Playing for Tokens and Tournament Dollars at Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker has been a leader in the creative department when it comes to tournament structure, and that has showed over the last few years as their tournament action is now highly regarded by professional tournament players who have signed on with Full Tilt in large numbers.
Part of the popularity of the Full Tilt’s tournaments emanate from the very successful FTOPS series, now going on three times a year, their token sit and go and multi table qualifiers, and now recently the tournament dollar cash option.
If you haven’t heard about the FTOPS where some first place prizes have been in the neighbourhood of $300,000 to $500,000 in cash, then you probably just don’t know about online poker. FTOPS however is a result and extension of the quality work and marketing that Full Tilt is committed to. You can even notice the little things like opening a tournament window before it starts and Full Tilt shows you right there all the ways there are to qualify for that tournament. Clever.
Personally, I like to play for the tokens on Full Tilt because I never like to pay full price for getting into pricey tournaments. To make MTT’s a profitable proposition strict management of your bankroll is required given the long stretches you can go without a significant cash. Therein lies the value of tokens at Full Tilt. You can play for $26 or $75 tokens, and earn them for as little as $6 in sit and go tables or multi-table qualifier tournaments.
Now because the entry fee for battling for these tokens is rather low, the competition for them is normally on the weaker side too. You won’t win everyone, but it’s definitely easy on the bankroll, win or lose. Tokens are the way to go for pricier tournaments, like maybe $20 or higher, especially for those still learning and building your bankroll. In fact, if you are in that stage you should make it your own rule to never pay full price for a tournament like that. Earn your way in with a win!
Recently, Full Tilt also added the tournament dollar or T$ exchange offer. What this means is that if you are playing in a qualifier tournament, one of those tournaments that get you into another tournament with a higher buy-in, you don’t have to play in it now. Instead, you can convert the earned entry ticket, let’s say it’s for $200+$20 buy-in on the Sunday Tournament to cash. Full Tilt does take a 5% cut for their hard work in this regard, but if you never intended to play or simply cannot because of a scheduling conflict then this option can really work for you.
There are some pretty soft qualifying tournaments too, especially the rapid fire turbos that bring out enormous volumes of teenagers thinking they can bluff the world. I used to play Sunday Tournament qualifiers all week long during Party Poker’s heyday because they cashed them back if you earned multiple entries. I made the “money” in those tournaments one out of every three times and it really multiplied my bankroll with very low risk. You can pick your favourite tournament qualifier on Full Tilt and try the same strategy.
Poker Sit and Go Report: Adapting Harrington's Mzone for Sit and Go Tournaments
The M and MZone calculations are something you should be using and learning for yourself in sit and go tournaments. The M is more adaptable for mult-itournament play, but in single table sit and go tournaments M has its value as well.
Essentially the M is calculated by dividing your stack by the total of blinds and antes. You don’t normally have antes in a sit and go so just combine the blinds and divide them into your stack. The resulting number is your M. If your M is between 1 and 5 you are in the red zone. If it’s between 5 and 10, that is the orange zone. The yellow zone would have an M of between 10 and 20, while the best place to be is in the green zone having an M of 20 or more. There is also a grey zone which is less than 1, and when you are there your stack is so low you are virtually out of the tournament.
Let’s say you have 1200 chips left and the blinds are 100 and 200. Your M would be 1200 divided by 300 equaling 4. With an M of 4 you are in the dangerous red zone. Let’s say across the table your opponent has 3560 chips. His M is 11.9 and he is in the yellow zone – relatively more comfortable than you.
Dan Harrington says the philosophy behind the color zones is that each one will have a bearing on your style of play. If you are traditionally tight, but find yourself in the orange or red zone, you are doomed unless you pick a hand and run with it. You may certainly lose with a hand like 77, but you won’t stand much of a chance anyway if your stack dwindles into the red and grey zones.
We all know what happens when you are in the red and grey danger zones. A big stack calls you with trash and beats your AQs with 93os. It can be aggravating, but really, he was right to play you with that hand because you let your stack dwindle too low. It’s a mathematical equation as opposed to hand strength.
Download the mzone spreadsheet and have some fun with it in your sit and gos. Very soon, you will know instinctively what zone you are in, and how you’ll need to adjust your strategy. What I might suggest is to load up a final table of an MTT and watch the players. While you are watching the tournament input the blinds, antes and each player's stack into the spreadsheet. This way you will get to know the range of zones, watch how players react to them, and be able to make quick calculations in your head.
It is also worthwhile to watch here what hands players play, and from what position given their MZone situation. If you do this while playing sit and go tournaments, and eventually move up to playing multitable tournaments you will have a hand up on your opponents if you can calculate your Mzone at critical stages of the tournament.