In life, the strong survive and the weak perish. Big fish eat the little fish. In poker, especially tournament poker, pretty much the same "law of the jungle" applies. Big stacks prey upon little stacks. Chips are power, and when you have them, you should take advantage of it.
If you play tournaments, you know one thing is critical – staying alive (survival). Knowing this, you should then be asking yourself, "What is the best way to survive?" The simplest and perhaps best answer to that is to be the biggest fish in the pond. If you have more chips than your opponent(s), you can never go broke.
Chips can and should be used to help you become victorious. You should use your chip advantage as a weapon against your opponents. In tournaments, we see the rich getting richer all the time (especially in no-limit tournaments). Why? It's because those with the big stacks gobble up blinds and antes, and their stacks continue to grow. Most players don't want to mess with those who have big stacks, as they fear going broke. So, what happens? The "big-stack bullies" continue to pick up pots rather than be confronted.
There is an art to playing stack sizes in tournaments. Most of us are familiar with short-stack territory. There, you simply can't afford to squander any chips, and for the most part are just hoping to find a good hand with which to get your money in. Big stacks have an edge, in that they don't have to sit and wait for a hand. They should play what I call "no mercy" poker. By this I mean they should keep pressure on their opponents by continually raising and picking up pots.
Make no mistake about it, there is an art to playing big stacks masterfully. The most successful tournament players recognize the power of chips and the advantage one has when he has them. To be a top tournament player, you must be able to play both short stacks and big stacks well.
Every tournament player should be aware of what the average stack size will be at the final table. Your quest should not only be to reach the final table, but to reach it in better position than the average chip stack, and preferably as one of the chip leaders. The real money in tournaments comes with finishing in the top three places. Reaching the final table with a substantial amount of chips is extremely helpful, and nearly vital to you, if you plan on taking home the big money.
To fully illustrate the importance of reaching the final table with chips, let's look at the results of the 2002 World Series of Poker. You will see a strong relationship between the chip leaders going to the final table and the final results.
There were 35 events at this year's WSOP. Inasmuch as one was a shootout (in which no one had a chip lead going to the final table) and another was a heads-up tournament, we won't count them. Here is what happened to the chip leader (going to the final table) in the other 33 events:
Chip leader won the event = 10
Chip leader finished second = 11
Chip leader finished third = 3
Chip leader finished fourth = 3
Chip leader finished fifth or worse = 6
In addition, the second-place chip leader going to the final table won nine times and finished second or third 12 times.
This means that out of 99 places (the top three spots in the 33 events that had a final-table chip leader), the players starting out in the top two chip positions grabbed 45 out of a possible 66 spots. That is nearly a 70 percent success rate in taking home the big money. (And keep in mind that in most cases, 10 players were at the table, yet the top two chip leaders still performed this well.)
Do not underestimate the importance of having chips when going to the final table of a tournament. Chips are power. Results speak for themselves.
Take care.