Tackling Late Playing in a Tourney
Playing late is often formidable. Not only can you afford to miss hands, you also cannot afford to play too loose. If you do either of these, you are sure to be totally devastated.
Playing late in a tourney means that you are already in the money and need to play with few top players only. You can be sure that all maniacs have already been eliminated from the group.
Consider a scenario where there are three players left to complete the game. You are one of the players having highest number of chips. The second player is an aggressive player while the third one is a tight passive player.
When the game proceeds, the second player started betting at most hands. He also started getting the chips partly from the third player and partly from you. Soon the second player became the chip leader though he was playing a heads-up strategy. After few more rounds, the second player won the game.
Where do you think you lost? You gave away your chips quite easily. There were occasion when risks had to be taken. The second player who got away with the chips could afford to take risks while other players had to watch.
Though there were many traps where you could have thwarted the progress of the second player, you could not do anything as you had to avoid a bad beat.
All in all, aggression is not the only thing that can help you win. While playing late in the game, you need to be constantly up in your feet. Either you need to save your chips or take chips from other players if you wish to win the game. Any slight lackadaisical approach would ruin your chances of winning the top position in game.
