Do Not Slow Play

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. …

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Calling an All-In with a Flush Draw

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. …

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Staying Out of Trouble in the WPT Championship

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. …

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