Dec 21, 2005 – 07:12AM
0 for 8 last night in tournaments. Typically that doesn't bother me too much, but I didn't play my best. I think I still had a bit of adrenaline running through me from winning two tournaments over the weekend of the fact that I haven't been feeling all that well since last Wed is starting to impact how I play, because I was officially a lagtard for the first 45 mins or so I played last night. I managed to correct myself and get back into the thick of things, but not until after I had lagged away a significant part of my stack in both the Stars 150+12 and UB 100+9 last night, as well as making an AWFUL call in the Happy Hour on Empire.
I'm going to focus on playing a better game tonight, although I still don't feel super well. It'll eat at me the rest of the week though if I play poorly tonight since I may or may not get to play again until next Monday. Between all the Christmas stuff I've got going on I don't know when I'll be home every night. If I'm home in time I'm certain you'll see me in some of the later tournaments, but that's a big if.
The newest rankings on Pocket Fives came out yesterday, and with my 3 wins last week I moved up from 68 to 61. Since I may not play much this week, then 3 weeks from now I have the PCA, I have no doubt that I'll probably move down a few spots before I return from the Bahamas. Especially since I will miss out on the 'Masters' on Paradise Poker. Obviously I'm happier to be going to the PCA than I would be playing in the Masters series of tournaments, and I will be taking my laptop, so who knows you could see me in the Masters anyways if I bust out of the PCA early enough.
I wish I could say something interesting happened last night that would inspire me to write something poker related, but it didn't. It was a pretty straight forward night of cards where I lost a few races, sucked out a few times, had a few bad beats, and at the end of the day don't have a lot to show for it.
In the past, Wed has typically been a night off for me, but I've moved that to Thursdays since my wife has class that night now. So for the first time in a while I'm going to get to play both the Super Wed limit tournament (I cut my teeth playing limit poker, so I still like to play it from time to time, just aren't many big limit tournaments) as well as get my first taste of the new 75k guaranteed 200+15 on UB. In addition to those I'm sure I'll be playing the 75k and Stars 150+12. I'll also likely add the Empire Happy Hour at 9. After that, I'll do my usual routine of adding the 45k on Stars and 40k on Party when/if I bust out of earlier tournaments, and adding the Pearl on Paradise if I bust out of anything before that. If I remember correctly, there are also a few nice tournaments on Stars on Wed nights (I want to say a 100+9 and $55 rebuy?) that could potentially get added, but honestly I hope I'm not doing poorly enough in the early ones to add anything else onto my plate :)
-Rizen
Dec 19, 2005 – 08:12AM
I'll start by posting some of my Sunday results. I played in 10 tournaments yesterday, cashed in 3. I cashed in the Empire 50k, the Stars 45k, and the Paradise 75k. I made one final table, the Empire 50k and took first for a cool $13.5k. I played some pretty good poker overall. I had some bad beats, some nice suckouts, and at the end of the day quite the profitable weekend.
I also wanted to address a couple of comments from readers in recent posts before I get more down to the point. To answer kipper (or anyone else who doesn't read Pocket 5s) my user name on just about every site is Rizen. The only major exception is that on Poker Room and Empire I'm 'SnkyBluffalo'. On Empire this is because they used to be a Party skin, so I couldn't use Rizen there, and Poker Room I just decided to use the other name. 95% of the time I'll be at a table as Rizen, but on those two sites you may see me on with another name.
Anyways, the last week I didn't really cash any more often than average, but I made 3 final tables and was able to seal the deal for 1st in all 3, and didn't chop in any of them. The overall winnings for those 3 tournaments were over 35k, but after weekly buy ins etc it was about a +30k week for me (which is a VERY good week, 3rd best ever).
A question that I sometimes am asked is how to play a final table. The honest to god's truth is that I don't think I could explain to anyone how to play a final table, and I don't think it would be possible to put it into any text. A lot of final table play is dictated by things you can easily explain (chip stack sizes, payout structure, etc), but there are a lot of 'feel' things that come at a FT that just can't be explained easily. Some of it comes with experience. I went a year and a half of playing low/mid limit buy in tournaments in addition to cash games without ever winning a tournament. I made some final tables, but I think it was my 8th or 9th FT when I finally took one down (which is about average, but I doubt anyone who plays poker shoots for 'average'). Once I got over the hump it became a lot easier, but it definitely takes a certain comfort level and a certain amount of experience to really learn how to play a FT, and to a lesser extent even the last 2-3 tables where situations and dynamics can change very quickly.
I'm going to give a brief discussion on my 3 final tables this week, and some of the strategy adjustments I made for each. If you ever watch me play a final table, you'll probably see me do some weird things as long as I have chips. One of the first things I like to do is try a few different things when the button is near me (either I'm in one of the blinds or in the button/CO) and see how the two players directly to my left and two players directly to my right react. I want to know just how scared they are, what they'll do if I try and just complete my SB when folded to me, how they might react to my stealing, etc. Some of these plays in isolation look bad, but often (as long as the chip stacks are deep enough) I'm just setting things up for later by knowing how he might react should I do certain things.
My first final table of the week was in the UB 100+9. I went into this 10 man final table 3rd in chips. I had the two guys who were bigger than me directly to my left and 4th directly to my right. Immediately I knew that having such big stacks around me could mean I would have to be careful with some of my hand selection since these players could do some big damage, and possibly break me, if I got into a big confrontation. It became apparent after the first couple of orbits that all 3 players around me were being VERY aggressive pre-flop, but somewhat reasonable post flop. With that in mind I played somewhat tight for a while and accumulated most of my chips while I was in the BB or with my legitimate hands. I was seeing a lot of flops out of my BB and trying to outplay some of the shorter opposition heads up when I could to accumulate chips. Generally it worked. I was flopping decent with some marginal holdings, and my bluffs/semi-bluffs were succeeding pretty well after the flop.
This FT took a long time to really start to eliminate players, but I was doing a good job of chipping up slowly but surely, without a whole lot of risk, and by the time we lost a few guys I was trading the chip lead back and forth with a guy on my left. It became pretty obvious to me after about 20-25 minutes of playing that I could outplay a lot of these guys after the flop. I was lucky in the fact that most of the really good players that made this FT (steely aka NestOfSalt and WAK were two from Pocket Fives) were shot stacked, and I avoided confrontations with either of them for the most part without a good hand since I knew both of those guys would be willing to get all their chips in if it meant a chance for first.
I don't remember the exact sequence of events, but once we got down to 5 or 6 I'd hit a couple of good hands and busted 1 or 2 players so far, and was in the chip lead. Since I'd been playing fairly tight and chipping up slowly I started to open the throttle a little bit, being more aggressive and hoping that as the stakes went up people would be a little more reluctant to play with me. I continued to chip up with the 'slowly but surely' method without showing down many hands.
Quite honestly, at this final table I don't think I showed down very many hands at all except when I knocked people out, in which case I usually had the goods. I just continually turned the screws on my opponents and eased up a bit if I could sense they were about to push back hard before tightening them again. I don't think i ever was in any real risk of busting and from start to finish I had pretty good control of the table. If only they could all run so smooth :)
In the Stars 300+20, I was able to go wire to wire with the chip lead (or near it). I didn't always hold it, but I had it going into the first break and had it when we reached the final table. The Stars table was different though in the fact that the players, on average, were better than the UB final table. There were only 9 players though, and 2-3 of them came to the table quite short. Typically, when I get to a final table and there are some short stacks I expect the action to move fast. Once those players crack the FT they typically are willing to gamble it up a bit for a chance at 1st, and I only wanted to be gambling with them if I had the best of it.
Well, the FT did not disappoint. There were some early fireworks, and we lost a couple of players early. We were down to 5 pretty quickly, and once we got there, someone had chipped up and taken the lead from me, we had 2 fairly short stacks, and 1 medium stack. This FT moved very quickly (a big contrast from UB), and we were down to 3 fairly quickly. By this point I hadn't really increased my chip count at all, and the 3 people left were pretty even in chips. At one point I was even 3rd in chips, but not by much.
I immediately turned the fire up, figuring with 3 even stacks people were going to not want to go out 3rd as top 2 were 5 figure paydays. I also had been playing VERY tight at this final table, so I was hoping my image would let me chip up a bit before anyone played back at me. Well, it worked for the most part. I got in a few steals and re-steals. Saw a few flops and chipped up to the chip leader, but without a huge edge in chips. At that point, the two smaller stacks got it all in pre-flop (I forget their holdings) and suddenly we were heads up, and I had about a 3:2 chip disadvantage.
One thing that might surprise you about a lot of tournament players, is they play VERY poorly heads up, or even 3-4 handed. I don't even think of myself as a great heads up player, but I've taken first over 75% of the time I've gotten heads up, regardless of the chip counts. I kept at it with my usual grind it out HU style where I was slowly chipping up. I wasn't seeing many showdowns, and generally when I did it was for a medium sized pot when I had the best hand. We went back and forth a little bit but after about 10 mins of HU play I had a 2:1 chip lead.
One of the ways you know you're controlling the FT well is when people start to make obvious frustration moves at you. I didn't put this down, but I actually won the UB 100+9 heads up after I got up on the guy 3:1 and CR'd him all in with 44 on a 355 flop when he had 22. He could have easily folded that hand I think from the way the action went down, but I just wore him down and he decided to take a stand at a bad time. Anyways, in the Stars this hand came up when I had about a 2:1 chip lead. I had A7 in the big blind. Villian completed on the button, I raised him 4x and he called. The flop came 7JQ. I checked. I wouldn't normally do this, but with the chip situations I really didn't want to bet then have to call an all in with bottom pair due to pot odds, so I figure I'd see how he reacted to the flop. He min bet, and at that point I knew he was pretty weak. I decided to flat call with the intention of betting out a healthy amount on a raggy turn, but the turn was a beautiful 7, so I checked again. He pushed, I of course called. He flipped over the 89 for a gut shot draw and missed his 4 outer.
Now, I'm not saying this was necessarily the best way to play this hand. I tend to mix it up A LOT heads up, but I felt this guy was getting very frustrated with my constant aggression and would explode any time. I was right, and luckily I hit a good hand and was able to bust him. I wouldn't by any means post this hand as a model way to play A7 heads up, but like I said, a lot of the FT is 'feel' and I just felt if I bet out he would push on me and I might have to either fold or get my chips in with possible worst of it and possibly lose the chip lead.
The other final table last night was the Empire 50k. In this final table I went in 5th or 6th in chips out of 10 players, but all of us got to the FT with healthy stacks that were fairly close. One double up would have put any player in 1st and 6-7 of us were within 7-8k in chips of one another having 65k or so a piece.
At this particular FT, and in this particular structure (lots of even stacks, lots of people with some time before they have to commit themselves) I like to hit the ground running. In general, when you're at a FT with a healthy stack if everyone is looking to move up, you should be picking up chips. If everyone is looking to double up, you should be looking to move up unless you pick up a big hand. As usual, moving against the rest of the table in terms of style is often the most profitable approach.
At any rate, I was picking up a lot of blinds with trashy hands and no resistance. Sometimes I would get raised or called then have to release my hand but I was accumulating chips nonetheless. It took us forever to lose our first player, and by the time we did I was a solid 3rd in chips and within striking distance of 1st. We finally lost a few players as some of the tighter players who let themselves get blinded down started to take stands and we had a few big hands run into one another. I was fortunate enough to stay out of these and continue to build chips.
As we got down to 5 players (we went from 9 or 10 to five fairly quickly) it was obvious the rest of the table was tiring from my aggression. The lucky part is, when they wouldn't push back, I was raising with 52o and 67s. Now that they were pushing back I was picking up AQs, 99, and similar hands. I got 66 to make a severe overbet push into me with 66 on a 54Q board when I had 99. I figured if he had the Q, AA, or KK he would have played it much slower, so I was really only afraid of TT or JJ here, so I called. Once I did that, I had twice as many chips as any of the other 3 left and almost half the chips in play.
I continued to run over the final table with aggression since 3rd and 4th were close in chips and neither wanted to go out first. 2nd in chips was playing quite passively as well. He came over the top of me a few times, but for the most part he was content to let the rest of us play while he got blinded down. Eventually 3rd and 4th got all in against one another and we were down to 3. At this point I had nearly 240k in chips while they both had ~100k.
Chip stacks worked in my favor again as I was raising almost every hand and they'd rarely look me up since neither wanted to go out first. I got up to 300k to both of their near 70k when they finally started pushing back. I dropped down some to 230-240k again and then chipped back up. You'll notice I'm not talking about many actual hands here, because there were virtually 0 showdowns. They were letting me continually take their blinds or outplay them post flop and on the rare ocassion taking a stand where I would fold then chip back up again until I got a real hand to knock them out with.
Eventually when they were both at 70k still I got all in with one of them pre-flop with KQ vs KJ and won, so I went into HU play with an almost 5:1 chip lead. Once we got HU I was able to take a few more blinds before the villian started to take some stands. I let him chip up a little bit with his pushes and realized he was getting frustrated and pushing an awful lot, so eventually after I had raised his BB I called his push over me with K8o (he was back down to nearly 70k at this point, so a double didn't hurt too much). He flipped over K3s but he hit his 3 and doubled up. Shortly thereafter he kept pushing and I got in KQ vs K8 and lost again to lose the chip lead.
I kept a cool head though, and tried to go back to the grind it out style of play. He was having none of this though and just kept pushing, which was actually a great strategy for him against me because this disallowed me to use my skill advantage on him post-flop, and while I don't think I have a skill advantage on everyone HU, I definitely did agains this guy. A couple of hands later I called his K8o push with KTs and this time my best hand held up, which crippled him down to about 2 BB. I immediately pushed J4o next hand into his T9s and won the virtual coin flip for my 3rd victory of the week.
This kind of recap may or may not be exciting, but the point of it is that I had 3 final tables this week, won all 3, and at all 3 I played a distinctly different style. UB was selective aggression, Stars was playing very tight (at first at least), and Empire I played like a maniac. The only commonality between the 3 is that once it got very short handed I put the accelerator all the way to the floor. This isn't ALWAYS the right way to play 2-3 handed, but often for decent stakes it is because a lot of players become timid with sometimes 6-7k differences between 1st and 2nd.
This goes back to a post I made a week or so ago. While everyone has their own individual poker styles that work best for them, you need to know how to incorporate EVERY gear into your game to be successful. Once you can incorporate all the gears into your game, then know how to shift in and out of them at the right times, you will be a true tournament force.
-Rizen
