The wall – it's where you crash and burn or cruise and turn. Everybody runs into it, but not many are able to bounce off it. Many players hit the wall at the sixth or seventh tournament round and run into trouble getting past that barrier. They've doubled up early on and have just been hanging on by their fingernails for several rounds. By then, the blinds and antes have risen so high that they have become short-stacked just by maintaining the stack that they accumulated at an earlier level.
Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for survival once you're at these higher levels. You simply must win a hand. At this point, you have to look for the best situation, not necessarily the best hand. Most of the time in the later stages of a hold'em tournament, you want the best hand – such as a big pair or A-K, which should automatically "play itself" – but when you don't get it, you must take the best situation you can find. Be on the lookout for the spot where you can be the aggressor and get other players calling or reacting to you. You will have much better success being the aggressor than the caller.
For example, if you have an A-10 offsuit in middle position and the player on your immediate right raises, you're in a very bad situation. You may have the best hand, and maybe the other player and you are both short-stacked and you recognize that he's taking a stand, but you still have several other players to act behind you. You're in no man's land. Under these conditions, you're usually better off to pass, or if you're very short-stacked, you might try a tricky, aggressive, all-in reraise. In other words, you're in a spot where you have to either totally commit before the flop with a marginal hand or get out of the way and look for a situation in which you can be the aggressor.
Let's say that I have the A´ 7´ two seats in front of the button and nobody has yet entered the pot. I have enough chips to play only one more hand. I very well may take a shot with this hand. It depends somewhat on the looseness or tightness of the people yet to act behind me, including the blinds. The more timid those players are, the more likely I am to take the shot. The more aggressive or liberal they are, the more likely it is that I will get called, and then I will have to decide whether my hand is still worth a play. Even if I know I'm going to get called, I sometimes still may play it.
In the later stages of a tournament, most of the hands are played heads up, as most are raised before the flop and get only one or perhaps two callers. Since I'm going to have to win a pot at some point, I may be willing to gamble and take a shot with hands such as K-J offsuit, A-7 suited, or Q-J suited. Even if I'm called, I have a reasonable chance of either having the best hand or being on fairly equal terms with the caller and getting heads up, in which case I will have to beat only one other hand. Sometimes my Q-J or A-8 will be the better starting hand, and if only the big blind calls, I also will have position working for me.
When you're short-stacked, you know that somebody is probably going to play with you, but most players overlook one tiny detail when they push the panic button too soon: Even if they win that hand, they still will have to go through the blinds in a few hands. Sometimes you're better off waiting all the way to the blind if you don't catch anything except inferior hands just prior to it. In a later position when several people have passed, it's different; there, you are more likely to get away with raising with a marginal hand and perhaps, at best, get heads up against the big blind. But if you're being dealt blanks, you cannot "manufacture" a hand, so you must capitalize on the best situation you can find.
At the sixth or seventh level, your mental attitude is enormously important. Some players become frustrated and impatient when they hit the wall that deep into the tournament. Far too often, they panic, play garbage hands, and go broke with them. My advice is, never give up or push the panic button just because you're short-stacked. If we can bounce off the wall with our stacks intact, I know we'll meet one day soon in the winner's circle, perhaps during a friendly game on the web at PokerStars.com, with which I am now affiliated.
In closing, I extend my gratitude to David "Devilfish" Ulliott for collecting donations from many generous poker players to help defray my hospital expenses during the World Poker Open. After winning a supersatellite seat for the championship event, I was determined not to miss playing in it. Combined with the support of so many of you who donated to the fund that Ulliott set up for me, that goal contributed to my speedy recovery from a gall bladder operation. Thank you all.*
Editor's note: Tom McEvoy is the author of Tournament Poker and the co-author with T.J. Cloutier of the "Championship" series of poker books. You may contact him at McEvoy@pokerbooks.com.