Here are the questions, answers, and explanations from our tournament poker quiz.


Question #1. True or False: The impact of ICM when on a final table bubble is significant and you should generally play tighter as a result

🔲 True

✅ False

Generally, the pay jumps from 10th to 7th place are not significant enough for ICM to be of great concern when on a final table bubble.

Playing tight on the final table bubble will often times result in disappointing 9th, 8th or 7th place finishes. Aggressive play will get you to the top 3 — where the big money is awarded — more often.


Question #2

🔲 2,500 chips

✅ 5,000 chips

🔲 13,000 chips

🔲 10,000 chips

Since the initial buy-in is divided equally between the prize pool and the bounty pool, each bounty is worth exactly one starting stack.


Question #3. True or False: You should never call a raise from the Big Blind with a stack under 8BBs.

🔲 True

✅ False

The idea that you must either shove or fold with a short stack is misguided. Often you’ll get the right price to call a raise in the Big Blind, even if you’re short-stacked (6–15 BBs). In those spots your hand will be slightly too weak to shove, but too strong to fold.


Question #4

🔲 A2o

✅ K7o

🔲 JTs

As the Big Blind at this stack depth, playability loses importance while blockers and equity when called gain importance. In this case, K7 and A2 both block hands that the button would 4-bet shove, but K7 has more equity when called and playability (which is still of some importance). JTs would be a good 3-betting hand if stacks were deeper.

Light 3-betting tends to work quite well because many tournament regulars don’t expect to face a 3-bet bluff when the Big Blind is getting such a good price to call. In other words, it’s hard to imagine what hands a player is 3-betting as a bluff when they can profitably call with such a wide range. 


Question #5. True or False: With deep stacks and no antes, you should 3-bet like you would in a cash game.

 

✅ True

🔲 False

With deeper stacks, your opponents have more incentive to continue against your 3-bets, which can in turn lead to tough situations post-flop. Consequently, your 3-bet range should be more polarized. Remove hands like Q-Jo, A-To, etc., to avoid losing big pots to dominating hands.


Question #6

🔲 Fold

🔲 Call

✅ Check-Raise

The theoretically correct answer would be to call. This is because check-raising a set means the top of your calling range very likely contains only pairs of aces. This can be exploited by more competent opponents.

However, against this opponent in this situation, the exploitative play is probably the correct one. He’s unlikely to bluff later streets and likely to check back scary turns and rivers. So, we’re more likely to win a big pot by check-raising early in the hand.

If you said Fold, I think you may have misread the question.


Question #7. Suppose that you’re on an upswing playing $5 and $11 buy-in tournaments. You decide to take a shot at a $26 tournament. Which field size should you choose to minimize variance?

✅ 100

🔲 1,000

🔲 5,000

With more players comes more variance.


Question #8

🔲 A K

🔲 K Q

✅ Q J

On this board, the Big Blind has the advantage when it comes to super strong hands. His range contains many two-pair and straight combinations that we cannot have. Also, he is unlikely to fold to a single bet because the a lot of his range connects with this board.

With a flopped gutshot, QJ has decent equity when called and we can continue to barrel on most turns — especially when we pick up a flush draw. On the other hand, we have to give up with AKs and KQs on most turns.


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