I recently played an interesting hand in a €2,200 event in Prague that demonstrates a concept you must master if you want to succeed at poker. Up until this hand, my day was going decently well. I had chipped up to 25,000 from my 12,000 starting stack with no significant confrontations. You will find that the biggest winners in tournament poker typically win (steal) lots of small pots that don’t belong to them, and that was exactly what I was doing leading up to this pot. …
One of my followers recently sent me a hand on twitter (@JonathanLittle). His analysis of the situation seemed to be so result oriented and he seemed so afraid of losing a big pot and his tournament life that it moved me to write this article.
With blinds at 400/800-100, a tight aggressive player with 22,000 raised to 2,000 from first position. An unknown player in second position called 2,000 out of his 8,500 stack. The player in third position folded and Hero looked down at Ad-Kd in the lojack seat. With a 24,000 stack, he decided to 3-bet to 6,000. …
Calling an All-In with a Flush Draw Read More »
A few hours into day 1 of the World Poker Tour Championship, I found myself with only 29,000 out of my 50,000 starting stack. I resolved to remain calm and play my best. It is quite common to see players lose their minds when they lose half their stack. I still had 75 big blinds!
Eventually, I looked down and found Ts-Tc on the button and raised to 1,000 out of my 29,000 stack at 200/400-50. …
Staying Out of Trouble in the WPT Championship Read More »
Like most of you, whenever the WSOP being broadcast on PokerGo or ESPN, I was in front of my TV. There was lots of exciting poker and many great plays, as well as some plays that were not so great. In this article, I am going to explain two mistakes that were committed late during the Main Event final table that resulted in one player losing over $166,000 in equity. If you diligently study situations like this, you will be better prepared to make profitable decisions when you are fortunate enough to make a deep run so you don’t spew equity all over the place. …
The $166,000 Short Stacked Mistake Read More »
I recently had the pleasure of playing in the European Poker Tour series in Barcelona, Spain. My trip started out horribly, with me losing with numerous three-of-a-kinds and two-pairs. However, I maintained my sanity and ended up making a deep run in my last tournament of the series, a €2,200 deep-stacked event. …
Slow Playing when Short Stacked Read More »
Day 1 of the 2017 WSOP Main Event went about as well as possible for me. I correctly assessed most of my opponents’ tendencies and played a strategy designed to take advantage of their mistakes. I called down the overly aggressive players with a wide range and made big folds against the straightforward players when they decided to put a lot of money in the pot. I ended day 1 with four starting stacks, 211,300, which was good for fourth place in my portion of the field going into day 2a. …
Folding a Flush in the WSOP Main Event Read More »
The World Series of Poker Main Event is upon us, so today I wanted to share a key hand I played in the 2014 WSOP Main Event that propelled me into cashing for $22,678.
On Day 3, I had 100,000 chips (we started the tournament with 30,000 chips) at 2,000/4,000 blinds with a 500. I was fortunate enough to wake up with A-A on the button. Everyone folded around to me and I made my standard raise to two big blinds, 8,000. …
Fun hand from the WSOP Main Event Read More »
A while back I had the opportunity to play in the €5300 European Poker Tour Malta main event. Things were going reasonably well. I had built my 30,000 starting stack up to 80,000 when the following hand took place. My opponent in this hand is a world-class player who regularly takes creative betting lines. While he generally plays a tight, aggressive strategy, he is certainly capable of getting well out of line if he thinks the time is right. …
Tough spot against a creative player Read More »
The following hand is from a $1,500 buy-in World Series of Poker event. Up until this point, I was extremely card dead. I actually only played three pots that went to the flop in the first three hours of play. When you happen to get relatively few playable hands, it is usually a good idea to attempt an intelligent, well-timed bluff, especially if your opponents realize that you have been tight and will give you more “respect” than usual. …
I recently played an interesting hand in a $1,500 buy-in live tournament. Everyone started with 15,000 chips at 50/100 with hour-long levels, meaning there was lots of time to hang out and wait for strong hands. I realized that everyone at my table was implementing that strategy so I quickly adjusted and decided to attempt to steal every pot once it was clear no one was interested in winning. This allowed me to double my starting stack within three hours with almost no risk, which is always an amazing result. You will find that when you are constantly pushing your opponents around, your observant opponents will eventually assume that you are overly wild and may adjust. …
Playing fast and slow Read More »
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