacks are clinging on for life, desperately trying to sneak into the money places. Show a little aggression and they’ll back off unless they have a genuine all in hand. Bully them. Steal chips. And never show a bluff. This is the part of the game where strong tournament players excel. It’s what gives them serious stacks to play with when the money places are finally reached.

Even if you are medium stacked this is an appropriate strategy. Though obviously you will be paying attention to position and not getting involved when big stacks are still to play.

If you’re a small stack the situation is a little different. You have a decision to make. Are you happy to just sneak into the money for a small pay day or do you have your sights set on a higher position and a bigger pay off?

If you want to increase your chances of making a higher position, and winning more money, you should simply carry on playing the strategy you have utilised to get to that point. In the long run a player that does this will continue to miss out on the prize money more than someone who makes a strategy adjustment – but will enjoy bigger occasional wins as a result.

For a player that just wants to sneak into the money a strategy adjustment is needed. You’ve already looked around at the stack sizes and know how your stack compares.

Let’s assume you have the smallest stack on your table, but players on other tables are lower and if they go out you make the money. All the short stacks are so short that playing a hand effectively means going all in.

In this situation you should avoid all close gambles. Even stronger hands like pocket queens should be discarded from an early position if mucking them looks like it will increase your chances of making the money. You’re waiting for other players to drop out, not trying to double up on a close gamble.

A player using this strategy should also keep a close eye on the blind levels and tournament clock. If an opponent’s stack is so low it will be blinded out at the current or next level, just playing a waiting game can nudge you into the money.