I was playing in a sattelite last night where the top 2 got entry into the event, and we were down to 3. How much of chiplead should I have before I essentially stop playing and let the other stacks take each other out?

IMO - Never. You want to exert as much pressure as you can on the other stacks when you have a big chip lead, not coast.

Absotively Posolutely disagree.


Not in a satellite where, in this case, first and 2nd place have the same value.

And the more seats available, the closer you are to the bubble, the bigger your lead, the more valuable it is to just sit on your hands, even with AA.


It entirely depends on the blinds - if there are 100 big blinds in play, with three players, and you have more than 2/3 of the chips, there is really no reason to get involved in any hands until stack sizes or blinds change drastically.

With, for example, 8 players, and 7 seats, if I have half the chips I'm sitting on my hands, for the most part....yeah, you can stick around and try to finish off the short stack, but it's usually better just to leave the room.

the problem is that in most online tourneys, the blinds will be so high that you cannot just sit back, as you will bleed off your chips doing that. Live tourneys usually arent as abd, but still run the risk. Your large chip lead is an illusion, as your effective M is probably very low.

Having been playing a crapload of DSs to the 650 lately, and doing very well in them, I feel like I should answer...
It completely dependent on your chipstack versus that of the other two players. Since the OP said large chip lead, I will assume that this means that he has more than half the chips on the table, while the other two have no more than 35% of the chips on the table each. During this period of play, I try to establish two concepts-
1) If I am raising, it is with a very solid hand that I am willing to play a big pot with.
-I fold a lot from the other two positions.
2) They need to be afraid of attempting to raise on my big blind.
-Typically I establish this by looking for a weak raise and coming over the top of it, and then showing something like 10-8 or J9 to them to show them that if they raise my big blind, they had better have a hand they are willing to play all of their chips with.

During this time, I really only have one rule that I try to stick to-never play more than a 6 BB pot that will knock you down into 3rd if you have a semi-strong hand. I agree with applying pressure, but typically you do not want to be applying pressure to both opponents, but rather the one who is weaker (and preferably has a shorter stack).

In your scenario, I would not have a number to sit on my hands, since only one more has to go, I will need to put some pressure on their decisions as I'm not a true lock to place unless their is an extremely small stack out of the three of us.

I would probably be playing small ball with them if they are being timid. Chip away at them, try to see some flops to exercise control of the table and back out of coin flips and getting hit back with raises when we are not strong.


If someone is doing the pushing and we have a comfortable lead, you'll need to tighten up and be willing to smooth call your semi-strong hands rather than put pressure on your opponent. Getting a good flop can make all the difference in these scenarios.

They'll be more desperate than you so see flops cheaply and draw them in to your perceived timid play. Make them make the mistakes.

And you can probably use a read of HOH if you haven't already. Perfect examples on satellite play in just these situations. In most cases you will give up hands that you normally wouldn't since as chip leader you have best chance at placing 1 or 2.

I would just leave you in saying there is always a number in these situations where you could fold a strong hand to ensure survival but there is no hand to hand indication that player 3 will bust so you cannot sit there and do nothing or you could well end up the short stack do to the blinds.

I'm rambling, as always. Read pages 421-426 in HOH2. If someone else wants to post specifics, please do but I've jibbered too long and am no longer making sense to myself so I can only imagine what the rest of you will think of this post.

Sorry and gl.

Just want to point out that when there's 8 people with 7 making equal prizes, you can probably safely sit out with certain amount of chips. But...

When there are 3 and 2 making equal prizes, the other two will certainly notice that you are passve and very quickly you'll find the 3 chip stacks even and be in contention for 3rd place.