Best tournament I ever played 9th place so far, PLAY TO WIN!

[winky51]

I keep playing my local live tournaments at the indians. Usually they are 4000 chips or 2000 chips with 30 or 20 min blinds. Their blind structure is very nice going up slowly.

I've gotta 3rd, 7th, and now 9th place out of the 7 times I played in it. Ironically this 9th place was the best tournament I ever played.

In the smaller 2000 chips tournaments it is my belief you have to win about 5 all ins to make the final table. 2000 chips means no deep stacks so you have to get lucky or make moves decently fast. Sadly in this tournament I had no cards for most of the night. In the 5 hours I played I saw only 33, 55, 88, AQx3, AKx2, ATsx2, AT. I recently read Eric L.s book on WPT poker. It had some good advise on tournament play and strategy for moving up the ladder. I digested this for a while and the book inspired me to try someting new. Usually in the past I have been a survivalist but I started, changing, evolving into an accumulator... becoming more and more aggressive but not to the point of recklessness. In this tournament the only way I could accumulate chips was to steal from opponents before my stack was too low to be any threat. I targeted the right weak/tight opponents at the right times reading their preflop action before it was my turn to act. By analyzing their tells, personalities, playing styles, motivations, and chip stacks, I stole successfully everytime. I couldnt believe it. Mind you I only stole with hands that on average were ahead of the blinds if even marginally or combined with the steal it was worth it. K8o, A6o, QTo, J9o, Q7s. Trash I would fold and if in the SB I would show. I wanted them to know I am not raising with T5o or a junk hand like that.

Did they look interested in their cards?
Were they tight?
Did they want to make the money and not risk it being knocked out on the bubble?
Their chips stacks compared to mine?
Were they on a steal when they raise? (funny enough no one ever tryed to steal w/o a solid hand vs me) No one limped in my BB from the SB either because if I had something above average I would always raise)

Added all these things together to make the optimal steal attempts. Twice I had to make decisions on players allin with some marginal hands. I was getting 5:1 to call and both times I was right about the crap they pushed with through pot odds and a little jibber-jabber. At strategic points I would show my hands to players to let them know what I am NOT stealing with and what it looks like I am. I had my opponents so confused I had a guy once fold JJ to my steal. I knew he was tight, it was the bubble, and he had a stack the size of mine. All I had was K8o. If he lost I would have crippled him and he wanted to survive.

Once I dodged a fatal bullete not calling a CO raise with 66. Opponent had 77. Another time I folded AQ in MP3 to a tight raiser in MP2 he had AK. My judgements about my players were right on. I figured out another player's starting hand when his play seemed fishy. I had a decent chip stack at this point around 15x the BB.

He was a decent player, and had seen me make some odds call getting 5:1 or 6:1 on my money (antes at this point). He knew I was aggressive. He took his time thinking then raised 2x from MP2. "What the hell was this" I thought? "Why is he raising 2x" I started talking to him but no responses, He just looked at me. He never looks at his opponents when he raises and he always raises 3x. He was very relaxed. I told him I thought he had aces and I folded. He flashed the aces and I felt good about my read. Now if our stacked were deep you can bet I would call with my Q4s. Because I knew if I would have hit, I would have had his stack. But to flop what I wanted was lower odds than his stack and the pot odds. I also knew hed push all in on the flop so a draw would do me no good.


Now mind you in all this blind stealing I had to get lucky to get to the final table. But I was only behind once with my hands. If I had not been so aggressive attacking the blinds with my marginal hands I would have never made it. If I sat back waiting for solid hands I would have walked home early.

One of the more interesting SS moves I made in the tournament was with K7o. I was watching the blinds on the BUT and they seemed uninterested in their hands. The UTG player was an indian fellow that played pretty conservatively and limped in but he played well and he had a big stack. All folded to me. He seemed like he liked his hand and I didnt sense something big. I know if he had a good K or A he would have raised. He would never limp with ace crap. At this point we were down to 7 players at this table after a few got knocked out. So his UTG position was really MP2. My stack at this point was 3.5x the BB. I took a while trying to figure out what he limped with.

22-66: maybe but I never seem him limp with low pairs in the 2 tournaments I played him with
Ax crap: never
KQ, KJ, 77+, AT-A7s: his position justified he raise.
So I figured he limped with a hand like QTs, QJ, KTs, JTs.
I also knew if I pushed he'd call and I would get a nice pot if I won. I figured I was ahead.

I pushed, he thoguth for a second, called and flipped over QJs, my hand held up to win. Now some of you might think I'm crazy but I considered that I was going to steal anyways and I was 75% certain I had the better hands from a middle position limper. 3x the BB is not much so this was a good way to almost triple up while ahead.

So now I am shifting to an accumulator strategy. Win or go home, not slide into the money. Now I am not saying to be reckless but to make moves before your stack is so small that you are no longer a real threat. Thats the point I am making. With a stack of 6-10x the BB you can still make others fold and stay ahead of the blind race. Don't let yourself get to low.

As for the final table? Had 30k in chips and 3rd place for chips. When the dealt for the button I got the BB for an immidiate 6000 chip hit. So in 2 hands I was down to under 20k and being the short stack. Ran into aces and I was gone. Oh well. But despite my 9th place finish for me it was the best tournament I ever played. No cards and I still made the final table because I played to win.

Anyways wanted to share this with you all.