The Poker Tournament Formula by Arnold Snyder

[jeffnc]

Snyder is a well known blackjack expert, well grounded in math. This book is not just an "also ran", but a serious text on strategy with some new material.

I have a pet peeve with book titles, where you can't tell until you read the book what it's really about. At least Snyder tells you he's talking about NL Tournaments as opposed to cash games (unlike Largay's NL "Complete Course"). But he is writing specifically about "fast" tournaments, where you start out without few or a moderate number of chips relative to the blinds, and the blinds increase relatively rapidly. Even though he doesn't give you information on playing a slow strategy, at least he does spend time explaining the skills needed for each type, so the comparison alone is useful to put things in context. That in itself could help your "slow" tournament play.

The WSOP main event is a "slow" tournament. Most online tournaments or small casino tournaments are much faster, and, Snyder maintains, must be approached differently. Slow tournaments have the highest skill factor required to win. He even goes so far to say at one point that if you intend to do well in a very slow tournament, "you're on your own" (which is not to say you can't use the techniques he shows you - you can. It's just that when playing highly skilled players, it's going to be harder to decide when you use them. These other players are good at these same things after all, and probably good at determining when you're doing them too.)

But the material presented here is unique, and, I think, excellent. He takes you beyond Harrington once you've gotten that down pat. He maintains that Harrington is more well suited to slow tournaments (although there are many examples of SnG play in Harrington's books). He acknowledges that even then you will need more to win big, slow tournaments than just what is in Harrington's books. But what Snyder does so well is lay out a strategy for beating fast tournaments that goes beyond playing good cards.

First, he presents a technique for quantifying the speed, and therefore, the skill level for any tournament. This number tells you the luck vs. skill level required for winning, and how to change your strategy depending on this number, and which you should play depending on your strengths. This "patience factor" is right up there with "M" as a quantifying technique.

The main thrust of this book is the concept that you have 3 "weapons" at your disposal when you play a tournament: your cards, your chip stack, and your position at the table. He explains which trumps which depending on the circumstances. Since the cards you're dealt are out of your control, he maintains that using position is far more important than some players think. It is the one "weapon" that you are guaranteed to get every revolution around the table. You are guaranteed nothing else other than your starting stack.

He also maintains that having a sizable stack is in and of itself a weapon. Sklansky and Malmuth have a theory that the more chips you have, the less each individual chip is worth, and the fewer you have the more each is worth. Snyder disagrees (the chips in a desperately small stack are not "precious", as some players think - they're almost worthless if there is still a long way to go to the money, or the final table. What's "precious" is a large stack.) He says that concept is true only when each player is of equal skill, which is never true. A bigger stack is extremely valuable to the strongest players. Since their model is flawed, their otherwise valid mathematical conclusion is irrelevant. There is much more information about this in essays on Snyder's web site, and after reading it, as far as I'm concerned, he has debunked this accepted concept. He maintains it has led to play that is too tight and conservative to be optimal (not trying enough for more chips when you have a "decent" stack, and not rebuying enough). He points to good results of looser, more aggressive players as evidence that his idea is right, and I can't disagree. (Malmuth says that some of these aggressive players are simply lucky and running good, but that's easy to say because mathematically there is a small enough sample size and enough variance that it can hardly be debated conclusively. But Snyder points to the results of the group of looser, more aggressive players - as a whole they have excellent results.)

So the point becomes how to use chips as weapon. How to use your position to accumulate chips when you're not getting cards is a major point of this book. So is using those chips to accumulate even more chips once you have a "competitive" stack. He doesn't really offer anything new in terms of how to play your hand once you've got a good draw or a made hand. However it would still be better if he used more concrete hand examples to make his points.

He uses a system similar to Harrington to adjust your strategy based on your stack size. It's based on big blinds rather than "M". I prefer Harrington's because it seems more accurate (Snyder has you use different numbers when antes come into play, while Harrington automatically includes it.) Then the "zones" are analagous: Yellow = Short, Orange = Very Short, Red = Desperate.

The only difference is that Snyder values chips more than Harrington, and considers you to be short or desperate a little sooner than Harrington would. He goes on to show with an example just how much trouble you can actually be in in a fast tournament when you start to get short.

The information on position play gives me something that was missing from my game. He shows a few very simple "plays" that are mathematically sound, and don't require any cards at all. (He maintains that Sklansky et al have good math related to cards, but poor or no math to cover position and chip stack plays when the skill level of the players differ. This is one reason he thinks the Gap Concept, for example, is overrated for fast tournament play.) This will be a revelation for many "solid" players trying to find way up to the next level. Top players have already incorporated some of these aspects to their game by intuition or experience, but Snyder gives you a very straightforward method for adding it to your arsenal.

I tried this out in several tournaments and I noticed definite opportunities to add chips to my stack, and it worked. Snyder knows, as is common knowledge by now, that since most of the money is at the top of MTTs, constantly trying to squeak into the money with a small stack is a losing, or only slightly profitable, proposition. Not only is it not optimal in terms of ROI, but it also reduces your hourly rate since it takes too much time to win just a little amount of money. I think Snyder's more aggressive techniques in fast tournaments will result in more bust outs, but more final tables as well. Final tables are really where the money's at in MTTs.

I give the book 8.5. Highly recommended for "Harrington" players trying to learn more. Snyder also has on his web site a list of many online and casino tournaments, with skill levels (patience factors) already calculated for you so you can choose the ones most suitable for your skills and temperament.

[mash_tun]

Sounds well-worth a read...is this available at brick-and-mortar bookstores yet?

[edit]
Derrrrrr....just checked amazon.com and pub date is Aug 1, 2006....should be, then...

[jeffnc]

I should add not everyone feels the same way. There will be those that argue with specific tidbits of advice (but to me this is like arguing what to do with AQ as a starting hand - it's pretty much beside the point.) There will be those who don't like it just because it's different. And then there will be those who don't like it because it wasn't published by their company (cough *malmuth* cough).

See the thread in 2+2
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=6585664&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

As usual, Malmuth makes a buffoon of himself. Snyder, like Hilger, handles it like a gentleman and professional at all times.

In Malmuth's fantasy world, there are 2 kinds of ideas that are published in non-2+2 books:
1) ideas that are correct, and therefore must be a ripoff of material 2+2 has already published
2) ideas that have not appeared in 2+2 yet, and therefore must be incorrect

It's quite comical to watch. He gave ITH only 7, partly because Hilger supposedly doesn't understand what semi-bluffing means, and partly because Hilger supposedly used a hand example that was in some ways similar to a hand example Malmuth had already published.

Now, he trashes some of Snyder's book. If he agrees with it, he says Harrington already said it. If it doesn't agree with the status quo, Malmuth says it's wrong.

Malmuth actually cannot (or will not) understand the very simple idea that in addition to your M value, there is the rate with which your M value changes. He says everything can be explained by your M value alone (which Harrington covered), and not by the speed with which the blinds increase.

It's laughable that he can't understand this simple concept (simple once you believe Harrington's M, and simple when Snyder goes on to expand on it.) Here's an extreme example to illustrate which should make it very obvious. Let's say the blinds go up after each hand that is played at the table. In other words, let's say you are under the gun, you have 1,000 in chips and the blinds are 25/50. Your M is 13. You fold every hand. The next hand the blinds are 50/100. Your M is 7. Next hand your M is 4. Next hand your M is 3. Next hand your M is 2. You have only seen 4 hands, have the exact same stack size, and your M has dropped from 13 to 2. If Malmuth can't understand that this would affect your strategy, he's a complete idiot. (He understands if of course, but he can't admit this information hasn't been published in a 2+2 book.)

[Silvershade]

I've posted before that i think this book is excellent and that hasnt changed.

One thing worth mentioning is that I found this book improved my understanding of Harrington because it gave me a new perspective on some of what harrington says. I'd say along with Harrington 1+2 this is really almost required reading if you play the fast tournament structures Snyder is addressing.

I think this book is the most original poker book I've read, there really isnt another book covering the same ground which in my personal experience makes this book a rare thing in a marketplace where so many books rehash each other.

[Piscivorous]

I picked this book up a few weeks before Christmas. I took it with me that day to a friend's house for our weekly wargame. I was reading it between turns. I unfortunately left it there, and re-bought the book the next day. Having only read the first two chapters I completely liked what I read and knew I couldn't wait two weeks to get back to my friend's and get it back.

I've only finished chapter 9 last night. But this book has me thinking about online tournaments in a whole new way. Looking at Snyder's Hellmuthian player categories, I quickly realized I had been a wimp my whole online MTT life. Getting into the money occasionally built on the backs of fantastic runs of cards and final tabling 4-5 times in 4 years.

Since reading those first two chapter I placed on the FT three times at UB in the last two weeks of December. as I read more I realized how large my stacks always were. I wasn't sitting around on 1500-3000 chip stack in the 2nd or 3rd hour. I was sitting on mounds of chips in the top 10.

I did the position exercise, where he suggests not looking at your hole cards at all during the entire tournament. So i played 5 x $1.00 tournaments to test it out on. I figured $5 would be a good lesson and if I failed miserably, I'm out 5 bucks.Instead I lasted into the 2nd hour my first try, into the money twice and the last time I bubbled the final table. All on playing position and nothing else.

I then moved into seeing my hole cards and Snyder was right. It felt unfair that I could see my cards. My ROI isn't staggering right now for 2007. It's at 0.27%, but considering my 2006 ROI of -56%, it's a huge improvement.

I played 9 MTTs last Saturday and Final tabled 4 of them, including a satellite to Poker.com's $20,000 Sunday MTT.

I play MTTs with confidence now. I know I can money, I know if I take ahit to my chipstack, that I can easily acquire more chips from the deadmoney out there.

Try using his strategy in a rebuy. Wow!

I took the things I learned to Bay 101 last Friday and played their $100 MTT in the morning. 95 players, I finished 4th. $800.

And Malmuth? Please, you are so transparent. Speed of tournament means nothing, OK.

By the way. I rated the book a 10. Nothing has helped my game more than this book, ITH and SSH.

Cat's out of the bag. And you now have the tools to crush your tight-ass 2+2 opponents.

[krazytxan]

[jeffnc]

[janeg]

I just picked this up as well and so far agree with Pi . Haven't tested out as many tourney's yet but definitely recommend the playing in the dark using only position. It really is an eye-opener!

[jfletcher]

I've been reading this and one thing seems a little confusing to me.

On one hand, he says the stuff in the book is geared toward "fast" tournaments, where the blinds are big and move up relatively quickly. On the other hand, he advises making the sort of "moves" that you really can't pull off unless you and the opponent both have fairly deep stacks. He talks about a "competitive" stack as being 30 to 50 big blinds, but that state lasts for a very short time in most "fast" tournaments.

In a typical Stars tourney, which isn't even that fast by his standard, you are going to be below 30 big blinds by round 4 unless you've won a big pot somewhere in the first 35 hands or so. In a normal low-buyin live tourney, forget it. You've got maybe one round at that state unless you win a big pot.

I also think the whole concept of stealing blinds and making moves when the blinds are that small relative to your stack is a little unusual. You are making these position plays for the sake of adding a relatively small amount to your stack.

Am I missing something?

[janeg]

[jfletcher]

[janeg]

[Piscivorous]

[mash_tun]

I also just finished this book...and loved it! Incorporating his strategies, I just dragged down my first $4/180 in quite some time...but more importantly, I've been accumulating much bigger stacks early (granted my n=5, but...)

[Schlepper333]