There are many obvious statements in poker and obvious facts that have hidden deep meanings and numerous factors behind them. One such facet of tournament poker is in how you only have one tournament life. This obvious part of the game has many different variables attached to it and because you only have one tournament life then you need to think before you commit chips. There are various knock on factors to this statement and one such factor comes from making standard raises when non standard plays may have been better.

I will explain here with an example. The blinds are at the 200-400 level and you have a small stack with ten big blinds and you have 4000 in chips. It has been folded to you on the button and you think that the blinds have been playing fairly tight and so you raise to 1200 with a steal hand that is 7c-6c. This is a hand that you certainly do not want to see action with when your stack is this low. The small blind folds but the big blind shoves all in for his last 3700 forcing you to basically call the rest of your stack off.

You fold and lose 1200 in chips and your stack drops to a critical 2800 and only seven big blinds. Here a standard raise gave one of the blinds the perfect opportunity to make a counter play by shoving. Your move looked exactly like a steal which is what it was but you had two other alternate and superior plays open to you. The first one was to fold and had you done so then you would still have 4000 in chips. The second option was to shove all in.

This may seem like an over shove with ten big blinds but it places the maximum pressure on your opponent. They have zero fold equity if they get involved and must end up with the best hand if they call. But if you make a standard raise then they have two chances to win the pot by shoving. You can fold or they can make the best hand. If you shove and they call and you lose then you will be out, but you cannot play tournament poker by being scared of elimination. You could just as easily win this pot and double through and then be in a comfortable position.

The likelihood is that your opponents will fold and you will scoop the 600 in chips and make your stack 4600 which is a big difference from 2800. But in the second example then you basically denied your opponents counter moves to make against you and this is an important part of tournament poker. Another non standard play could have been to raise but only raise the minimum say to 800. If your opponent shoves then you have only lost two big blinds and not three as before. In Online Texas Holdem poker tournaments then this can be an effective strategy because many players may have clicked the fold button or the fold to a raise button and you have risked the minimum to win what is in the pot.