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Originally Posted by Black Aces 518
How do more bad players diminish your skill advantage? That seems like the whole thing about how some people would rather be 80% to double up with AA than 50% to quintuple up.
I believe AA against one random hand is 86% and gainst 4 random hands is like 55%. That's quite a drop off. However, even bad players do not play random hands. They play marginal hands in situations where they are not getting good odds/price. These types of hands do much better against AA. I don't have a calculator handy, but I believe AA against 4 players who are playing normal marginal poker starting hands is well below 50%.
All that being said, in tournament play it comes down to risk of ruin. I would much rather be 86% to double up than 55% to quadruple up (if those were the real odds), particularly near the beginning or end of a tourney (but for different reasons).
So, the more opponents you have, the more luck plays a role, and therefore, the less your skill advantage matters.
I will make one caveat. Against exactly two players, there are certain aspects of skill (such as knowing when to squeeze, or play middle position) that don't exist against a single opponent. So there are times those situations can be profitable over heads up. However, I will add, that playing these situations right often requires a lot of skill, particularly in reading your opponents