Final table

How to play final table,how to control ur self ,and win more ?

Watching how your opponents play and attacking their weaknesses. I feel like playing more aggressively than usual always pays off, because players who are new to final tables often focus too much on waiting for pay jumps instead of trying to play and win hands.

Thats a very broad question. The main difference between the final table and the rest of the tournament is, that now every player busting is associated with a payjump. There will also be no more table changes or new players joining your table. So the two main adjustments are:

1) Be aware of ICM and how this affect players with different stack sizes.
2) Pay more attention to each opponent and changing dynamics.

Maybe it can help you to watch some reviews of final tables with hold cards revealed like this one:

I will always play cautiously at the final table. It's better for me to wait for the players at the table to make mistakes than to make them myself at the most important stage of the tournament.

We are really looking for special imbalanced situations, like when it folds to us on SB, whether we can bully the BB if he's short, or double up if we are strong and he's deep. We are looking for steals. We can open wider if he are chip leader (or close to) or we are looking for shoves if we are short.

Very likely that the vast vast majority of our openings will be minimum 2bb. Short stacks overfold to any openings, so we can often steal with just 2bb when we are wide (good) or fold out all of our value with anything more than 2bb when we are strong (bad). Also, short stacks could jam at any time so if we open 3x with 23bb and the 9bb stack on our left jams and we have to fold we will be wishing that we only opened 2bb. ; )

Also, this is the time to trap AA or KK (although I rarely do it myself). All you folks who love to slow play your prime pre-flop, don't do that in level 1 and everyone has 50-150bb. Do that at the final table when no one has more than 30bb. ; )

At the final table, the key is to master the ICM: understand the pressure that stack sizes exert and be more cautious when paying all-ins.

Take advantage of the position to steal blinds with min-raises (2bb) and play with the mentality of accumulating chips to score the tournament, without just waiting to passively climb the ladder.

At a final table I try to stay calm and not let myself be carried away by emotions. I pay a lot of attention to stacks, play aggressive when I have a good chance and avoid risking everything in marginal hands. The key is to be patient and to take advantage of the right moments to push.

if you reached there continue doing what you did before. Why wood you change something that its working?

Great points from Jyco! Spotting how opponents react to the pressure and punishing players who play too passively is the key to final table success.

To control yourself and win more:
> * Manage ICM Pressure Wisely: Don't let pay jumps paralyze you, but also respect stack sizes so you don't take reckless risks against short stacks.
> * Apply Aggression on the Bubble/Pay Jumps: Put maximum pressure on the medium and short stacks who are visibly trying ladder up.
> * Keep Your Emotions in Check: Treat it like any other stage of the tournament and stick to your fundamentals instead of panicking when cards don't go your way.

schtiuky said:

if you reached there continue doing what you did before. Why wood you change something that its working?

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Because the dynamics are different here. When the stacks are shorter and every bust is a pay raise, the mindsets of your opponents are very different than when everyone is deep in the early and even in most middle stage situations.

I win lots of pots against players who keep trying to play the late stages the same as they do the early stages. they don't adapt. I do. This can be a massive advantage and I love spotting players who for instance continue to limp in and pray to hit with high frequency when they only have 11bb, or when players continue to open 3xbb with their full normal opening ranges, and I love it.

The final table is mostly about patience and ICM. I try not to play every hand just because I’m close to winning. I pay attention to stack sizes and choose good spots to apply pressure.