Flaw in Sam Farha's game

[Walter Pullis]

Sam Farha plays NLHE as if he was playing pot-limit Omaha. Of course in Omaha you want to see a lot of flops, but I don't think this works in NLHE.
I'm amazed he finished second in last year's main event.
Interesting that none of the analysts point this out. I guess they don't want to criticize anyone's play

[unfrgvn]

I think he and Daniel N. both felt like they could outplay their opponets post flop, so they wanted in a lot of hands. Based on what was shown, I think both of them over did it. The other problem was most of the time the other players weren't flopping nothing, they had a least a piece of it which made it tough to move them off their hands.

[scotnt73]

if you are that good post flop you can play that many hands. its not my style but im also no that good post flop [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[ZootMurph]

I think Farha was trying too hard to let the amateurs make mistakes by calling along, and Negreanu was trying too hard to bully people. Especially on the first day, you have to just play the stack-building game.

[J.R.]

Of course in Omaha you want to see a lot of flops, but I don't think this works in NLHE.

Not when the NLHE is played with deep stacks and you play well postflop or your opponents do not play well postflop.

[JalKelly]

In last year's coverage Norman Chad did comment quite a bit on how many hand's Farha played. I think one fo the quotes was that he would play a hand even if he was going to the bathroom.

[Moovyz]

I've been playing NLHE for a long time. It's a common trait among strong players to play many hands early to build a stack that'll get you through the middle rounds during a dry spell. Most pots are multi-way and offer tremendous odds. Later, things tighten up and you're lucky to get even money against stronger players.

Almost every event I've won, or seen strong players win, this was the way in the early rounds.

As I said in the other thread, Sam plays alot of hands anyway, but that part was ok. I think he lacked the concentration of last year due to his "celebrity" status.

[Cornbread Maxwell]

It is unclear what exactly defines a 'deep stack' in tournament poker. From my perspective, the only time where the stacks are that deep in the WSOP is at the beginning, when blinds are 25/50 and each player has 10,000 in chips (200 BBs). After the first two hours, the blinds go up to 50/100 and the stacks are no longer deep enough to be playing a ton of flops with marginal hands, unless you have significantly increased the size of your stack during the first level.

The problem with playing marginal hands early on, especially facing a raise, is if you miss a ton of flops in a row and whittle your stack down to maybe 7000-8000. Now what happens if you get a huge hand and double up, you will only have 14000-16000 in chips. If you had waited for the huge hand and not played so many weak hands to begin with, you could be looking at 18000-20000 in chips.

Once you have enough to cover most of the table, now you can begin playing marginal hands, because you will have most players covered anyway, and if you do get in a situation where all of your chips are in the pot, you will most likely not be risking your tournament life on the hand, unless of course the other player happens to have you covered.

My general strategy in the WSOP would be to play tight early and play for hands that can easily make the nuts, and NOT make loose cals with KQo, Q2s, A5s etc. If, by some good fortune, I were able to double up early, then I would loosen up my game a bit.

I thought Negreanu played terribly, at least during the hands that were shown.

[Sundevils21]

nobodys game is completely flawless. Sam's approach doesn't always work. Niether does negreanu's, brunson's, ivey's, lederer's, harrington's...ect

[cornell2005]

[ QUOTE ]
Sam Farha plays NLHE as if he was playing pot-limit Omaha. Of course in Omaha you want to see a lot of flops, but I don't think this works in NLHE.
I'm amazed he finished second in last year's main event.
Interesting that none of the analysts point this out. I guess they don't want to criticize anyone's play

[/ QUOTE ]

im willing to bet 100:1 you dont play nlhe at a high or medium level. this post is insane. no offense.