High Blinds and Medium Stacks in Tournaments
When the blinds get high in a online poker tournament, people tend to act either like scared dogs, or like monsters. When winning a pot can mean adding on a third of your stack in profit just by stealing without a hand, some poker players tighten up, afraid that they will go out and fall in the money, or they realize they can steal more, and begin to push with a wider range, getting themselves eventually either rich, or caught in a coin flip or dominated situation. When the blinds get high and you have an average size stack, it shouldn’t immediately be time to go either shellshocked or bonkers. Though your range is definitely more open than it would be with smaller blinds, with an average stack, as long as the blinds aren’t just enormous to the point of being more than half a bet, you can wait to find hands you like to push with, such as KQ, any pair, even KJ, K10, and so on. Following the orbit of the blinds is also important, as when you realize that the big blind is coming and will take a bite out of you, your rate of need in online poker hand selection becomes looser, taking a “best of what’s to come” standpoint.
