I've read a lot of books and practice on teaching apps to try to improve my tournament game. I definitely understand the math / pot odds examples given in these books...they make perfect since given a huge stack. The example is always if I have a 50% chance to catch my card in a drawing hand and the pot is giving me 5:1, then I call every time....because over the long run, I will make money.
However, the problem I have in tournaments is when the pot odds and the drawing odds are closer together but It's still profitable to call, and that call (and subsequent streets) are going to severly cripple you in the tournament, I can't agree with this "go ahead and call, because over the long run, I will make money." nonsense. I only get to play in a handful of real tournaments during the year which isn't close to the long run.
The people in these books might be able to sign up for another tournament an hour after ruin but I'm not able to do that. The app will say, you "were correct in calling but you did not get your card, you lost all of your chips, oh well..." My tournaments are the short run in my opinion and sometimes it's mathematically correct to call, but I fold anyway to find a better spot (and better mathematical advantage), especially on a short to medium stack.
So my question is do all of you always play the math on a draw? Or do you use the math with a deep stack but use more common sense when the risk of ruin or partial ruin is possible?
