Mr. Cloutier has taught me nothing about gambling. Can you help out?

[DawnToDusk]

So I have been really trying to improve my tournament game. I have this problem where I play MTT online and get towards the end of the 2nd hour and beginning of the 3rd hour. I am just to low in chips. It seems like I am playing not to lose, but thats what I do a lot of the times. I finish outside of the money (albeit very close) most the times. The times I do get the money its very little. So I have analyzed my game and have come to the conclusion that I play too solid of a game. I just don't have that gamble.

Now I understand my relative chip stack to the size of the blinds, position, and all that other good stuff that you take into account when playing a tourney, but still don't have that gamble. I have been rereading some books I first started to read when I was new to poker (specificly Championship NL and PL Hold'em as well as Championship Hold'em tournament Hands) and have found that those books suggest playing a tighter more solid game. But thats not getting me anywhere.

So I am looking for your help. Can you kind of help define/describe what gambling is. I have some sort of idea and I hear authors/pros/everyone but me talk about it, but I just have no idea what it means really. Does that mean calling a lot of flops with marginal hands and trying to get lucky? Limping in a lot? What exactly is gambling. If you can kind of point me in the right direction I can learn the rest. I have a big tourney coming up on Saturday (200K Guarantee on PP) and want to win it. I am not worried about placing or bubbling or coming dead last. My goal is to win it and I need some of that "gamble" to do so. So please point me in the right direction.

Thanks

[woodguy]

[ QUOTE ]
Mr. Cloutier has taught me nothing about gambling. Can you help out?

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't like craps?

Regards,
Woodguy

[durron597]

[ QUOTE ]
You don't like craps?


[/ QUOTE ]

nh

[Morpheus]

Push in on straight /flush draws. It works for me. Push in when you have a 12-15 outer

[purerealm]

play tighter, meaning limit your preflop calling hands
and play more aggressively with these hands

you always want to define your hand, so make raises that will tell you where you stand with your hand

a good book is Harrington on hold 'em
for tournament play

[DawnToDusk]

Ya. I have been playing fairly tight and I do define my hands. But that only gets me so far. Usually that only gets me finishing outside of the money or just making the money and then busting out.

I am looking for the gamble definition. Its what all those pros have that take them so far. You know how they "gamble" to build up big chip stacks.

[A_PLUS]

Throw out anything related to Tom Mcevoy. Read Harrington on Hold em volumes I and II. Read posts by some aggressive players around here (Woodguy, MLG, Sossman, etc). Check out this link to some old Raymer posts Raymer

[DawnToDusk]

Ya. The books Cloutier and McVoy wrote just are like a straight up "solid" poker tourney book. Haven't been happy with the results of playing that way.

What exactly does the Harrington book exemplify?

[A_PLUS]

The first one describes how you should actually value a hand. Adjusting you range of hands, vs the type of opponent etc. Everyone knows Harrington is supposed to by tight, and he looks like Tuan Le compared to what TJ recomends.

The 2nd book describes various bluffs, and how to adjust your strategy as you stack size decreases (inflection points)

[purerealm]

the harrington book gets you thinking into the mode of analysis that you should be in. besides pot odds vs card odds and all the math involved, it also makes you think about your image, other players' image, analyzing how they play how you play etc