Tips for the Final Table
Developing your poker education should be viewed as an investment. After the sunk cost of tuition, what you’ll learn will help you win more or at least lose less – in the games you play. The 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event is an extreme example of the importance of a poker education as everyone wonders whether or not the remaining players will seek help and training to get them ready.
While the November Nine have nearly four months to rest, prepare, and educate themselves for the biggest fi nal table of their lives, the poker world wonders if they will be ready. Each of the players has already earned $900,000, and with another $8 million on the line for fi rst place, there has never been a more important time to train for the most prestigious nine-player sit-n-go of their lives.
With only a few players remaining, each remaining participant is trying to size up their opponents, focus, and most importantly, keep calm! Unless you play a ton of tournaments you won’t get many chances to practice in this type of situation. You must make the most of any occasion you have to play in a fi nal table scenario, so that when a great opportunity like the November Nine comes your way, you’ll be ready.
At a WSOP fi nal table your skills and talents are tested. At the WSOP Academy your knowledge of what it takes to win a fi nal table is tested. As we teach you the changes in strategy that you’ll need to follow at every stage of a tournament, we focus on when it matters most – the late stages, which include the fi nal table. Winning the very fi rst pot of a tournament is important, but we rarely think of those fi rst chips as integral to our success. After all, you can’t win a tournament on Day 1. When we reach the late stages, every chip becomes critical. As the fi eld whittles down, your chips are worth more and stealing blinds and antes becomes more crucial. Pick your spots (and opponents) wisely and don’t risk your chips in bad spots.
A fi nal table is a very big time in a player’s career. When you get there, it is crucial that you remain emotionally sound. Part of training for the fi nal table involves developing ways to maintain focus. Still, unless you have a ton of experience, you’ve been placed in a new situation with no learning curve. The more emotionally controlled you are in this situation, the more likely you are to make rational decisions and extend your time at the fi nal table, thus drawing out your learning opportunity (and increasing your pay day!). The experience you gain during that fi - nal table time is unparalleled and staying within yourself is of the utmost importance.
These fi nal table strategies can help every player, but for those nine trying to earn the title of world champion, here are some thoughts from this world champion on how to get the job done this November.
Once play ended in July, I would’ve transitioned from playing to spending a lot of my time researching my eight opponents. I’d fi nd people who have played against them in every possible venue. If this had happened back in 2004, I would’ve expected my opponents to come to Foxwoods (where I played in tournaments all the time) to fi nd people that had seen me in action. My opponents would’ve tried to fi nd out what kinds of hands I tended to play when I was under pressure and how I’d react. As this will be the biggest night of these players’ lives, understanding the pressure aspect is important.
Many have spoken about how these nine should improve their game and spend time with a coach. Understandably, there’s always room to improve, but it is easier and perhaps more fruitful to gather intelligence on their opponents than to improve their own game seriously in four months. I would still hire some private poker coaches and have them sweat me during tournaments and comment on my real world decisions. I’d continue to augment my poker education and understand that even improving just one percent could help me make the winning decision in the fi nal table’s deciding hand.
I urge all players to invest in their poker education early so that they can reap the benefi ts throughout their careers. Good luck to those in action this month at the Rio and to all of you in your future fi nal tables.
