Playing Shootout Tournaments
Different forms and structures of poker tournaments require many different styles of play. A player who is playing a satellite into a bigger tournament plays different to somebody who is hoping to win a 90 player sit and go or 2000 player tournament. The same theory goes for shootout tournaments.
Shootout tournaments are increasingly used for satellite tournaments by online poker tournaments since it means that players are eliminated faster and then play off in a final table for the prize. The usual structure of the first table is quite fast and is aimed at eliminating players quickly. You will need to be prepared to shove all in with your medium pairs and high cards in order to eliminate your opponents and gain the chip lead of your table. Once with the chip lead, play aggressively and try to wins the heads up match.
Final table is a whole different ball game since the blinds are wind back to the beginning and play restarts. This time, you can be a little more patient and all you have to do is try to avoid being the bubble. Winning one or two small hands is key to keeping above chip average and try to avoid coin flip confrontations.
How you manage the bubble is crucial to your success in a shootout tournament. Since there is only one final table, you can try to wait for the short stack to bust out before having to push all in to double up. If you stack does start to shrink because of the blinds, you will have to push all in and hope for the best.
What is different here is that how you manage your stack against the chip averages of the whole tournament is different. You just have to look to winning your first table and then outlasting the bubble and you should be in the money or with the prize.
