In this article James “McLEOD” Obst addresses a frequently offered piece of poker advice – that of playing “one hand at a time”, suggesting that players, tournaments in particular, remain aware that there is usually more to think about than just the hand you are playing right now.
Have you ever heard the expression bandied around in all walks of life? Be it football, tennis, golf, all the experts will tell you that they are just winning “one game/point/shot at a time”. So he says that to win a poker tournament you just have to win one hand at a time, right?
It's fortunate that tournament poker players don't have to give conferences or we'd hear the same clichés misused and misinformed by many professionals in the field. One of the big differences between elite players and their competition is that elite players play the tournament, while the other players are just playing hands.
In its purest definition, the phrase “one game at a time” is about blocking out all future games, the implications of competition, and external pressures in order to focus solely on playing the present game as well as possible. But in tournament poker, the overall tournament conditions are everything. Today’s poker tournament strategy teachings are incomplete and often misguided, such as that the tournament can be easy, so that the new player can be molded into a narrow-minded, mechanical player. For them, it’s about how to accelerate your poker development.
The first thing the modern tournament player thinks when he looks down and sees T8s with 12 big blinds on the button is “Can I go all-in for a profit here?” Adopting this type of thought process, which is preached over and over on forums and in training videos alike, becomes a one-way ticket to mediocrity and frustration when the results don’t go your way.
There are so many more important factors to consider – “is the field too weak to accept the marginal value and risk of getting caught here”, “what would be my resulting stack size for my hand-to-hand profitability that I should win or lose in this pot”, “am I in the right frame of mind to play my best game with a below average stack or what do I need to have a chance here?”, just to name a few examples.
Just as your route to your nearest exit on an airplane is typically different for each flight, so is your tournament situation after each hand in each tournament. You'll think you've been there a million times before, but the differences should be appreciated.
Maybe you’re struggling to accumulate chips as a short stack on the bubble, so you decide to give it a shot. Maybe the payout structure is particularly flat, so you decide to give it a shot. Or maybe the players at your table are opening with a very wide range of hands, meaning you could play the short stack profitably if you were to miss this coin flip.
The “One Hand at a Time” statement in its truest sense is not applicable to tournament poker since the game is more mathematically precise, but a hand in isolation can often be a significant error in tournament conditions. Tournament poker demands a sense of loss in the modern player; train your brain to think ahead and you will usually be ahead of the curve.
Translated and adapted from the original article: Strategy Vault – James “Andy McLEOD” Obst on Advice to Play “One Hand at a Time”
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