The Transition Point

[Venice]

How you approach poker tournaments is determined by a number of factors. I have covered many of these in previous articles, but what I thought I would bring up is a thing I will call the Transition Point


In low level tournaments, bluffing or making certain plays are a bad idea (generally) as you get too many loose calling stations. (Obviously I am not saying dont bluff at all, just generally)

Conversely in high level tournaments then the opposite is true as generally the vast majority of players play too tight, and it is possible to force a fold of some ridiculously strong hands.

Now, as I say, there are generalisations and assumptions being made here, but I wanted to gauge peoples opinions on where the transition point actually is?


$Free/FPP - Live money - dont bluff too much
$0.5 - Live money - dont bluff too much
$1.1 - Live money - dont bluff too much
$2.2 - Live money - dont bluff too much
$3.3 - Live money - dont bluff too much
$5.5 - Live money - dont bluff too much
$11 <---
$22 <---
$33 <--- The Transition point is somewhere in these 5 levels
$55 <---
$109 <---
$215 - Dead money - can get away with a lot more stealing
$500 - Dead money - can get away with a lot more stealing
$1000 - Dead money - can get away with a lot more stealing
$5000 - Dead money - can get away with a lot more stealing
$10,000 - Dead money - can get away with a lot more more stealing


The Transistion Point is essentially where the number of live money players (over-rolled, inexperienced/impatient, or just general fish) and the number of dead money players (under-rolled) in a tourney is equal.

[EraseTheGrey]

Venice, I think that you have made a correct transition point there. Although, now I tend to see people around the $11 dollar buy in that tend to play like people at the lower level buy-ins. I think that $11 and maybe even $22 is the fringe level for this transition point and then the higher buy ins equate to more dead money because of playing beyond bankroll. Higher buy ins also tend to attract some really good players as well, but for the most part I think you are right in saying that there is a lot of dead money floating around in these levels.