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.

Hello,

For more than a month now, I’ve been playing holdem online. Just weeks ago, I decided to improve my skills as I already considered the game fun and exciting. I started to add more hours to my playing time and then make some adjustments with how I see my cards. I also stopped focusing on how other players play. Well, all my efforts eventually paid off. In a WPT tourney, I ended having the 7th place.

Luckily, I got then the chance to see your site. Thanks to you and your site as I was able to learn not only what the good cards are but also what the bad ones are. I was also able to learn how to play, when to play, so on and so forth.

Because of the many things I learned, in a $1 tourney just recently, I was the 2nd placer out of 1300 players who joined. And in a $5 tourney early this morning, I was in the 24th place out of 900, not so bad I believe.

Despite the achievements I got, I still have some questions to ask. One of the most intriguing to me actually is the one about closing the deal. How do you actually close the deal? In the two recent events where I got the 2nd and 24th place, I had high chip count later part. I tried to play loosely then and tried two bluffs as well. I’m thinking of posting and folding then but I’m not sure.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks!

Engelbert
Englebert,

In the later part of the tournament you need to punish the short stacks and force them to either play for all their chips or lay down. Don’t get into too many big confrontations with big stacks unless you have a strong hand. Otherwise, try and see flops cheaply and punish your opponents when you hit the board strong.

When you get to the last few players, open up your hand ranges a bit to try and take the win. Two big cards, any ace, any pair, and large suited cards are strong hands 4 handed through heads up. Otherwise, continue to play small pot poker and see cheap flops.

Hello,

I have two questions for you. I know you’re the only person who could help me out. I hope you have time. Thanks in advance!

1. Say I played in a NLH low buy-in tournaments with starting chips of $1000. Blinds were moving up every 13 minutes or so and multiple limpers preflop were at the every corner of the table. So do you think, what’s the best way to deal with such kind of players? I thought of having a strictly solid aggressive game with them but I was not sure. I also thought of raising a bit than usual with less than optimal starting hands but just the same thing, I have some doubts. Anything to share?
2. When is the best time to do slowplay trips? I heard the the best time is when the board is very uncoordinated but I also heard the best time could be already when you have a coordinated flop. Which one is true?

Thanks again!

Drew
Drew,

1. With a tournament with a fast blind structure and low chips, I like to try and push my strong hands really hard. You can try and see a lot of flops, but there are a lot of players that will use that strategy. Your best bet is to pick up a hand and punish the players that come in with garbage. In these types of tournaments you need to get lucky too.
2. The best time to slowplay trips is when the flop comes uncoordinated, meaning that there isn’t a potential straight or flush on the board. When the flop is coordinated, slow playing can lead to someone outdrawing you. You want to avoid this.

Hello,

I have two questions.

1. In online NL tournaments, I am usually card dead. My starting hands are typically like 73o, J3o, 92o hand after hand. I remember I oftentimes fight till the end however most of the time I am short stacked. Any advice? Or it’s just a normal thing?
2. Say in a certain event, a player who is in first position calls succeeding raises. On the board, AK24 rainbow. Later, he then catches a 2 on the river and with 72o beats the other player on the button. By the way, the player on the button has AK.

I’m wondering if the sample situation is just a normal stuff in poker? How about online?

Thanks!

Roman Bajorek
Roman,

1. You have to figure out spot where you can pick up chips while being card dead. Raising in position, seeing cheap flops and hoping to hit with garbage hands, and stealing blinds are some ways to do this. Card dead runs happen. You will need to wait them out. Eventually things will even out.
   
2. This is an example of a bad online player getting lucky. You see this sometimes in lower limit poker or someone trying to be cute in a higher stakes game. I see this more online as people can play silly hands without actually seeing people mock them for their poor play.