The Value of Small Pots in Tournaments By B. Butler As levels continue to increase their blinds in a poker online tournament, the value of picking up the smaller poker pots before the flop and on the flop increases. While early on, blinds might be so small that stealing from the button or otherwise in position might be almost negligible, in the mid tier and higher ranks, and even by the second or third rounds, we are often gaining anywhere between 5% and 10% of our stack (or more) simply by raising under the assumption that we can win with any two cards when everyone else folds. While we all know this is true in the late rounds at Everest, stealing with small raises into small pots in the middle rounds can add a not inconsiderable amount of chips that both serves to pay your blinds for you, and keep you slowly rising as the rest of the players also continue to rise and others go out. Ultimately, we’re all looking to win the monster pot, but when firing from safe position early on, we can gain enough chips that it is as if we are winning medium to large pots without even showing down a hand. Open more pots when in position, steal some blinds, rise without even lifting much of a finger.