I was happy to double up already very early in the tournament, after just a few hands:

I think I play this hand by the book. I flop top two and it’s immediately clear to me that my opponent also has a good hand, top pair, two pair or the nut flush draw and I extract the maximum value. Then I was carddead for a while and I observed a lot of retarded moves at the table (call an all-in preflop with Q8 off, pay somebody till the river with toppair on a board full of draws,…). Then it was my moment to receive my portion of donkament chips:

This guy doesn’t give me credit for a hand, during a period I hardly played a hand. I don’t get it anyway why people can call an all-in with KQ: what can you beat, really? Then I was carddead for a very long period and I was able to steal a few pots because of my tight image. However I was a few places below the bubble all the time. But then I received another donkament and was able to reach the money and even the final table. I didn’t receive a lot of quality hands, but there was a lot of action on the table, with people quickly disappearing. With six people left I won an important pot, knocking out an opponent:

I was a little scared when he picked up a flush draw on the turn, but everything turned out as it should be. Another one went home and then (when i was third in chips) I reraised someone all-in with KdQd but the other guy happened to have Aces which I couldn’t beat. Anyway, this cash out gave me confidence again.

* If you’re in the final phase of a tournament (and most likely not deepstack anymore, considering the high blinds), you better fold the mediocre suited connectors preflop in an early position. Those hands are perfectly suited for situations where you can win a lot of big blinds in a pot with a lot players. Those situations don’t arise that much in this stage of a tourney.

* If you are in the ‘bubble stage’ of a tournament with a decent stack, use it. Try to play VERY tight aggressive preflop (with a good hand selection) and you will finish without much problems in the money and will be able to fight for tournament victory without becoming shortstacked. If you’ll just wait it out till you’ll be in the money without playing too many hands, you won’t be making too much profit in the long run because you’ll be eliminated a lot of times just after the bubble.

After all, I played a véry solid tournament. I won my first big pot with A8 suited, which I played reasonably good I think:

I really like these kinda hands so I decide to let my opponents pay some limper’s tax. They do and I hit the flop very well with the nut flushdraw and a gutshot straightdraw. But I don’t bet the flop because you can easily be reraised on such mediocre boards against some original limpers. My free card gives me the nuts and when laguna 856 reraises the 60 bet, I suspect him of also holding a flush and decide to keep slowplaying my hand. Board pairs, but I’m not really scared of this and place a value bet, not too big because he might suspect me of slowplaying JJ: excellent result. Then I missed some flops completely with premiums like TT and AK before the next important hand was played:

I flop a set in a limper’s pot and I bet because at least one player must have picked something up on this board. My only caller leads out on the river (which happens to be a great blocking bet) and I only call here for two reasons. First one is that my opponent can easily have TQ in this hand and I don’t want to make a very big pot against the other big stack of the table. Secundo, if he was as weak as he happened to be, he wouldn’t have called a bigger bet anyway.

In the period that followed I even became chipleader, but I lost a big pot with JJ which brought me at fifth place during the period towards the bubble. It took a VERY long time before the bubbleboy was eliminated and I’d become a shortstack. However, if everything would have gone normal, I would have doubled up in this hand:

Instead, I got eliminated…

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.

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.

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…

* 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.

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 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.

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.