Surprise your playing poker!

Last night all the dealers were getting ready for the first instalment of the “International’s Summer Festival” £50+£50 ROE all the tables were set, all the chairs were in place and all the cards were ready to go. I got called over to the table in the corner where all the dealers were sat down with 20 random coloured chips each.
“You in?” asked the dealer with cards.
“Yeah, what are you playing?”
The game was called “the game” which played like Cincinnati but with some twists. Everyone antied 1 chip, they were then dealt 5 cards and a flop. The lowest card on the flop was wild (I’m not sure what happens if the board comes 8,2,2, where the bottom two cards match) and if you wanted to stay in then you put a further 2 chips into the middle, then the last two community cards were dealt and then there was a show down, everyone is allowed to use up to 2 cards from their own hand like Omaha and the winner tales the pot of chips, this game went on for about 10mins with slight variations each hand. The TD (tournament director) came over and told the dealers to finish up, I had been running good, more or less every time I stayed in I won and every time I had folded I would have defiantly not won. I had just over 60 chips in front of me and was about to throw them in when something I had not expected happened. Some of the dealers started to throw in money for the amount of chips they were down, so I handed over 20 of my chips saying, there’s my buy-in and there’s my profit. Considering that I had no idea that I was gambling I had found the game great fun. But now that I know it is for monies I will have to wait till after my sabbatical to have another go.
The question I asked myself as I was now reviewing the hands played was would I have played the same if I knew that money was at stake? I’d like to think so as I hit a “true” straight flush (not using the wild card) 4 of a kind – twice!! But who knows....

Back to my relapsed sabbatical. Tonight I will be dealing the £30 rebuy for the main event, and watching both interesting and crazy poker. I will be dealing all week for the International’s Summer Festival before heading to Europe on tour for two weeks.

Take No Prisoners

As the evening draws to an end and a new day is starting tournaments that had started around 8 are just coming to their most crucial part – The Bubble – it is during this stage that play slows down while everyone is waiting for the three, two or one more players to be knocked out. Once those players are eliminated, all the remaining will finish somewhere in the money.
If you are willing to be the last person to be knocked out of an event without any reward, then you stand a good chance of stealing quite a few extra blinds. Quite often play slows down so much that deals are struck in order to speed the game along.

This concept of making a deal for the “would have been bubble” cuts out such an untapped area of tournament play, as so many tournaments are now dealing for the bubble. I believe that making a deal for the bubble is wrong. Making a deal is not wrong, but a deal for the bubble is. It takes a slice from everyone else’s potential profit. If for instance the tournaments get heads up then the remaining two players will be tried and generally want the ordeal to be over and done with; and as a dealer I agree with splits.

Back to the bubble

This truly is the time the big stack to rein terror over the table. Everyone is waiting for the short stack to be blinded out or knocked out; everyone is folding everything waiting for someone, namely the big stack to attack the short stack, because no one wants to go home empty handed, no one want to tell their mates that they lasted 5 hours and went out with no reward for all their play.
This is the time the big stack should be attacking everyone else BUT the short stack, because all the time the short stack is in everyone else is afraid of going out, this is the time when the big stack should be protecting the short stack as well as taking their big stack tax from everyone else. This is the Big Stack’s “Hammer Time”. So all you big stacks when it comes down to the bubble, don’t make a deal.

Sabbatical

I have decided to dedicate the next two months to observation and study of poker; both Hold’em and Omaha so I will not be partaking in any poker game, live or other. I hope that this period will help me rebuild my game as I feel at the moment my playing style has reached a level that I cannot continue without taking a few steps back. I believe that I play live so much more than online that I have developed errors that are common amongst live players. To name some of the main errors that I have come across and have assimilated, I have comprised a list.

Stealing too much in late position:

This is a major symptom of poker today. Too many players are being overly aggressive; winning Hold'em requires that you pick up the blinds every now and then. I feel that you don’t need to be constantly attacking the blinds especially in cash games as they are so small relative to the average stack size and to do so with relatively weak holdings can prove to be expensive, as you would end up winning the micro pots and losing the large pots. This strategy may work well against tight opponents but in poker today they a rare breed.

Isolating weak opponents too much:

This is another error of play today and another strain of the aggressive poker. Do not misunderstand my point, there is occasional value in isolating the weak player, however for this play to be profitable, you must get heads up with the weak player. Too often attempting to isolate one opponent will frequently bring other players in behind you. Then you may well be facing another bet from someone else who has position on you in an ever increasing pot.

Not understanding that some loose opponents are playing better than it seems:

There is an ever increasing breed of poker players who probably plays too many hands, but then plays their hands very well from the flop on. Most of these players do win and some of them do quite well. They are able to make up for their large hand selection through a good understanding of post flop play and their hand reading skills. However, if you were to just concentrate on their hand selection, you may well believe that these players are not very good. So be careful of someone who seems to be playing like a maniac and winning.

Defending the blinds too much:

They don’t call it a vicious circle for nothing. Players believe that because they steal blinds from late position that everyone else is “at it” as well and will elect to call and play a hand out of position with not necessarily a good holding, and they wonder why they are losing money.


My conclusion is summed up by something I once said to the guy who taught me to first play.

“They should have called this game patience”