Steve O’Dwyer on the Three Golden Rules of Tournament Play | Paul Phua Poker

Steve O’Dwyer didn’t get where he is today by having an inflexible poker tournament strategy. His $20 million-plus live tournament winnings make him one of the most successful players of all time and, like all the best players, he understands that the dynamics of a poker tournament are ever-changing; a test of situational awareness in which you either perceive and adapt, or die. In fact, he’s so adaptable, he even changed his nationality, from American to Irish. Who better, then, to quiz on the complex fluctuations of tournament poker?

Tell us about the importance of situational awareness in tournament play.

Steve O'Dwyer: That’s the great thing about poker – literally every hand is different. You have different opponents with different stack sizes, and those stack sizes change every hand, and the cards change every hand, and the board changes every hand. Everything changes every hand. People’s emotions change every hand. So it’s just like there is no one way to play pocket jacks. You have to adapt to every single hand and look at people’s emotions and their stack sizes and how those emotions might change as their stacks go up and down. Or, you know, if it seems like they’re like texting furiously with their girlfriend – that might change things, or maybe they’ve just got their food order delivered, and they’re eating, and no one’s gonna get a fresh plate of food and look down at, you know, 6-5 suited under the gun and go, “Gotta play this hand”. They’re gonna take a bite of their hot food, you know. Always look and see what’s going on around you and pay attention to all the information that is coming in and try to process it in a way that will help you make better decisions.

How do the dynamics change when you’re short-stacked?

Steve O'Dwyer: There’s a lot of great resources out there for short-stacked play. My friend Max Silver developed the SnapShove application, which can help you train to figure out what hands you’re supposed to shove in which positions, at what stack sizes. And it’s just a great way to help train yourself to know immediately like, “Alright, this is the type of hand that l’m just supposed to go all-in with, with 10 big blinds, or 15 big blinds, or 20 big blinds, or one big blind”, you know. That’s just a way to plug easy leaks that you shouldn’t have in your game. That aspect of poker is relatively solved, especially for blind versus blind situations.

Let’s talk about endgame. How do you adapt in the final stages of a tournament?

Steve O'Dwyer: When you make it in the money, you gotta look at the percentage payouts for the top three positions, usually, especially if you’re in a really big field – maybe first place only pays 10%, and that’s like a very, very gradual pay jump. So you just wanna play kinda tight if you’re not one of the chip leaders and just try to ladder up a little bit. But if you’re in a tournament where first place pays a huge percentage of the prize pool, you wanna be the guy to win that first-place prize. And that’s the type of thing where you’ve just gotta get in there and maybe gamble a little bit and try to win the tournament. Plus, there’s the extra glory of winning, so, you know, get in there, try to win it. It’s fun. I recommend it!