Double-Up Secrets #3

Double-Up Secret #3: The big stack is also not your friend.

Last time I wrote about the big stack not being your enemy. Just because he isn't your enemy doesn't mean he's your friend.

When it's late in the going -- seven players left or a big gap between the five biggest stacks and the rest of the players -- you don't want to get involved in a serious pot with somebody who can put a bad hurt on you. I'm assuming you're one of the big stacks here. If you're one of the small stacks, you have no choice but to go up against somebody who can put you out or leave you with crumbs. If you're in the top five, particularly if there's a big gap between five and six, you don't want to risk losing a lot of chips.

This doesn't mean you have to run away every time a big stack limps into a pot. You just need to be sure you hit the flop huge before you commit a significant number of chips. If you catch big on the flop and are first to act, go ahead and bet out. The other guy, if he's smart, will run away. If the other guy bets into the flop or plays back at you, you best be holding THE nuts if you continue. The penultinuts is death in this situation. I've written before about how I made this mistake in a ticket tournament. I rode the penultinuts from a sure ticket right to the rail. It's a lesson that has been seared in my memory. Learn from my mistake. Remember, your goal at this point is not chip accumulation, it's chip conservation. You must stay in that top five. It's far better to take a small hit and run away than to risk losing a big chunk of your stack.

I see this kind of thing happen all the time. Guys who could sit out and make the money keep taking risks trying to accumulate chips and often find themselves on the rail with nothing.

You know you're involved with some smart players when you see two big stacks quickly check it all the way down once getting into the pot. They know that playing into each other will just end with sadness for one of them and not really that much additional joy for the other.

This secret covers much of the same ground as Double-Up Secret #1a, but it's well worth repeating.