The Perfect Balance in Tournament Poker

Recenty, Jon and I were discussing various hands in tournament poker. I explained plays that I observed in Timburt's game last night and other players at his table (Timburt got 2nd in 30k gooo Tim, congrats!). We analyzed hands, talked about the different thought processes behind them, the way players at other levels think, etc.

I also confided in Jon that I felt I was playing a bit too aggressively in the last two weeks, and at times, it is difficult to find the perfect speed. My aggression does not stem from playing a large quantity of hands; rather when I decide to play a hand, it is goin to be a very big pot. For ex, yesterday I had AK ss in position, (at 75150, middle of tourney), facing an utg raise and caller in front of me. I had approximately 30 bbs, however, any reraise I made committed me to playing for 2/3 of my stack, if utg shoved all in. I knew utg was an O.K., fairly tight player, and the caller in between was a station. Because I have position with a decent stack, is it appropriate to call here and play post flop, or do I reraise and be committed to utg's shippage? There are a few factors to consider. By calling, if I miss the flop, I will have lost only 3x bb and preserved my stack. On the flip side, if i reraise pre and my opponents fold, and I take it down, I gain 7.5 bbs, and add more than 25% to my stack. Alternatively, if i reraise pre, get shoved on by utg, and end up winning the hand, I more than double up, thus giving me a nice working stack and top 5 chiplead with 150 or so players left out of 300- if I lose, I have less than 10 bbs, and am looking to get it in to double back to where I was. Considering the options, and without being results oriented, I think that the reraise is appropriate. I do not want to play AK suited that softly to smoothy on the button, possibly bring in the blinds and play a 5 way pot. If the blinds were smaller, such as in the early stages of the tourney, I exercise more pot control and just call. However, given my options I like my re raise. Most online professionals would likely advise that it is almost always appropriate to 3 bet AK, yet that is a volume, and therefore, hi variance mentatility. While I play many hours online, I do not super multi table. At most, I play 3-4 screens at once, but usually only 2.

So, my aggression has been slightly problematic, combined with the fact that my hands have not been surviving on five cards in crazy situations, to cause me to have a 21 non cash online tourney streak, with the exception of 3 to 4 minor cashes and no final tables.

What Jon and I concluded, based upon our discussion of hands played by third parties, and ourselves is this. Tournament poker is about losing your fear. Yet, one must not lose their discipline. Loss of fear and discipline causes reckless, insane play without any thought as to stack preservation or opponents' image. Maintaining fear and discipline will result, most likely, in being forced to play a short stack in the middle/late stages of the tourney and the player is now looking to get lucky to double. Losing fear and maintaining discipline is the ideal combination to succeed in tournament poker. As a skilled player, if you have hand reading abilitites, can play well post flop, and are willing to trust your reads, you can accumulate chips by making moves and trusting your reads, while being disciplined enough to not get caught up on a move, not bluff your stack away, and make unemotional, intelligent decisions.

Another example of such fear is a hand I played on the tourney bubbled last week. I hadn't cashed in a few tournaments and was playing rather timidly on the bubble. My goal at that point was cashing. I had 30 big blinds, was comfortable and playing well when I picked up JJ utg, two from the money. I almost open mucked just to guarantee a cash. Then I was like, am i nuts? And raised 2.7 bbs. One caller, all else fold. Flop is 5 6 8 all sp. I have two red jj. I check to exercise pot control. My opponent bet 5k into 8600 pot, i felt he was bluffing. We had almost the exact same stack. But I decided, im out of pos without any redraws, I will call and if a scare card comes on the turn, i can make my decision there. Turn is Qc, which I thought was a great card to bet. I could get my opponent to fold A8 pkt 77, a draw, etc. However, if I got raised I would have to fold, so I decided to be safe and check. My opp checked behind. River is 9 c. I checked and my opponent thought for a bit and shipped 25k. Pot is less than 20k and I had 24k in front of me. I was like what? The little voice in the back of my head whispered, he would never bluff on the tourney bubble, he is not that player, and instead I said f it and called. He had pkt 99 for a rivered set and I finished 47/300 something for a bubble two from the money. I think I played that hand as poorly as anyone can play a hand and I recognize that. But it reminds me that while I was comfortable and playing well, my bubble strategy was discumbobulated- a pure disorganized mess. I was not focused, I changed my plan for the pot on each street, which is not disciplined. I invoked fear on the flop and no fear on the river when it should've been the other way around. Granted, he might not have folded the flop, but at least it would've been a more appropriate play.

On a non-poker note, I am in <3>

I started writing the blog with my hand histories from tunica and my f***ing battery died on my IPOD where all my notes are. I will continue composing the entry and publish soon.

Jon and I are heading to Atlantic City for some WSOP circuit events at Cesars. Will let you know how it goes, I am excited to play live cash!

Good money and peace!

Lucky C and Ace.