Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (12 page)

There are numerous situations where your hand may appear strong but it is actually far behind your opponent’s range. Suppose someone raises from first position and you know he is very tight, raising only A-A to Q-Q and A-K. If you call with 9
-7
and the board comes A
-K
-7
, you should fold to a bet every time. Suppose you call and the turn is a 9.

If he bets again, you should again fold because you are behind every hand he could have except Q-Q. If however, the raiser is a maniac who raises from late position, you can be happy getting a lot of money in with 9-7 on an A-K-7-9 board because he could be betting strongly with many hands you have crushed.

Think about what hands your opponent could have and you will avoid the standard situation weak players face constantly because they can’t fold a hand that is high on the hand-ranking chart when the board comes out scary. Don’t fold something like top pair, top kicker when you certainly have your opponent’s range crushed.

Do Not Play Robotically

When you play online, it is easy to fall into a routine in which you always play a specific starting hand the same way. It is easy to stop thinking about your opponents and only pay attention to your cards. You must constantly analyze why you are making a decision. If you start ignoring information, such as your opponent’s pre-flop raise percentage or stack size, you will start making mistakes. Eventually, you will go into autopilot, which will turn most profitable players into break-even players and most break-even players into huge losers. This doesn’t just happen to online players, either. If you play live tournaments and focus on things other than the poker game, you can easily go into autopilot as well.

I have been guilty of falling into a robotic playing style. For about three months a few years back I decided to work on my full-ring game by multi-tabling cash games online. I start playing nine tables, which I had no problem with. After a while, I was playing 24 tables at the same time. While I was still winning a small amount of money, it wasn’t improving my poker game. I was just mindlessly grinding. The whole reason I play the various forms of holdem, like sitngos, six-handed cash games, nine-handed cash games, etc., is to become a better all-around holdem player. I don’t play these games to make money, even though that is a nice side benefit. If you aren’t focusing on the game, you are basically playing to pass the time.

If you want to improve your game, play few enough tables that you can still concentrate on what is going on. You must be able to follow every hand and actively put each player on a range. You need to pay attention to every detail about the table while you are playing, such as your opponent’s statistics, everyone’s stack size and the payout structure if you’re playing a tournament. Some players can only do this while playing four tables at a time. I find that once I play more than nine tables or so, I shift to autopilot. This problem has a simple solution. Don’t play more tables than you can handle without playing like a robot. In live poker, don’t do things that can distract you from the game, such as watching sports or texting on your phone. If you actively put players on ranges and generate reads, your poker skill set will grow rapidly.

Image

Your image is how everyone else at the table perceives you. If you have folded every hand for an hour, you should expect most of your opponents to fold next time you raise, as long as you aren’t too deep-stacked, whereas if you have been raising every hand, expect them to play back at you. Throughout the tournament, your image will change constantly. If you fold every hand for 30 minutes and then raise, even if you were loose earlier, you will get respect. If, after folding every hand for 30 minutes, you raise the next five hands, you should expect opponents to play back at you. Knowing what everyone thinks of you will greatly increase your equity in any tournament.

Players often talk about how tight they have been playing without noting how many hands they have actually played. Let’s say you have played 15 premium hands over the last 20 hands, with none of them going to showdown. While you know you have been playing a tight game, everyone else will likely think you are a maniac, as you have played 75 percent of your last 20 hands. Similarly, if you fold every hand due to a string of poor cards, you will appear to be playing tight and will get the pre-flop respect accorded most tight players. Not knowing your image, or assuming you have a different image than you actually do, can cost you lots of chips.

At the Foxwoods World Poker Tour event I won, I had been playing my standard, aggressive game all day, not being overly tight or overly loose. We just got back from a break and I picked up 10-10 in the big blind. Daniel Negreanu raised from late position, I re-raised and he folded. The very next hand I picked up A-K in the small blind. Daniel raised and I re-raised again. I could tell he was getting a tad frustrated, as I had re-raised him a few times earlier in the day as well. He thought for a while and called. The flop came K-x-x. I took my time and made a standard continuation bet. I noticed myself shaking a little, as a large crowd always closely watches Daniel’s play and I tend to get a little nervous deep in huge buy-in tournaments. I was pretty annoyed at my shaking and hoped he did not pick up on it. He thought for a while before putting in a raise that left him with only about 20BBs left, essentially committing himself to going all-in. Despite knowing he was committed to the hand, I pushed all-in, as top pair, top kicker is usually a monster in a re-raised pot when your opponent thinks you are playing loose. He folded quickly and I won a large pot with no showdown, which is one of the best things that can happen for you in poker. The image I had cultivated by re-raising the hand before probably won me that large extra bet.

While it is necessary to know your image, you should also be aware of what your opponents think their image is. If you are playing against an opponent that is normally tight and straightforward and you see him playing a few more hands than normal, it is probably because he is getting a better than average distribution of cards. Do not fall prey to variance by assuming he’s changed his game and become a loose player when he’s been tight every other time you have played with him. Pay careful attention to all hands that are shown down, so if you see him showing up with 8-6s when he raised from early position, you can start to assume he’s loosened up his game. If he only shows down premium hands, you should assume he’s just getting good cards.

Most good players are keenly aware of how they are perceived. I usually go out of my way to create a fairly loose image early in a tournament and also whenever I get moved to a new table that is not going to break for a while. I have the advantage of being a young kid, which automatically makes players think I am loose. I go out of my way to create a loose image so I can play fairly tight later and get in as a big favorite for a lot of chips. It is usually fairly cheap to make a few pre-flop raises early in a WPT event where you start with 300 big blinds. You may lose 10BBs or so, but you will have cultivated an image that will get you all-in as a 60-percent or greater favorite for the other 290 big blinds. I usually do this by raising basically any hand I would play from late position besides big unsuited cards from any position, and then play the hand straightforwardly from there. When my opponents see me raising 9-7s from first position, they tend to assume I will do that for the rest of the tournament, whereas in reality, I will be playing a fairly tight range under the gun.

Do not go overboard with these plays, as after a few times, your opponents will think you are loose and will stick to that read for years. Also, do not lose too many chips making these plays. There is nothing worse than losing half your stack early in a deep-stacked tournament in an avoidable spot. These plays work best in the biggest buy-in events, both live and online, because it is okay to gamble a little more than usual in the early levels, as it costs a small percentage of your stack. Once you get down to 75 big blinds or less, I suggest you take these advertisement plays out of your game and play your normal strategy.

If you decide to create an image for yourself, realize that all players at the table may not be paying attention. One good example is a player watching a sports game while not involved in your advertising hand. If he has no clue what is going on in the hand, do not expect him to make a play later based on the false information you tried so hard to provide. Also, remember which players have seen you make these image plays in previous tournaments. When a player generates a read on you, he will usually remember it for a long time, or until you do something drastic to show that his read is incorrect.