Posted by Dr Fro 5:03 PM
Ask and ye shall receive


From : Morris
Sent : Thursday, March 11, 2004 4:38 PM
To : Fro
Subject : Recent Success

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Friou,

Here is an account of my recent success in Louisiana.

About a month ago I finished second in the Harrah's tournament in Lake Charles and scored a $7K win by letting the winner pay me off to quit. Last weekend I chopped the pot and took the winners share of the tournament at the Isle of Capri for a $5.4K payday. The tournaments were run extremely well. The buyins for both were $100 with another $100 for an add on at the beginning. At Harrah's there were unlimited buyins for the first 1.5 hours. While luck obviously plays a huge part of any tournament, there are a few areas that I have learned can make the difference in finishing higher.




The structure of the tournaments was that the final table would be the last 10 players. However, only the top 7 got money. Even of these 7, the payouts were much different. For example, the winner got $10K second place got $6K third place got $2.5K fourth place $1.2K fifth place $700 and so on.

The first trend I have noticed is that the game is EXTREMELY tight at three stages of the tournament. A)the very beginning of the tournament B) immediately after the buyin period is over and then again C) at the final table. I think this is because of several reasons. 1) Everyone is feeling everyone else out at the beginning, 2) Nobody wants to be eliminated first and finally 3) as the final table rolled on, surviving even one more person meant jumping up huge in the payout. i.e. the difference in 3rd to 4th was over $1,000.

At Harrah's I caught some cards early and was able to build some chips. I did something that many of you guys would not agree with. If I won a pot with good cards, I would show my hand to the table. I did this because I wanted to get the respect of the table so I could bluff later when it would mean more. Also, I laid some marginal hands down even though I thought they were the best hand. For example I had Ace Queen off suit immediately after the buyin period was over. I raised before the flop and got one caller. The flop came Q J 10, rainbow. The caller made out a week bet and I thought my hand was the best, but I folded. As I did, I also showed the table and said something like, "I can't beat the K 10." I did this for two reasons, 1) I may have been beat, and also 2) I wanted the table to think I would put my hand down easily. I don't know if it worked or not, but I was able to steal some blinds later in the game while holding nothing but rags. And I also double through a player who went all in against me with middle pair.

The only other thing that I did differently was at the final table. I would not try to limp in for the price of the big blind unless I was willing to call a bet for all my chips. It worked well for me in two ways. 1) When I did limp in, the action was always me versus the big blind. There was never a case of someone else limping in, as the game was tight and no one wanted to play a three way hand. 2) Players, especially the big blind and the button, think calling is a sign of weakness and will try to steal your bet. I tripled up this way. I had KK in middle position, called the price of the big blind and then the small blind (a big stack) went all in. The Big blind (small stack) called. I immediately called and sure enough the small blind had something like j10 off suit, the big blind had a pair of 6s and I hold up. Had I gone all in, or even raised, I would likely have gotten no action on this hand.

By the way, after this hand I was able to steal an enormous amount of money by limping in, then going all in after the flop, no matter what I had. This is dangerous but if you pick your spots it can be helpful in paying the escalating blinds while trying to outlast the table and into the money.

All in all it has been a blast. I'm going back this weekend and gonna try to do it again.

Chris


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I have to agree with all the above. The conventional wisdom on not showing your cards applies to ring games, where giving away any EV is necessarily bad (or at least not good). However, in a tournament, any time you can trade a small amount of EV for less volatility (in CM's case, this should lead to fewer calls from others) it decreases your chances of busting out, which is the only thing that matters in tournaments - not busting out.

I like the final table strategy...rather than a check-raise, it is a limp-raise. Bad strategy in a normal ring game, but I have seen final tables at these things and those guys will run from a big raise. Seems like the right strategy in this very specific situation.

I have had some amazing rushes in my lifelong gambling episodes, but never have I won > $10k in a month. I think my best month ever was just shy of $3k.

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