Future Game

The concept of "future game" in poker is about looking beyond the immediate value of a hand and considering how a decision now will shape opportunities in the future. It emphasizes long-term strategic positioning and how current moves affect your ability to exploit future situations. This approach is especially critical in tournament play, where every hand and every decision impacts your chances of accumulating chips and ultimately winning the tournament.

Unlike the short-term focus that solvers and ICM models often have—evaluating a decision purely based on the expected value (EV) of the current hand—future game thinking is more dynamic. It factors in elements like chip leverage, opponent tendencies, tournament dynamics, and psychological pressure. The idea is to create opportunities where your position and chip stack can put significant pressure on your opponents in future hands, allowing you to dictate the flow of the game.

In practice, future game thinking involves understanding your opponents' playstyles and making calculated moves that can set you up for an advantageous position in upcoming hands. For instance, choosing to call an all-in or fold might not always be about the immediate value; it can be about gaining chip lead leverage, which in turn allows you to bully other players into making mistakes in later stages. This forward-looking perspective can often differ from solver recommendations, which assume that all players are making theoretically optimal decisions.

Future game thinking requires a deep understanding of both the game theory aspects of poker and the human elements, such as reading your opponents and adjusting to their tendencies. It’s about creating a scenario where your actions in the current hand amplify your ability to make effective plays in the future, setting yourself up for success not just in a single hand, but across the entire tournament. This strategy contrasts with an ICM-driven approach, which is more concerned with surviving each hand without necessarily considering the impact on future dynamics.

Overall, embracing future game thinking is about expanding your view beyond the immediate EV calculations and adopting a more comprehensive approach that includes future opportunities, opponent psychology, and the broader tournament landscape. It’s the kind of mindset that separates average players from the greats, as it allows for strategic depth and the ability to capitalize on evolving situations over the course of the game.

To learn more about this concept, please read this article.

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