If a choice is shut, take into consideration what the desk would appear like after you win or lose a hand in a PKO event.

When I first began studying poker over a decade in the past I minimize my enamel in SNGs the place we had a preferred technique idea known as Table Management. This was basically when a choice was shut, letting what the make-up of the desk would appear like after you gained or misplaced be the deciding issue.
You didn’t need to double up someone behind you with a ten massive blind stack, for instance, as a result of it might give them a reshoving stack. There have been additionally spots on the bubble the place you would go away a brief stack alive as a result of their presence meant you can bully the larger stacks.
That idea went away because the solvers took over the sport and you’d simply play your vary accordingly. However, desk administration is a giant consideration once more, in relation to PKO tournaments. This is particularly the case in the early levels when the bounties are a giant relative issue.
Who covers who after the hand?

This is as a result of whom you cowl in a PKO is essential to your profitability and having the ability to cowl everybody at your desk means you might be competing for the largest prize pool. As such your choice is not only about your vary vs their vary, it’s about engineering conditions the place you’ll be able to cowl the massive bounties.
For instance, in case you have the chip lead and are dealing with a slightly +EV choice for a small bounty, however shedding the hand would imply you not cowl 4 individuals on the desk, it is likely to be higher to cross. If you’ve the chip lead and calling and shedding wouldn’t take the chip lead away from you, then you’ll be able to definitely make these marginal calls.
If you might be 6/9 and profitable the hand would make you 1/9 and gamers 2, 3 and 4 are all massive bounties, which may make a marginally-EV name a snap. There is extra fairness in being the chip chief and it’s price taking or passing skinny EV traces to be sure to cowl everybody.
Additional fairness in getting the chip lead
Not each spot is price taking, in fact. If you might be 2/9 and the 1/9 participant is both very tight or solely has one beginning bounty, it doesn’t make a lot sense attempting to cowl them since you are unlikely to be rewarded attempting to take them out. They both gained’t quit the chips or the small bounty isn’t well worth the threat. If they’re tight, you can even safely assume that you should have the run of the desk as 2/9 anyway, as they’ll fold most fingers preflop.
It’s good to have 20 massive blind stacks forward of you in PKOs as a result of you’ll be able to 3-bet them extensive and you’re going to get superb odds to name them for his or her bounty if they arrive excessive of you.

Trying to get the chip lead additionally consists of taking non-standard traces with fingers. For instance, in case you have a really sturdy hand it might be regular to 3-bet with it and quite a lot of the time you’re taking down a small pot. In a PKO it’s usually price simply flatting with fingers like these and risking elimination if profitable extra chips would put you in a chip lead place.
In any PKO hand you’ll be able to boil down easy methods to regulate as follows, you’ve three selections:
- How would I play this in a traditional MTT?
- How does the presence of the bounty change issues?
- What will the brand new desk state of affairs be after I win or lose the hand?
That remaining level is at the moment the place the solvers fall quick and there’s a lot of extra fairness in masking individuals on the desk in PKOs, it shouldn’t be ignored in any a part of your choice making.
Dara O’Kearney’s new guide PKO Poker Strategy is available on kindle or paperback at Amazon proper now.