The company the I work at occasionally has poker tournaments for fun. Soup, a good friend of mine, is moving to Fresno, so we had a going away poker tournament. There's a significant difference between a home game and a casino game. In a home game, most people will see flops, call raises and play with anything. It usually means you have to play careful and you can't go in overconfident.
My strategy in this game was threefold:
Position
Great reads
Position
In other words, I want to have position against my opponents. I want to be able to force my opponent into a tough decision rather than bet into a dominated hand. Also, I don't want to risk everything when I don't have a good read on my opponent.
The first half of the tournament was a game of limit hold'em and we hand the blinds move slowly. My main strategy was wait for good hole cards and play aggressive. I got good hands, made straights and took pots. There were some players trying to steal pots. I challenged a few times and took about half. Can't beat a bluff with a worse bluff.
I did play a hand in the dard. I was the big blind and called without looking. The flop came King-Jack-4. I raised and was called. The turn came a rag and I bet again, and my opponent folded.
By the time limit was done, I had the same amount of chips where I started. We moved to no-limit, I knew I had to make a move or I would never make it. Because there was a rebuy in this tournament, I was willing to risk a mediocre hand in order to double up. I took my opportunity with and opened ended straight draw against a set. I lost and came in with a rebuy.
Now, I am back to where I was before I got busted out. I'm going to sit back and wait for my hand. So how many times can a person be dealt 7-2 in a game. Well apparently 7 times seems like a good number. And guess what, if I had played every 7-2, I would be a dominant chip leader. Flopping trips and two pair on three occasions. But of course, I'm mucking 7-2 pre-flop.
Oh well, in the long run, you know you can't win with 7-2. During this time, I'm doing quite nice building my chip stack. I'm playing position and then pouncing when sensing weakness. Stealing blinds and going over the top on weakness.
The Defining Moment of the Night. I can't exactly remember the exact details of the hand, but here's what I remember. I'm in late position and of the 7 of us, 4 people limp in and I'm dealt J-9. Since we have limpers, I limp in as well. The flop comes Ace-5-9 of hearts. Someone may have it their flush. Someone comes in for a standard raise, so I decide to call and see what happens. The turn comes a 9. I hit trips but I know I need a full boat. Well, I now need to know where I stand. It's checked to me so I'm going to make a probe bet and I come in for a standard raise. My friend comes in for a significant raise for about half my remaining chips. After thinking I call off half my chips and the river brings a Jack for my full house. My friend raises me all in and I quickly call to win and basically triple up and I'm the chip leader.
Huge controversy here...kind of. Should I have called on the turn. The answer was yes and the reasoning is pot odds. In fact, when I was raised for half my chips, the question in my mind was not folding, it was whether to go all in or not. My thinking was that by calling, if I missed my draw, I'm still in the game. If I make my hand, I'm the chip leader.
Here's why this was the right call. There's over 100 chips in the pot. I'm raised 20 chips, that's giving me over 6 to 1 on my money. I had 10 outs. I needed to either pair the board, my kicker or hit quad 9's. With ten outs, I need to make at least 5 to 1 on my money, since I was 20% to hit my hand.
Now, it's down to two of us and the remaining players were short stacked. In fact, my heads up opponent knocked the last two players out in the same hand. It was an interesting hand. The winning hand was 5-7. The losing hand was K-Q suited and A-J. Calling with 5-7 was the right move for the chip leader. When two players go all in and you only have to call a small amount with 2 live cards, then you do it. As long as no opponent has a 5 or 7 you can get lucky. And he did, flop brought a 7 and it held up.
Head to Head. I like to play head to head. Anything can happen with any cards. For most of head to head, whoever raised first would win. The one thing I noticed about my heads up opponent was that he was a calling station. I had a hard time getting him to fold.
Last hand. I have 6-9. I call and I'm raised. I call. The flop comes Q-8-6. I go all in. After thinking for quite a long time, he calls. I accomplished what I needed to and that's put my opponent on a tough decision. I did, I just didn't think he'd call. I knew he didn't have the Queen and I was thinking he's wait for another chance to knock me out. Well the turn gave me a double belly buster straight draw and I never made my hand after that. I come in second and I get my two buy-in's back.
So in all of the tournaments I competed in with my fellow co-workers. I've come in 2nd place four times. Hope this helps you.
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