stevo wrote:There are also times in tournaments when even though you think you have pot odds (or are calling on a coin flip) you still shouldn't be calling, especially around the bubble in a fairly flat type payout structure (a Sit N Go with 50/30/20 payout is a good example of this). This is known as "bubble factor" for anyone that has read up on this. The basic idea, and this applies to all tournaments to a certain degree but ESPECIALLY in flatter type payout structures on the bubble, is that the chips you win are worth less than the chips you lose so you actually need better than just the standard pot odds to make a call. In this case you need to apply a "bubble factor" which takes into account this fact that the chips you lose are worth more than the chips you gain. For instance, if you were a medium stack on the bubble of a 9 person sit'n'go and you had to make a call against a large stack unless you have good odds of winning you should be folding as taking a big hit to your stack here puts you in danger of not finishing in the money where as winning probably doesn't increase your chances of making the money by that much. Mathematically, this comes down to the fact that the bubble factor in a flat payout structure tournament can actually be quite high depending on what stacks are bumping up against each other, which means that pure pot odds can actually be deceiving in these situations.
In normal top-heavy payout structure tourneys (i.e. an MTT tournament) you probably need to take these risks to give you more chance of finishing higher up and getting a bigger return. The bubble factor doesn't apply at all to cash games or winner takes all tourneys, there you can take the pot odds at face value to help you decide whether to make a call or not.
nice call stevo...
Ah poker how I love it..... [ not easy playing short stack [ not easy being me ].
