poker

I've been playing a lot of Hyper Turbo tournaments recently and having some success with them. Unfortunately, I have to recognise that I'm just on the positive side of variance where these are concerned because the edges in them are incredibly low.

Having said that, they remain an understudied part of the game, and in particular, there is edge to be gained in the endgame spots. I would argue one of the areas where people have the least understanding is when you are a micro-stack on bubbles and final tables.

Here is an example of something most players get wrong.

Stealing fold equity

Here is the final table of a Hyper Turbo with five players remaining. At this final table, we have a big stack and a micro stack. The question is: what do we do as the Small Blind with just 2bbs when it folds around to the Button who shoves?

poker

A lot of players are too tight in this scenario and argue they should fold quite a lot of hands because it would be terrible for them if the Big Blind calls and they could have laddered. However, this is what the Button is supposed to shove.

poker

That is 45% of hands. In this example, the Button is well aware of the extreme ICM pressure on the medium stacks at the table, so they can shove wide, knowing that everyone else is supposed to fold quite often.

As a result, this is what the Small Blind should call in GTO world.

poker

That is over 75% of hands, practically everything. Usually, good calling ranges are around half of what the betting range is, but this is not an usual situation.

The Small Blind can win a pot of 6.5 bb's, and it only costs them 1.5 bbs to call, yet they only have to beat one person. That's an amazing return on their investment, even when you factor in the ICM pressure.

Also, the Small Blind has no fold equity at this table, but the Button does. The Big Blind is supposed to fold more than 91% of hands when the Small Blind calls. It would be a disaster for them to call and lose and have the Small Blind survive and ladder.

The reason we call so wide is because we almost quadruple up, and we are almost certainly going to be against one opponent with a very wide range. This is what Dara O'Kearney calls "stealing fold equity." We are using the fold equity from the Button to put ourselves in an extremely profitable situation.

The particularly interesting thing about Hyper Turbo tournaments is that having a micro stack is not a death sentence. If we win this hand, we are suddenly in a really good position at the table.

As I said at the start of this article, the edges are incredibly small in Hyper Turbo tournaments, but this is one of the areas where there is an edge to be gained.