Tropicana; Atlantic City; October 23, 2011

I found myself in the midnight tournament at the Trop, following an evening at a bachelor party.  I got there half an hour late and at the short-handed table of 5 people.  Great structure though:  10 minute rounds, $62 buy-in, $15k in chips.  35 entrants, apparently.  My late arrival had cost me about $1k.  No matter, I settled in quickly after not playing a hand in months.  I was back up in the game.  Long story short, I played my usual patient style.  Textbook would say completely wrong for this structure.  Aggression, aggression.  Long story short, I didn't get a hand all night.  My best was A-Q.  Where did I finish:  10th, at the final table.  I won 5 out of 6 hands I contested.  Would I have done better being more aggressive.  My sense is "no."  One good hand could have made the difference.  Without that, I'm not sure anything would have changed the outcome. 

NLH Tournament Patience

Ok everyone.  Despite my not having posted in some time, folks are still coming to the site.  So, I thought it was only right to start blogging again.  Despite my absence, I haven't abandoned No Limit Hold 'Em and, in fact, have continued to hone my game to the point where I've reached a number of tournament final tables.  Most of these have been small tournaments in Atlantic City.  I wanted to talk a little about tournament patience.  I've watched so many people go out on tilt or making a bad move because they wanted some "action."  Eliminating these mistakes will automatically improve your play, regardless of how you play otherwise.  Poker is very much like trading -- you have to be able to wait for the right situation.  There are not that many "right" situations during the course of a tournament and, if you can't wait, you won't find them.  Simple in theory, but not in practice. 

A Report from Vegas

Well, I just got back from Vegas where I enjoyed a healthy dose of humble pie. The tally: 5 no limit texas holdem tournaments played, 1 final table reached, 0 cashes. All of the tourneys were $65 buy-ins (I know, I know, big spender huh?), one had a $40 rebuy. I played poorly in the first one, got progressively better until my last tournament, a 10 pm, no rebuy event on Sunday night at Treasure Island, where I finished 6th out of 37, with the top 4 places paying. Heartbreaker.

Anyway, I learned a lot over the weekend in Vegas. Most notably that in low buy-in tourneys, you can't bluff because people call with anything and vastly overvalue their hands. So play tight, play patient, and you will likely survive. I had to rush to get Harrington on Hold 'Em Vol. II finished but it was mighty valuable because it got me thinking about M. M is the amount of your chips divided by the total of antes and blinds currently in force. This tells you how many orbits of the table you can survive before being blinded off. Harrington impressed on me that you have to make moves even if your M seems decent. In other words, it's always later than you think.

As you might guess, I'm itching to play another tournament. Have to think about a trip soon to AC. If nothing else, Vegas whetted my desire to get better at NLH.