I was watching some Poker After Dark  (season 4) yesterday and I saw a great call from my hero Eli Elezra which I want to show you. The hand starts at around 2′20″ in the fragment below:

The hand becomes a family pot preflop and Elezra and the amateur Dee Tiller are the only players who really catch something on the flop, with Elezra catching middle pair and Tiller with the OESD. Elezra bets his pair on the flop as well as on the turn and both times Tiller just calls, not raising on his draw. Turn as well as river appear to be blanks and Tiller suddenly leads out with a massive overbet on the river: $25k in a $14k pot! The instincts of a lot of players will tell them here that Tiller missed his draw, but you got to have the guts nevertheless to call such enormous bets. Tiller had to know this play couldn’t succeed against Elezra.

My fourteenth tournament ($2+.2) was in fact one big joke. This experience really showed me the aspects of low stakes poker and made clear once more how difficult it is to make profit by playing those tournaments.

It was already during the very first hand of the tournament that I noticed the particular ‘low stakes phenomenon’: there are a lot of loonatics in this tourneys (maybe just searching for some cheap tournament to steam at after a bad beat in a bigger tournament) who just push during the first hands. That makes my knock-out hand a little ironic, as some of my opponents really had a quality hand and it was just time for a little ‘jokerstars’. Watch:

Now WHAT THE F*CK IS HAPPENING HERE? OK, of course this AA vs KK vs QQ thing is a big joke already in the first place. And the fact that the Queens take this pot down is an extra joke. But above all, how bad do those morons play those hands?? Pocket fives minraises an early position raise and calls for whole his stack when it’s reraised two times, pocket Kings just call a reraise preflop and Pocket Queens (which makes a good play when just calling the 200 raise) thinks he’s not against Aces or Kings when three players go all-in preflop… I get so tired of these jokes, when my series are over I will definitely not play those $2 tourneys anymore.

My thirteenth tournament, with a $5+.5 buy-in, was a pretty funny one . I lost a big chunk of my stack thanks to a misclick, then doubled up thanks to this same misclick and subsequently lost almost all my chips again on a serious misread.

It all started in the second blind level, I was about 500 chips up and I wanted to bet 115 chips on the flop after hitting top pair (pot was about 175). Instead my finger slips over to the ‘6′ and suddenly there were 1156 chips of me in the middle . Worst thing is: a player behind me instantly shoves all-in for 1050 chips more . I decided not to go for it with of course some amazed reactions in the chat^^ . But this retarded move paid off two hands later:

So this guy calls my all-in with A high and is crushed like hell, havin only two outs to beat my AK suited. He would certainly never have called if I didn’t make that retarded move earlier. After being moved to another table I lost almost my whole stack on the next hand:

Now I put this guy on two high cards, like AQ, AJ suited or something. That’s why I reraise but he makes a small reraise over the top. I call and after catching an OESD on the turn I’m not going anywhere of course. Well he díd have two high cards, but they were paired… Finished in 66th place, would like to finish in the money again…

* If the tournament is still in its early blind levels, be sure to make BIG preflop raises with your premium starting hands, especially in deepstack tournaments. If you raise it three times the big blind in a regular tournament, make it four or even five times in a deepstack tournament.

* Suppose you’re in a limping pot and you flop two pair on a paired board, for example: you hold 68 and the flops comes TT6. If somebody bets into you, consider making the minimum raise here. This way you gain pot control and it looks very suspicious to your opponent.

* A last tip, especially for online poker: if you raised preflop and you are being minraised on the flop by some amateur, don’t expect it to be some kind of advanced move by this guy: he most likely just hit a monster.

That about says it all: played another $2+.2 tournament a few hours ago and finished in 21st place after some interesting (to say the least) situations.

I’m beginning to learn some specific skills that are required in such tournaments and one important lesson is to try to play a lot of hands when the blinds are still low. So did I, for example:

I even get the button here with my 63 suited. Flop is a welcome surprise and I bet this flop: I’m in last position so people will think easily that I’m trying to steal this one. It obviously works against this guy and he even tries to bluff me off my hand. Notice there’s no value in raising the river here: a bluff won’t call me here, only a hand that beats me. Then I took a small pot with AK before I received a gift in this hand:

For some reason this guy thinks he must shove here against a raise with his KQ off and helped me building up a decent stack. But then I was carddead for a really long period before I lost a big pot with KQ myself: I raised it up preflop and a shortstack shoved with TT. I lost the flip and became a shortstack myself. I doubled up again with QQ against JJ but when the blinds increased, I was becoming short again towards the bubble. That’s when I was eliminated:

I think my only mistake is being made preflop: I should just shove all-in there instead of raising it three times the big blind. Anyway, I shove with a flushdraw and a gutshot but instead my opponent gets runner runner quads…

*If somebody makes a minimal or other small reraise preflop (in position), it’s most likely this player has either AA or KK. This way, he tries to isolate only one opponent he wants to take a flop against.

*If you flop a (low) flushdraw in position on a paired flop: ALWAYS bet it. In this spot, it’s all about what you can represent (so also a flopped set) AND you immediately acquire the information you need from your opponent when he calls you.

*If you dó flop a set on a paired board and the preflop raiser bets into you, you have to take a good look at the texture of the board to see whether you can just call this bet (are there any and how many draws out there?). Otherwise it’s possibly better to raise.

…did I survive during my 11th tournament, a 90 player sng with a $2+.2 buy-in. First I lost a big pot against what I thought was a steamer, and then I got eliminated because I think I was steaming.

So what happened exactly? Well, in the very first hand of the tournament, the player on my left had to face a harsh bad beat. Then the second hand is played:

The same guy immediately reraises the next hand and I know he will push on almost every flop. So I kinda already decide to call when I hit my 5 of course, but also on this kind of flop, with a paired board. A steamer would never push here if he has hit a set of Aces. But he actually had another good hand… Some hands later I get AK:

Kinda frustrated by my earlier beat and the retarded reraise on the button I immediately shove all-in. It happens to be a coinflip situation but I don’t hit my ace or king, finishing in 82nd place. Better next time.

After the ‘big’ deepstack game I returned to the 90 players sng with a $2+.2 buy-in. I did pretty good, but wasn’t able to reach the money, finishing in 18th place.

However, I’m not thát disappointed because I enjoyed playing this tournament. The key hands I selected for you exactly show the interesting aspects of playing deep stack. With the first hand I took down a nice pot in an early phase:

I limp and even call a raise because the blinds are still low and I know exactly what I’m looking for with such a hand. I get a free card which gives me a very good draw. When my opponent makes a very weak bet I raise of course, maybe I can already take the pot right here. Of course when he reraises, my read completely changes: he slowplayed a big hand (hitting my straight might not be good enough anymore). On the river I know my flush is good and make a value bet. A few hands later:

A typical deepstack play: two people want to limp cheaply in late position so I raise. On the flop it’s not difficult to win the pot: whether you hit your hand or the flop comes high cards which you can represent. Then followed a period with a lot of eliminations and I was constantly just below the bubble. I eliminated a guy who went all-in with 33 holding AK myself but then I was eliminated myself with a little bad beat:

This is were deepstack poker backfires: the button is really deepstack and decides to see a flop with Q9 suited. He also knows where he’s looking for and finds it on the flop…

Now this is a move you’ll see a lot when playing tournaments. It’s no coincedence it’s used a lot, because this move has a certain strength (if your stack is still large enough). It’s power is twofold: it can force your opponent to fold his (better) hand right there ánd if you get called you can beat your opponent by making your draw.

This play is perfectly demonstrated by the great Eli Elezra during an episode of Poker After Dark (S02E45). Watch it yourself (first hand):

So Eli flops the nut flushdraw and basically has only two moves left after Allan Cunningham’s continuation bet and Ivey’s raise: going all-in or fold. Now he choses the first option because there was an extra factor involved here: the fact that Phil Ivey was playing fairly aggressive during this tournament. Eli observed this correctly and in that way (with Ivey not even having toppair for example) it would be easier for Ivey to lay down his hand.

I just had a pretty short, but nevertheless very exciting tournament. I played the $8+.8 deepstack sit ‘n go with 90 players but it didn’t really last as long as I prepared for.

So I sat down behind my screen with a bag of chips and a couple of drinks. The tournament started and I was on fire right from the beginning. I got some big hands like AK and AQ and was able to win some rather small pots with them. Then I got an even better hand, pocket cowboys:

So everything worked out perfect, with an opponent having JJ and the flop being covered with all low cards. Especially in a deepstack tournament like this, a double-up is enormous. But then I lost a big pot with those same Kings:

Now at first, I was very mad and screamed things about cold deck to myself but in fact I should have figured he can almost only have QQ or JJ in that spot, flatcalling a reraise preflop. I lost another big pot a few moments later, basically because of tilting a little after this pot (bad plan). Then I got eliminated in the following hand:

I’m quiete convinced that the player on the cut-off is making a move in late position but my stack has become too small to reraise without being committed on the flop, so I shove all-in. I indeed happen to be a  huge favorite but the King flops… So I finish in 76th place after an exciting start of the tournament.