What Tiffany Willaimson did right
 

It is easy to focus on her mistakes, since she is obviously not a skilled player. But how did she get as far as she did? I can't be all luck.

I noticed she said in the official WSOP ESPN thread that she played tight aggresive. What percentage of the nonpros at the WSOP can you say that about?

It seemed like in the later stages she was a loose reraiser preflop. She was trying to avoid postflop play at which she was at a major disadvantage. It is possible to steal a lot of decent sized pots with this approach. Plus she is likely to get action for her big hands. She also sets up big gambles which give her a chance to get lucky.

I know everyone thinks it's amazing that she took so long to fold KJs to a 3rd raise allin by the Shiek and call with AJo to a third raise allin by Raymer. However, we don't know what kind of pot odds she was getting. Plus she was making loose reraises and her strong aggressive opponents may not have had the monster hands they had.

It is probable that she did not play quite this way earlier in the tournament. Here reraise strategy was probably an adaption to play with strong opponents and relatively shallow money.

Sklansky in TPFAP indicates that going allin a lot is the best way for a weak player to finish well in the WSOP.

Re: What Tiffany Willaimson did right
 

The reason she was calling/raising with so many weaker hands was so that she would lose a bunch of chips, and thus get more +EV opportunities.

Re: What Tiffany Willaimson did right
 

Stop defending her. She is terrible, she sucks, everything she did right was done unintentionally.

Re: What Tiffany Willaimson did right
 

[ QUOTE ]
It is easy to focus on her mistakes, since she is obviously not a skilled player. But how did she get as far as she did? I can't be all luck.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes it can. Out of over 5,000 players it's no huge longshot that one will make the final few tables just by repeatedly getting lucky on all-ins. During her endless stall with the Shiek she even said she had doubled up with the the same hand (KJs) previously. Sounds like she probably got lucky on that one, my guess is her KJs wasn't ahead preflop that time either.

My problem wasn't with her good luck or her questionable calls. She just seemed really irritating, at least based on the hands they showed on espn. You could see the other players rolling their eyes during her stalling, and when she demanded a count of Raymer's chips after he had just told her exactly how many he had.

Re: What Tiffany Willaimson did right
 

there's no way she was getting pot odds to call a raise, reraise, third raise with KJ.

there's just no way.

if the blinds were a theoretical 1/2 and all raises were min-raises, then there'd be 3 in from the blinds, and raises of 4, 6, and 8. she'd need to call 8 to win 21, that's 2.5-1, with several left to act and 2 candidates for a call.

I can't find any way for her to rationalize how long she took there.

now, i switch sides. she finished in the top 20 out of 5600(is that right) by getting lucky, and only by getting lucky? i pass.

Re: What Tiffany Willaimson did right
 

How she accumulated chips I am not sure. I know she won a big pot with AA over KK. My theory is that early on many viewed her as weak tight because she was a rookie woman. They mislabeled her as she really was a calling station which are very dangerous if they hit cards. I know Juanda bluffed off alot of chips to here on an outer table.

By the featured table Pro's had recognized that she was in push/fold mode preflop and was a bit of a calling station and thus any time she would enter a hand and they had a premium holding they would then overbet all in with because they knew she had problem folding any hand with an A or K in it and would get into the the pot as a huge dog. She wasn't getting pot odds, believe me.

Remember that part of her rationale for calling with KJ is that she had double up with it earlier on an all in call preflop. Which is complete rookie/favorite hand thinking.

The only thing she was doing right was attempting to play an all in/fold format later in the tourney because of her skill level. But I think that it can easily be argued that she didn't even know how to play that strategy correctly as she went all in as a dog with AQ, AJ, A7 and almost KJ, yet still lucked out and won 2/3. But at the very least by gambeling preflop she never got her money in drawing dead which many that got ousted from the WSOP did.

Re: What Tiffany Willaimson did right
 

I noticed that after she flopped an Ace in the QQ vs. A7 hand and went on to win that hand, that her celebration was 'done right'. That's more than can be said about many of the players.

IMO, the only thing she did wrong was take too long. She may not have played stellar poker every hand but she played to the best of her ability which is about all anyone can do. I actually like the way she stood up to Shawn when he instantly called the clock on her (while she was waiting for an 'accurate' chip count) and then proceeded to take the time she felt she needed.

Re: What Tiffany Willaimson did right *DELETED*
 

Post deleted by Dynasty

Re: What Tiffany Willaimson did right
 

the pros aren't trying to bully someone calling allin with A7 (for the love of god) or AJ after it went raise, reraise, reraise. No Pro is bullying this person. If they are trying to run her over they are running her over with the best hand by a large margin (no pro regardless of what Paul Phillips say is looking to go 55/45 coinflips with pocket 4's against her, at this stage and her stacks).

So I don't consider it trying to run over someone with the significantly better hand.


What she did right? About 400,000 things she did right.

Re: What Tiffany Willaimson did right
 

I think she was right to object to having the clock called on her immediately when Raymer's chips were being counted.

Other than that, ESPN didn't really show anything she did right.

Sklansky talks about moving all-in as a strategy for a weak player in a tournament, NOT calling all-ins with garbage hands like weak A's and KJ (which is what she seemed to be doing in the hands that espn showed).