Poker is a game of seeming contradictions. For instance, there are times to mix up your play in order to be unpredictable and there are times to play consistently. How do you decide which to do? It’s going to be all based on experience and your opponents. The more you play, the better feel you will have for what to do. Playing no-limit Hold’em tournaments is an art form. For instance, if you always bet out post-flop when you have raised pre-flop, then try check-raising after the flop when you totally miss the flop. Just as this would have sent out alarm signals if you hit a monster, those same alarm systems should be going off depending on your opponent. Knowing the psychology of your opponent and, more important, knowing what you think your opponent thinks of you will guide you in making these kinds of decisions.
All right, back to the home game. Dave C. joined the game about halfway through the first year. The first time he showed up, he played very few hands, and when he did, he played them with strength. He was finally eliminated in about third place. I thought for sure he had some previous experience, but in fact, he said it was the first time he had played. Dave C. really had a natural instinct for determining the relative value of hands and being selectively aggressive. He also asked me a ton of questions, because he was trying to learn whatever he could. I was happy to tutor him as much as possible. The very next game, which I could not make, Dave C. won. The lesson to be learned here is to soak up as much information as possible every time you play and from all outside sources. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. (A few months after he started playing and before this book went to print, Dave C. came in fourth place out of over two hundred players at the first annual Poker Author Challenge Tournament at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City.)
Finally, let’s look at my play. After that initial loss to Robert, I won every game I played for the better part of the next year. My strategy was relatively simple. We had a very generous blind structure, so I would be extremely patient and play conservatively. Tournament poker is all about picking spots to win chips and avoiding mistakes. Since the rest of the guys were still relatively inexperienced (although they were making great strides), they would inevitably make mistakes. Once we were down to three people, I would play much more aggressively. Finally, when I was heads-up, I would turn on the heat. A number of different players came in second over the course of that year, yet they would all make the same mistake. They would fail to make adjustments for heads-up play. They would not loosen up their starting hand requirements. After a while they would get tired of me stealing their chips, and they would make the mistake of calling off their chips instead of being the aggressor and raising me.
Well, after about a year, I finally met my match. One of the guys brought his son to the game who played a lot. He clearly knew what he was doing. As I anticipated, the game came down to the two of us heads-up. At that point, I had a chip advantage. However, from the first hand, he was clearly being aggressive. He was raising each hand. This guy was doing what I normally do. I figured I could set him up. The first two hands I had garbage and folded. We were now close to even in chips. The very next hand, he raised me from the small blind. I called with my 7-8 off-suit. The flop came 10-7-2 with two clubs. I bet and he raised me. Not to be out-done this time, I re-raised him. To my surprise, he re-raised all-in. I really thought he was on a flush draw, and I was very tempted to call him. I was not ready to risk the entire tournament, though, on a middle pair—especially when I was confident I could outplay him. So I folded.
The very next hand, I raised from the small blind with Q♠-10♠. He re-raised all-in. I called. He turned over A-7 off-suit. The flop brought a Queen, but the river brought an ace, and I lost for the second time since the home game had started. I was completely outplayed. I let my opponent take control of the betting. In most tournaments, by the time you are heads-up, the blinds are so high that every pot is worth fighting for. You cannot be at all tentative. I should have fought harder from the beginning. Chip stacks can change quickly. While I am a big believer in avoiding mistakes during the course of a tournament, at the end when the stakes are high, I would rather err on the side of being aggressive than cautious.
The main reason I lost, though, is that I again played not to lose when we were heads-up. If you’re not playing to win, you are not going to win. This actually leads me to the most important lesson I learned from the home game. Every time I went to the game, my entire focus was not on if I was going to win, but how I was going to win. I never doubted that I was going to win. There were times that I was extremely short stacked, and it never even occurred to me that I would not win.
Whenever I play, no matter what the competition, I always expect to win and hopefully play to win. However, until I played in the home game, I realized that I do not always know that I am going to win when I play against tough competition. And that is the attitude that you have to have if you are going to win. Confidence is a tremendous part of poker. If you talk to just about any top professional poker players, they will tell you (if they are being honest) about how they had to work their way up the ranks, that is, they would start out playing a low-stakes game until they could dominate it. Once they could, they would take a shot at a higher stake game. If they ran into trouble, they would step down to the lower stakes and regain their confidence and bankroll.
Every poker player is going to go through a rough patch. Unfortunately, losing is part of poker. When you are going through one of those spells, find a game that you are likely to dominate to get your confidence back. Play some low entry fee sit and go’s where the competition is fairly weak. Play them until you absolutely know you are going to win, and then take that same attitude with you to your next bigger event.
Freerolls
Remember when I said that I was amazed that a home-game poker tournament could be played in utmost seriousness with nothing at stake. Having a clear-cut winner makes the game competitive. People can play for pride just like they would if they were playing a pickup basketball game. That same logic does not follow to a big freeroll (a tournament that offers prizes or cash but is free for players to enter), sad to say. The problem with a freeroll offered by an online site or local bar is that none of the players know each other. No one has any desire to play for pride anonymously. It just doesn’t work.
So why play freerolls? If you are just starting out, the online freerolls are a great way to get used to the structure and feel of a tournament. As far as strategy, you are going to have a hard time learning anything because these tournaments will be played fast and loose with a devil-may-care attitude. The exception is if a decent prize is offered. There are a number of bar/restaurants near me that offer weekly free tournaments, but they offer first-place prizes up to $200. This changes the game quite a bit. I have done some investigative research and have found the quality of play at these tournaments to vary greatly. While a majority of players are fairly poor, I did find that just about everyone was playing to win.
This situation is quite different from an online freeroll tournament where it does not appear that anyone is playing to win. Many online sites will offer small-fee buy-ins for as little as $2 or $3. As miniscule as that number may sound, it changes the philosophy dramatically. The great majority of players takes the game seriously or else they wouldn’t be playing. Requiring them to pay something, no matter how small, out of their own pocket makes a world of difference. I played a few of these tournaments when I was testing software on the various sites, and they were quite entertaining and competitive. If you want to test the waters online, try a few.
Barroom Poker
The exploding popularity of no-limit Hold’em tournaments continues to amaze me. Within a five-minute drive from my house (located outside of Philadelphia), at least a dozen restaurants/bars hold weekly tournaments. These tournaments are freerolls offering a variety of prizes. Twenty years ago, this would have been nirvana for me. Now the idea of playing in a smoky bar with a bunch of drunks for the chance to win a gift certificate or T-shirt has zero appeal to me.
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