PokerWorks

It's Not All About The Cards

Some of you might be wondering what depth of money dynamics is. Simply put it is the relation of average chip stack in proportion to the blinds. Let's look at three different situations, that might appear on the surface to be identical but are really polar opposites.

4 players left in a tournament.

Player A has 130,000 in chips
Player B has 150,000 in chips
Player C has 60,000 in chips
Player D has 20,000 in chips
Average chip stack is 90,000

Situation 1:

The Blinds are 500/1000 with a 200 ante.

Situation 2:

The blinds are 2000/4000 with a 500 ante.

Situation 3:

The blinds are 8000/16000 with a 1500 ante.

So what are the depth of money dynamics for each situation and how should it affect the four players?

Situation 1 (The Blinds are 500/1000 with a 200 ante):

Player A has 130,000 in chips - has 130x the BB. Very deep, can play post-flop poker (meaning he can still limp in, call raises, etc;)
Player B has 150,000 in chips - same as player A.
Player C has 60,000 in chips - even though he's only 2/3 average stack, he's actually in the same comfort zone as Player A and B and does not need to alter his game drastically.
Player D has 20,000 in chips - while very short in relation to the rest of the field, he's not to the point where he has to go all in pre-flop if he is going to play a hand. Classic "middle" stack play would dictate here (play hands aggressively, more likely to go with a hand if reraised).

Situation 2 (The blinds are 2000/4000 with a 500 ante):

Player A has 130,000 in chips - has 33x the BB. A standard raise of 12000 total is 10% of his stack, like Player D in Situation 1, this player is in the classic middle stack stage with one big difference - this player is above average stack and doesn't necessarily have to go with their hand if reraised (meaning they could make the raise to 12K and still fold if they were reraised, while player D in situation 1 would likely have to call if they reraised to 6K total and someone moved in). This goes into what we call "stack dynamics" and is something I will discuss in more depth in another essay.

Player B has 150,000 in chips - again, like player A, with the added luxury that he can't go broke on any given hand (yet).

Player C has 60,000 in chips - Very similar to situation #1 - still does not necessarily have to go all in pre-flop but definitely needs to realize that if he does raise that he likely can not fold to a reraise.

Player D has 20,000 in chips - unlike situation #1, this player is in desperation stages now at 5x the BB. Any hand they play, should be all in pre-flop. They should be looking for spots where they can move in as the initial aggressor and above all things should not be waiting for the BB to hit them.

Situation 3 (The blinds are 8000/16000 with a 1500 ante):

Player A has 130,000 in chips - amazing how different a few rounds of blinds can be. Now despite being 2nd in chips, Player A really only has one move at 8x the BB. He has two choices - sit back and wait for big hands, or push hard (all in pre-flop) and hope to avoid confrontations with B and win his matchups with C and D. At this type of structure (and don't think this doesn't happen - it happens all the time), the winner of the tournament will usually be the person who manages to NOT get called when they are raising and who wins the most flips when they do get called.

Player B has 150,000 in chips - same situation as A here.

Player C has 60,000 in chips - you might find this weird, but Player C is really in the same position as A and B here. One double up and they move ahead of them. They should definitely be pushing while they still have more then 2x the BB in the hopes they get lucky and double up (or have the best hand hold up).

Player D has 20,000 in chips - desperation * 100 - needs to be moving in every hand until they either double up or are out.

So using the above, we can see that what your stack size is in relation to the blinds will have a proportional impact on how you play. The closer your stack size is to the blinds, the more urgent your play needs to be. The further away from it, the more patient you can be and the more options you have in the hands you play.

There are three stages of depth of money:

1) Deep - like Situation 1, Player A, B and C. This stage affords the most play.
2) Medium - like Situation 1, Player D, Situation 2 Player A, B and C (but note there are different levels of medium - the one area where there are differing levels, you have upper medium which affords more play and lower medium which is on the threshold to Shallow). This stage affords the ability to apply the gap concept and play more than one hand, but depending on how close you are to the Shallow threshold, you are teetering on only being able to make one move, so each hand should be looked at carefully before playing it.
3) Shallow - like Situation 2 Player D, Situation 3, Player A, B, C and D. You have one move. All-in. Post-flop play goes out of the equation (unless you get a look out of the BB in an unraised pot). Aggression at this stage should rule - the hands you move in with first to act should be indiscriminate.

Depth of money dynamics helps you as a poker player determine the most appropriate action that you should be taking in a particular hand. In the next article, we'll discuss stack dynamics. When combined with depth of money dynamics, you'll have a much better understanding of how to handle the middle to later stages of a tournament.