2014 for me was the year that it all came together. The previous years and years of playing, studying, thinking - obsessing - about the game, the game that is No Limit Texas Hold-Em Tournament Poker; have just now, at the end of this year, finally started to pay off.
I have genuinely reached the point in my game when I can turn my brain off to a certain extent and relax - and let the mantra consume me. "See ball. Hit ball." I've reached the place that Roberto Clemente talked about - I've worked enough, studied enough, absorbed enough. The game is on, it's time to let go and let the training take over. See ball. Hit ball.
By letting the information flow naturally, not forcing it - I'm free to concentrate on yet more variables; especially live tells. I am more than ever, consciously trying to get into the head spaces of the players around me. I can concentrate on "taking a read" on an opponents demeanor. Is he comfortable? Is he happy? Tilted? Angry? I look at these things specifically, and let my training take over on the other stuff.
Bet sizing, betting tells, betting patterns - including previous hands and their patterns - these have all become second nature to me. So too has stack sizes, mine and my opponents, their commitment thresholds and mine. How much pressure to apply to get someone off a medium strength hand. Don't have to really think about this anymore. And so, armed with this recent automatic flow of information, I have become a formidable poker player in the tournament arena.
This last holiday, I played three tournaments in three days. Three tournaments, three cashes, including my first ever absolute and utter take down.
First up was the $120 nooner at the fabulous Hollywood Park Casino. It took me awhile to warm up, but once I did I was able to play well and slough off being utterly card dead and rather snake bit. I squeaked into a min-cash, a nice bubble safety that the regulars at HPC always push for.
The next day, it was the Bike nooner. A $55 freeze-out (with re-entries of course) that typically makes it's 2.5K guarantee easily. With 91 runners, this one was no exception.
Once again it was slow going to start - I got tangled in a couple of ill advised tussles, but emerged unscathed enough to accumulate chips in the doldrum mid stages. But by 'slow start' I don't mean I sat back and played patient. I have finally shaken off the incorrect notion that it is right to be tight in the opening stages of low entry tournaments. When it's $100 or less with a fast-ish structure and 20 minute levels, there is no time to wait.
In 90% of the tournaments I play in, I don't wait to get involved - I get active, quickly. Chip accumulation has to start early in these events; and I now know more than ever that even more important that actually gathering chips, is planting the seeds at the table so that everyone is thinking "Who the fuck is this guy? He watches too much TV. I'm going to get top pair and NEVER FOLD."
It is crucial, for this to work, that the table be passive. I find in the lower buy in events, this is almost always the case. I get active quick, so I can get to plundering - but as long as I am careful, it doesn't matter that I win every pot. It is important though that I show my busted bluffs and weak starting cards.
Then, once the image is built, as it was on day 2 for me - it is only a matter of time until I get all the chippies. A grumpy button had finally had enough with my three bets and four bet shoved over 60 bigs, I snapped with KK. He had A10 which didn't hit.
A similar hand happened later as the money approached. A different grouch, but he again had a middling Ace that he called with to my 3 bet shove with QQ. My hand held and I was in a very good spot at the final table.
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| Over 175K at the final table in the Bike $55 daily. |
In this kind of tournament, playing TAG will get you a whole heck of a lot of min-cashes, and a whole heck of a lot of busting out 2/3 of the way through the tournament with no money in sight. Most agonizing of all, when you do wake up with a rare premium hand, more often than not you won't get paid.
In my opinion, which is founded on 8 years of semi-serious tournament experience at this point, LAG is really the only way to play these things; especially if your table is older and more passive. I bet, bet, bet and bet again - hardly ever limping - until they can't stands it no more; and I use my post flop skills (the aforementioned "see ball, hit ball" state of mind) to minimize my losses and/or maximize my wins - and occasionally take pots away with the worst hand.
In this second tournament it was really starting to crystalize - as you can see by my stack above when it was final table time. I was third in chips and had my eyeball firmly planted on the 1K + first prize.
Unfortunately I boned a hand early on that knocked me down a bit. I likely had less than a dozen big blinds when we all agreed to chop and I took down a not too bad $380 in fourth position of six remaining players.
Anyways - the hand. A micro stack in EP shoved all for less than a big blind and got one caller right away. I justified a fairly bad call in the hijack with A5os. This was a pretty big mistake because then of course the cutoff, button and both blinds came along. Six players plus another already all in. Blech. A recipe for disaster.
Now here is where most recreational players would say "check it down" and knock out a player to climb up the ladder. Well my degenerate brain doesn't' really work that way. As the flop came, I knew the pot was bloated, a large amount of precious big blinds and antes now bubbled in a juicy side pot - ripe for the taking. The micro-stacked player that was all in had less than a big blind, matched 6 ways, in the main.
The flop came with an Ace and a Five and two cards to a flush. The first player checked to me, I jammed. Too much money out there to let someone catch up, I likely had the best hand and I was getting all those chippies now.
The cutoff and button grumpily folded. Doesn't this a-hole know to check it down?
The small blind tanked and tanked. Really dude? You're going to call off your tournament life with a flush draw? Yep. He did it. And yep, he had a monster draw - a gut shot and a six high flush draw.
The BB folded and the board ran out - he spiked his baby flush immediately on the turn of course, and I was not quite crippled, but powerless to play any real poker until the aforementioned deal a half hour later.
I of course got lectured on my bad play, by the remaining big stacks. "Dude, check it down and let him bust."
Right. And surrender all that side pot equity in favor of letting a micro stack hang around for another ten minutes. Good idea.
Anyways, I was back for more the following day, with my compatriot Cali Al in tow this time.
This time around we only had 80 entries, so the prize pool was smaller. Also, Cali and I were a bit early, so we were seated at the very first table, which was full of other strictly recreational players who likely play mostly in home games.
It was truly one of the more passive and genuinely brain damaged group I had ever sat down with. Friendly enough at least.
I immediately started with the shenanigans, and the bulk of the table was fed up after only two or three of my sloppy stabbings.
As always, I eschewed limping for three betting large. This really worked out early on when I three bet from the cutoff, nice and chunky and got four callers. I flopped top pair, it was checked to me and I c-bet nice and juicy. All but the big blind folded.
This big blind was a special kind of home gamer that I have run into before. ULTRA passive and loose, and believes that everyone is trying to bully her. Her instances of success mostly come from snapping off maniacs like myself.
I value bet the shit out of her on the turn when it blanked and shoved the apparently harmless river which she instantly called off all her chips with. "Uh-oh" I thought... "I may be in trouble here."
Nope. She had second pair and was crippled. I had doubled up.
I firmly believe I would never have gotten all of that cheddar if I hadn't been dicking around on earlier hands.
Fish may be fishy, but they are more than capable of pegging someone like me as a maniac very quickly, and will put their minds to looking me up at all costs. They very much go out of their way to get involved, usually out of position, against the guy who watches too much poker on TV. Thank goodness for this. It is one of the easiest ways to accumulate chips without premium hands early on in a tournament.
Speaking of dicking around. A few hands later my friend Cali, who was three seats to my right, slung an over sized chip in after a few limpers and then said "raise". The table had a good laugh at his expense; he's a very good player, but hasn't played live in almost two months and much longer than that since his last foray into a card room.
So I got to limp with my 72 in the small blind and smash two pair on the flop.
My fishy friend from earlier called my chunky donk bet on the flop, and Cali reluctantly folded his aces or kings. I then checked the blank turn and by God she did fire with over half her remaining chips. I happily shipped it and then she tanked.
So help me God, with 3/4 of her chips already in the pot, she had to think about it. She finally slid the chips in and turned up a wired pair of fives. My two pair held and she was gone. I silently stacked my chips as Cali stewed in his juices.
A while later, a swarthy fellow whom I've never seen in my life but played with hundreds of times sat down on my immediate right. He was the first of many more serious players that would eventually replace all the rec players at my table.
We got tangled up early. He limped, I three bet chunky. He apparently didn't get the memo, that if he called he was supposed to fold or call my c-bet. He check raise shipped on me, an absurd over bet that I unfortunately couldn't call with zip and pip. I couldn't help but smirk a little and say "Okay, let me think about it." as I turbo mucked. I then made a little "hmm" with a cocked head, yes I was a bit irritated at his pointless play, which would earn him the minimum in value and maximum in loss if I had hit. He picked right up on my aggravation and responded in a thick Eastern European accent...
"You watch too much TV."
Yes. Yes I do sir.
So I resolved to pretty much avoid him as there were still plenty of ripe targets.
Eventually Cali waited way to long to get to shoving and had zero fold equity when he finally did and lost his race.
Time passed and I had no choice but to play more snug as better and better players sat down.
Too much TV guy actually turned out to be super tight, he barely played a hand. Turned out he had likely shipped on me with a set or an overpair.
At some point a young buck sat in the empty seat between me and TV Guy. He was a motor mouth semi-pro who proceeded to pull a Chris Manzoni with everyone else, me included.
Only problem for him was, the second time he raised my big I had A10 and was never ever folding. I three bet him chunky-ish (more of a standard 3x the size of his raise 3 bet) and he flatted. The board came all low and he ripped. I snapped. He had me covered.
We both turned over the same hand. He was shocked at my call and said so. "Sorry dude, actual poker player in this seat..." I muttered. He smirked, relieved to be chopping, as was I.
So he mostly avoided me after that. He pillaged a bit, but was unable to climb back up by the time I three bet shoved on him with AQ and he called off with deuces. Terrible call that saw him bust and donate the rest of his bullets to me.
The money approached and I sat on a whole grip o' chips. With uber active motor mouth gone, I could get back on the stick, so to speak; and I found that my maniacal image was still intact as I took a few minor hits from non-believers. Then I woke up with KK and got it all in pre-flop when a sweaty regular decided it was time to take a stand with QJ.
Well done sir, you're doing it.
I know had well over 50 bigs, at a time when the avg. stack was closer to 15. Because I had just played this tournament the day before, I knew I could fold my way to the final table and still be healthy when I got there. This really took the pressure off of me to remain active, and yet I didn't allow myself to pass up juicy spots when they arose, and this is a big difference in my game that has only recently surfaced.
Time was, if I knew I was set to make the final table healthy, I literally would only play QQ or better, even open folding AK. Today, when I'm in the same spot, I let go and let the small ball fly when premium situations, not premium hands, arrive.
If it is folded to me and I'm in the hijack or later, and the targets are good - I will raise with any ace, any broadway cards, any pair, or even a suited gap connector. Then I rely on my post flop skills to extricate me from trouble; this means I don't hesitate to give up with multiple opponents, but I also don't hesitate to c-bet with a favorable board if I'm heads up with an opponent who has been defending light but then fitting and folding.
It was a beautiful 10 8 suited that boated up on the turn that saw me amass a huge double knock out against two recreational players who were not nearly as good as they thought they were. One of them stacked off with an over pair, JJ I believe, that he had flatted with pre-flop to my raise, and the other I believe had a flush draw that he was drawing dead with. I know for a fact I got both of these stacks merged into mine because I hadn't just folded up my tent to wait for the final table. I played maybe half a dozen hands in an hour - and because of this they likely both saw me as a maniac. It also didn't hurt that I had busted the guy who the entire table saw as the biggest maniac of all.
So with that double knock out, we were almost at the final table. Another loud mouth sat down on my right, spewed off half of his stack (unfortunately not to me) and then we were at our final 10.
I immediately looked around and saw that most players were short, and I was one of only 3 that was robust. I was also the chip leader. I proposed we look at the numbers. Loud mouth demurred and so we played on.
When we were at six he finally called for a chip count. He had dwindled, I had actually chipped up, just by virtue of walks and little resistance to my opening raises. With most of my opponents, when I opened a pot - we were playing for stacks right from the get go. So really, I was playing tight - I was only playing hands that I was willing to call a re-ship from the shorties. It worked beautifully.
The numbers were run... and with this stack...
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| Over a quarter million in chips - my biggest stack in recent memory. |
Everyone else agreed to their lesser amounts, including loud mouth who was happy to get $330. Ship it!
All of my tournament poker playing career, I have longed to be That Guy at the table. The one who accumulates without good cards, the one who runs over other players with a smile and avoids dumping off large amounts of chips for no reason. Tuesday night, I WAS that guy.
And it felt great.
My ledger says I'm up almost 2K in profit, which is a fantastic feeling for someone who only plays tournaments. I'm very much looking forward to another year on the felt - hopefully I'll make the WSOP this year. At the very least I'll be heading out to Vegas for sure.
