Champions of Poker

Luckily I won a seat at the upcoming no limit tourney to be held in Regina, Sk. Canada. The buy in I heard is $1000 and I’m glad as it is going to be on TV. But I’m now bothered as I badly want to win the gold. How should I play then?

To make things clearer, there are two stages. In the first stage, to be able to start out, you need $10,000 in chips. The blind time will be 40 mins and the blinds will begin at 25 / 50. Antes I heard will begin at level 9. The tourney will run for three days and every day only 350 players can play. If you belong to the top 10% at the end of a certain day, you can proceed to the next stage. However, if you lose you can re-buy for the next day. Unfortunately, if it happens that you lose the third day, then sorry as you are already out. In the second stage, everyone will be in the money and approximately 105 will be fighting for the first place with a whooping $350,000 prize. About the chips, well if you have many chips left after passing on the first stage, good for you as it will be accumulated at this stage. However, no deals are prohibited and everyone will be playing on and on till one player remains.

Now, what day do you think should I play? And do you have any strategy in mind to share with me? Please, I hope I could use it for stage one and stage two.

Thank you very much for your time.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Benz
Benz,

First, this is an odd tournament structure. As far as which day, it depends on your style of play. If you are very aggressive and can accumulate chips, the last day may work as the most players typically play that day. If you are tighter, I would play the first two days and loosen your starting hand requirements some.

You need to be in the top 35 at the end of the day. As a result, you need to build up chips. This means playing looser than normal and taking a few more risks. Try and build chips by stealing blind, taking advantage of weaker players, and seeing a lot of flops and punishing when you hit the flop well.

If you won your seat for this tournament, then great, go ahead and play. I wouldn’t play it otherwise.

Hi,

I joined a rounders tournament the other night. I remember the buy in was 5 $ but only in the first level.

There were two top players at the table then and both moved on to the next level hoping to get the $3000 first prize.

I was in level three when three remained. The chip leader then had 10,000 while I had 8,000 being the second. The other guy had only approximately 2,000. By the way, blinds were 150 and 300.

On the button, I was dealt JJ. Big blind then folded. What I did next was that I doubled my bet up to 2,400. Consequently, I called. Flop then followed and brought 2 4 10 rainbow and so he checked to me. I then went all in. Suddenly, he called and the flipped QQ. River and turn came but there was no Jack, therefore I lost.

If you were on my shoes that night, what might have you done? Any advice?

Thanks!

Triem
Triem,

I would have made a bet about ¾ of the pot. Chances are he would have raised you all-in. With the flop the way it came, I probably would have called the all in.

Either event, I would have been all-in on the flop too considering there was no reraise. It is hard to put someone on an overpair when they didn’t raise.

You ran into a bigger hand. Sorry about your bad luck.

Hello,

I just want to ask and share something.

Recently, I joined a live tournament in a northern Minnesota casino. Well, if I could remember it right, the buy-in was $150. We actually started with 170 players and then later on was trimmed down to sixteen players divided at two 8p tables.

I heard that the tourney was paying 15 players back then so we were pressured. Eventually, 10-15 got $150, 9th $200, 8th $400 and on up to $9,500 for first. With 400 antes, blinds were $4,000 and $8,000 while chips in total was $850,000 therefore the stack was about $53,000 in average. At the table were some of the big stacks but players just around were only near the average and no player has $100K or so. Me, after posting the $400 ante and the small blind had $36,000. Pot was $15,200.

At some point, everyone folded while I had A8 off-suit. Afterwards, a player maybe at his mid-20’s sat at the table. He has about $55,000. I was wondering then as he haven’t seen any thing.

Later part, I raised all-in while with AT he called me. Few minutes later and a ten came and so I was busted out.

In your opinion, did I played just right? I believe I made pretty well with regards to mathematical call, however, I’m not sure about my strategic call. Any thoughts?

I hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks in advance!

Billy Stout
Billy,

A-8 offsuit is a poor choice for a starting hand in general. If you are raising from late position to steal blinds, that may be fine, but if you get called, you are in trouble.

Without knowing more information, I can’t say whether you should or shouldn’t have pushed all in, but based on the fact that you had a solid stack and push with A-8, I must lean towards that being a poor play. A-8 is easily dominated, and in your case, it was.

Hi,

I have several questions to ask. Hope you have time. Thanks in advance!

1. In NL100, I oftentimes witness players buying in with $10, $15, $20 or may be $40. Well, I believe playing the short stack has its own advantages. However, I’m wondering if how should I deal and play with it when I have a full buy-in, at least. Any idea?

   Consider that I was in early position and with 88 I limped in. At middle position, with $20, I folded to a short stack. Such player raised to $4 and everyone else folded including both the small and big blinds. It was then my turn, but I don’t know what to do. I was considering if I’d call his raise or just re-raise him. If I’d call his raise, it would be a goodbye for my set on the flop and if I’d re-raise him, he might opt to go all in. At some point, I thought of folding. What do you think? I’m really sick and tired playing at a table full of short stacks, any advice?

2. I really wonder if there’s any difference playing at NL tournaments than at cash games. I believe in NL tournaments, I have to lose first a lot of chips before I could have my set. And in a cash game, you can always reload, and there is always a chance to win back any losses.

   Because of the difference, I just always try to play big pairs and AK, AQ and may be KQ and AJ. I’ve always stayed away from suited connectors. And typically, I’m on all-in or fold mode. And in the event my hands are hold up, I go back to average or even above average at the later stage of the game. But sadly, I always end up with the least chips. Any advice for me? Is there any specific hand I should play?

3. Professionals at High Stakes Poker on GSN tend to always play very loose cash games. In fact, there was one player who raises with A4o. He was then called by someone with K9s. Flop came and brought 9. The player with K9s earlier thought he had the best hand. I don’t know what’s going on. I believe they were just playing loosely then.

Thanks for your time.

Regards,
Raymond Feld
Raymond,

1. Players with short stacks are going to try and push with big hands and try and double up. My suggestion is to try and play small ball poker and keep the pot small. The other option is to be aggressive and raise more often than normal and get out the way when they push with big hands.
   
2. Tournaments are very different than cash games. You have to change your starting hand requirements based on what position that you are in on the table. I would recommend picking up a book or DVD on Texas Holdem. Phil Hellmuth and Howard Lederer have good DVD’s but Dan Harrington’s Harrington on Holdem is the best set of tournament books you can buy.
3. Players on High Stakes Poker are very loose and very aggressive with their hands. You will also notice big fluctuations with their stacks overall. Watch some of the better players like Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, David Benyamine, and Jennifer Harman and you will see a good mix between loose and solid. Overall, those 4 are usually among the biggest winners around. This year Phil Ivey and David Benyamine are #1 and #2 in amount won online on Full Tilt Poker.

Hi,

Before anything, I would like to commend you for having a great site!

Well, I am actually here now because I want to clarify something. For two times in just three months, this situation happened to me. In a small buy-in freeze-out tournament with around 90 players, I would try to play tightly and aggressively. At certain point, I will then have a-k and j-j. I would then raise four times the big blind and then have three or four callers. Flop would appear but not that significant, therefore I’ll be kicked off. Gradually, my stack will decrease. Then when blinds were 30 and 60 and I had 120 points left, I will go all in with a pair of 8’s, some other time a pair of 6´s. Later, two callers would appear with two over cards so obviously, I can’t anymore take home the pot.

I’m not so sure with the way I played. Anything in mind?

Thanks!
Agren
Agren,

A-K is a drawing hand at best. It must hit in order to be strong. Otherwise, it’s ace high and not that powerful. If the flop did not produce overcards, I am surprised you were folding Jacks so easily. Unless there was significant action from other players, there is no reason to believe that Jacks are beat.

As far as your middle pairs getting beat, the problem here is that you are waiting to long to push with a hand. When you do, it will not scare opponents off and they will take coin flips with you to eliminate you, especially if they have plenty of chips.