(Distributed May 2, 2006)
YOU CAN’T WIN A TOURNAMENT IN THE FIRST HOUR
Poker players are superstitious by nature. They have lucky shirts and hats, favorite seats at the table, and “can’t-miss” starting hands such as J-10 suited that they love to play.
For me, it’s unlucky to win the first hand of a tournament. So I wasn’t that happy over the weekend when I took down the first hand of a major two-day online no-limit hold’em event offering a guaranteed $1 million prize pool. I won my way into the tourney through a $15 qualifier, so I liked the payout versus my investment.
My plan was to play conservatively on Day 1, triple my $10,000 starting stack of tournament chips, then open up my game on Day 2 for the race to the final table. That’s not what happened. Unluckily, for me at least, my starting hands during the first 30-minute level were way too good!
Come with me, then, on a recap of my play which proved once again: You can’t win a poker tournament in the first hour.
On that first hand, I was in late position and picked up A-Q, both spades. The blinds — forced bets from the first two players to the left of the dealer button — were $25-$25. Everyone folded around to me. Since A-Q is too strong to just call with in that spot, I raised to $100. Only the big blind called. After a flop of A-9-8, all diamonds, the other player checked, I bet $400 and he folded. We’re off!
Before the first level ended, I was dealt pocket tens, queens and aces, plus pocket nines twice! I allowed myself to think, “Wow, what an easy game!” I should have known better.
I think I misplayed two of those hands by not getting maximum value out of them. Maybe we can learn something together by reviewing what happened.
On the sixth hand of the tournament, I was in the big blind with 10-10. The player to my left was first to act; he raised to $100. Everyone folded back around to me. Normally, when a player “under the gun” raises, it signals a big hand. I decided to re-raise to $300 to find out how strong his hand really was.
He just called. At that point, I figured he also had a pocket pair, probably lower than my tens. With a huge pair such as kings or aces, he likely would have raised back another $500 to $1,000.
The flop was amazing: 10-2-2. I had a full house already! I had to act first and took a few extra seconds deciding whether to bet or to “slow play” my hand by checking. I chose to bet $300, which he quickly called. So far, so good.
The turn, or fourth community card, was the jack of clubs, putting three clubs on the board. At that point, I was hoping his hole cards were the A-K of clubs, a logical hand for him to hold based on the betting so far. If he had the flush, my full house would capture most or all of his chips by the end of the hand! Yummy!
With $1,225 already in the pot, I made an undersized bet of $500, praying he would read that as a sign of weakness. It worked! Bam, he raised to $1,400!
Here’s where I think I misplayed the hand. With my heart pounding, I re-raised to $5,000. I wanted him to call, or perhaps even go all-in so I could double-up. He folded. I won a nice pot, but in hindsight I think I pushed him out of the hand too quickly. I might have won even more of his chips if I hadn’t raised so much.
The other hand I should have played differently was the pocket aces. You only get them an average of once every 220 hands, so it’s critical to get paid off when they arrive. I was in late position and two players had limped (just called the minimum $25 blind bet) in front of me.
I raised to $300. I wanted to thin the field, but hoped one or two players would call, thinking I was trying to steal the pot with an inferior hand. Instead, everyone folded. Those pocket rockets netted me just $100 in chips! I now wish I’d only raised to $150.
In that first 30-minute level I won five of the six quality hands I was dealt and increased my chip stack to about $14,000. Then the bottom dropped out.
Through the next five levels, most of my good hands didn’t hold up. My stack dwindled steadily until I bet my last $1,700 pre-flop with a suited A-10 and lost to the small blind’s J-J. I finished a paltry 536th out of a starting field of 753 — none the richer, but a little bit wiser.
E-mail your poker questions and comments to russ@luckydogpoker.com for use in future columns. To find out more about Russ Scott and read previous LuckyDog Poker columns, visit www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2006 RUSS SCOTT
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