The G-Spot: The Importance of Payout Structure

By Tony
Guerrera



The results of today’s top online multitable tournament players are pretty
much equivalent to getting involved in a bunch of double up situations in which
you have an edge of at least 60%. Taking well-timed, calculated risks is the
name of the game.

Winner-take-all satellites fall into the same category as tournaments with
top-heavy cash payouts. To succeed, you need to accumulate chips from the beginning.
Play scared, and you’ll play without winning a seat. When it’s winner-take-all,
you need to play to win.

As the percentage of poker players
that win seats increases, your strategy will change. Suppose you’re in
a 20-player tournament in which the top 5 players get the same exact prize…



Fifth = Fourth = Third = Second = First

In such a tournament, realize that it doesn’t matter whether you get
fifth, fourth, third, second, or first. To win a 20-player tournament outright
requires about 4.32 double-ups. To get to the heads-up match even with your
foe requires about 3.32 double-ups. To get into the top 5 with the same number
of chips as everyone else only requires 2 double-ups!!

Of course, you’ll be losing money to the blinds every round, so you’ll
need to poke your head in here and there and play some quality small pot poker
to stay afloat. And if you play some really good small pot poker
hands, you can accumulate chips without even having to worry about risking
your tournament life.

But if you’re stuck in a tournament where your opponents won’t
allow you to play tons of smallball, realize that you only need to win two big
confrontations, meaning that you can wait for a much bigger edge in those confrontations
than you would wait for in a tournament with a top-heavy payout structure. It’s
entirely reasonable to wait for opportunities in which you are close to a 70%
favorite when the chips go in because you have more than enough time to wait
for such opportunities.

The Flatter The Payout, The More You Can Wait

Between the typical top heavy and flat payout tournaments are tournaments with
linear payouts. An example of a tournament with a linear payout structure would
be something like a 30-player $30+$3 sit-n-go that pays $225 for first, $195
for second, $165 for third, $135 for fourth, $105 for fifth, and $75 for sixth.
In these tournaments, you should be willing to risk your tournament life with
something around a 65% edge. Survival is somewhat important in these tournaments,
but it isn’t quite as valuable as survival in flat payout tournaments.

The moral of it all: if you play a tournament without considering the payout
structure, you won’t be playing the tournament optimally.

Tony
Guerrera is the author of Killer
Poker By The Numbers and co-author of Killer Poker Shorthanded (with John
Vorhaus).