Live tournaments as well as online ones are about the coin-flip. That’s right, that’s what all the skill and experience comes down to at the end of the day: a 50-50 coin-flip, or several such near 50-50 hands. You simply cannot win a tournament without winning at least a few coin-flips on your way to first place.

Coin flips are generally neutral EV situations in cash games, though purists may argue that they may in fact carry a little bit of marginal EV+. The bottom line is, they’re not exactly ideal to get all your money in on, though you probably won’t go bust on their account in cash games. Tournaments are different monsters though. In the early and middle stages of a tournament, coin flips are among your biggest enemies. The marginal EV that they offer may trick rookies into jumping on the band-wagon, but you should definitely not join them. Because of the dual nature of your tournament stack (it is a weapon which helps you get more chips, but in the same time it represents your tournament life itself) you cannot afford to go for hands which offer you marginal EV+. In cash games, you’ll cash in on such situations in the long-run, but in a tournament, there is no long run if you lose your coin-flip and thus there is no way you can ever recover your losses.

Your tournament coin-flip is just this sort of marginal EV situation. Stay clear of it and you’ll make it far. If coin flips are such despicable occurrences though, why did I say above that you couldn’t win a tournament without successfully pulling off a few of them? The reason is quite simple. While in the early and middle stages of a tournament coin flips are not good situations to get your entire stack in on, in the later stages, the escalating blinds and the thinning field create circumstances under which a coin flip becomes one of the better situations to risk your tournament life on.

Ok, so now we know why you can’t avoid these dreaded but necessary coin-flips in a tournament. Can you do anything to increase your overall odds on such coin-flips though? Despite the fact that the whole concept seems like an oxymoron (we are talking about a 50-50 match up after all), there is something you can do. It’s called fold equity and you can put it to work in your favor if you manage to secure control over the coin flip. How do you assume a position of control in such a match-up? Simple. You make sure that you’re the one doing the shoving and that your opponent is the one doing the calling. There’s a big difference between shoving all-in and calling someone else’s all-in. The person who makes the move will secure two ways to win the pot: his opponent might fold, or he might win the coin-flip. The person who makes the call will only have the winning of the coin-flip to rely on. Now, that there is one big difference. Make sure you control the game and make sure you pick your coin-flip spots well. While there’s nothing you can do about having to go to a coin-flip to survive, you can choose when and how you go to that coin-flip.

Having at least an approximate read on your opponent is also extremely important when it comes to the coin-flip. There are several hands that can trap you big time. Consider a low pocket pair. That’s an excellent coin-flip hand which has the majority of opposing hands dominated for much more than a coin-flip, except a bigger pocket pair, which turns your coin-flip into major underdog. Make sure you know what your opponent is likely to take his coin-flip chances on.

In conclusion, the biggest challenge about the coin-flip is to make sure that you are actually in a coin-flip. Do everything you can to better your odds and leave the rest to Lady Luck. At the end of the day, you are supposed to get lucky too to win a tournament.

Make sure you register for rakeback if you play in tournaments online. Rakeback deals like the PKR poker rakeback or the VietBet rakeback don’t just give you money back on your cash game rake, but on your tournament fees as well.