In a recent blog post, I applauded Unibet’s move to add another 5k in chips to the starting stacks for the Valencia Open. In a recent interview at the WPT London, Joe Beevers came up with an interesting counter argument to the idea that deeper stacks are better in tournaments.

A battle has raged on the Hendon Mob Forum in response to this and I must say, although I’m a big advocate of deeper stacks, I thought Joe had a point. Even from my own experience, I’ve played in plenty of tournaments where for the first few hours you just fart about trying to accumulate some extra chips before the standard crapshoot ensues. The only difference, it seems, between a normally stacked tournament and a deeper stacked tournament is when exactly the crapshoot begins. Bottom line is, you’re going to have to get lucky at the final table to come home with a big win.

However, I think Joe may be missing a point here – one that I’ve missed as well until his mini-rant raised the subject. The fact is that this notion – of a deepstack tournament being somewhat like a cash game before it’s all-in-or-fold time – might only hold for relatively tight players. Moreover, the strategy of remaining tight might only be valid if there are enough fish to justify it.

LAG and Smallball players adopt an entirely different approach. For them, the deep-stacked part of the tournament is a fantastic opportunity to accumulate chips, either through inflating the pot to the point that their opponent becomes uncomfortable and is likely to fold all but the best hands (LAG), or by constantly calling in position to try to outmanouevre their opponent on later streets (Smallball).

Perhaps I’ve been missing something here. Deeper stacks are not there so that better players can wait longer to find a good spot to get their money in against a fish. They are there so the more loose and aggressive styles of play which have developed in the last few years have a chance to flex their muscles. Sure, deeper stacks increase the skill factor, but not necessarily for an old school TAG like Joe Beevers (and, I have to admit, the pre-renaissance Pickleman).

I’ve lost count of the number of times in the last few months I’ve seen the likes of Sam Trickett or Toby Lewis post on their facebook “made day 2 with about 4x average stack”. I’m like: AGAIN? The fact is that unless a TAG gets himself in a perfect spot on more than one occasion, he won’t have that many chips on day 2.

These days, there are too few fish in the game to justify waiting for those spots. That’s why the LAG and Smallball styles get proactive and use those chips – even in level one or two. Sure, as Joe points out, if he hits his hand in that period, he gets a bunch of chips, but if not . . . ? Isn’t that the way we all get chips off tight players?