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I recently made the mistake of entering an online tournament just before the end of registration without paying attention to the structure. When I play tournaments, I play no limit Texas holdem with normal blind structures or Omaha high low pot limit. Needless to say, I was quite surprised when the cards started flying on the first hand and I saw that it was a limit tournament. This feeling of unhappiness was only made worse when I saw how fast the blinds were going up. I learned a few valuable lessons, which I would like to share.

The most important lesson is to not be in a hurry when entering a tournament online. If you miss this one, another will be starting in minutes. I got myself into a situation that I wasn’t prepared for and it ended up costing me money.

I do not like speed tournaments where the blinds escalate at a fast pace. This structure requires you to take a lot of chances from the beginning in order to keep ahead of the blinds. It leaves very little room for error or bad luck. It also makes it more difficult for the better players to survive.

Even though the structure and limit was not one I am used to playing, I played the same game as I usually try to, which is very tight early in the tournament. I did get lucky twice, winning hands that I was not favored to win before the flop, and was able to squeak by the blinds a few times before finally being eliminated. The important thing to point out though, is that I was favored on the hand I finished on, and if I had won it I would have been one of the top three chip stacks and probably easily into the money. The mistake I made was not adjusting my play to slightly looser and more aggressive earlier in the tournament.

As for the outcome of the tournament, there were 60 entrants with the top six finishing in the money. I was able to finish eighth, which I was pretty happy with, even if the experience did cost me $30. Oh well, hopefully you can learn from a few of my mistakes. Until next week, pay attention before joining a game and best of luck at the tables.

A good friend of mine plays in at least one poker tournament every week online with a buy in over $100 and he has been trying to get me to play in them with him for quite some time. I have never been a great tournament poker player so I have avoided playing until recently. I decided that in my never ending quest to become the best all around poker player I could be, I really needed to start working on my tournament play.

Now the question some of you are probably asking is “Why start at such a high buy in when there are hundreds of multi table poker tournaments every day with buy ins of less than $20.” To answer that question, it is simply because if I am only playing for $10 or $20, I lose interest and stop concentrating. This is of course pitiful and ridiculous, but true nonetheless. The important thing is that I have recognized this problem and avoid these situations. At least that is the silver lining I like to put on this problem.

I have played in two of these tournaments in the last week; a $100 buy in and a $150 buy in. I finished just out of the money in the $150 and made it into the money in the $100, effectively breaking even for the week. I have been very pleased with my results so far. Here are a few things I have learned that may help you in your own tournament play.

The first thing is that I made a very incorrect assumption that because the buy in was larger that the play would be better in the early rounds of the tournament. This was completely wrong. The first hour of play is still filled with people making senseless and stupid plays and mistakes. By playing smart and very tight, you have a great chance to make it to the first break without hurting your chip stack very much, and if you are fortunate enough to catch a big hand like Aces of Kings you may be able to double up.

I was able to achieve the above results by playing tight solid poker without taking any large risks until the end. My strategy for the time being is to continue to play tight to give myself a chance to win at the end and take my chances later in the tournament. If you don’t make it to the bubble, you can’t get into the money.

I recently had quite a long run of poor results at the limit holdem tables, and it took me a long time to figure out what the problem was. Because there are extended up and down streaks in poker, it is often easy to just assume that you are in a down swing instead of realizing that you have a leak in your game. Once I determined that there was a problem, it didn’t take me long to narrow it down to the misplay of face card hands.

The tendency of many players is to overplay any hand with two face cards, especially after seeing 26 straight hands like 72, 83, 43 and J2. This is the trap I had fallen into. I found myself playing KJs from early position and QJ from middle position, or even occasionally calling a raise with KQ. Though in limit Texas holdem, these plays may not appear bad on the surface, they are incorrect. Let’s take a look at a few hands, and the problems with them.

The first hand we will look at is KJs from early position. While being suited is a plus, it doesn’t come into play very often, so it is best to ignore this from early position. Your thought process needs to be as follows. If you knew that you would have to call two bets instead of one and play the hand out of position, would you limp into the pot? This is why you can’t play KJs from early position. In the great majority of games, the pot will be raised, and if you already have a single bet in, you will call the second bet. In a limit game this in itself is not always deadly, but when compounded with being forced to play the hand out of position, it is completely unplayable.

QJ from middle position is also a long-term drain on your profitability, but for slightly different reasons. The question that needs answered is; what will you do if you hit top pair on the flop and, is your hand going to be good? More often than not, if you get any action on the flop, one of your opponents has top pair with an Ace kicker, or better. This is not a good position to be in, because you will be tempted to check and call through the river, losing at least two more big bets to a better hand.

The moral to this story is not to overvalue hands just because they contain face cards. When you find yourself playing hands like those above, in the wrong positions, make a conscious effort to tighten up your game a bit. Until next week, good luck at the tables.

I was watching a poker tournament on television last night when the following situation came up. It was down to two handed with Barry Greenstein and Phil Ivey, and Greenstein had a very large chip lead with the blinds quickly eating away at Ivey’s stack. Ivey was dealt Q 2 off suit and Greenstein moved all in.

With the chip stacks and blinds where they were, Ivey was going to have to move all in on either this hand or the next one. He decided to fold and moved all in with 5 4 off suit on the next hand and lost to Greenstein’s Q J. (If I remember correctly. I am a little fuzzy about Greenstein’s hand, but it was two face cards.)

Looking back, of course Ivey would have been better off calling with the Q 2, but hindsight is always better than real life pressure packed situations. Also, understand that I am in no way questioning Ivey’s play, as he is somewhere around a million times better than I am at playing poker.

The question is, how good does a hand have to be in the above situation to call? I would have called with the Q 2, but that does not make it the correct play. Another thing to consider is that it is almost always better to be the one who moves all in than the one making the call. When I will be forced to move all in on one of the next two hands, the following are hands that I will push with on the first hand.

1) Any Ace or face card.
2) Any two suited cards.
3) Any two consecutive cards. (On these hands below 98, I will push if possible, but will not call an all in.)

I do not have a scientific reasoning behind these hand selections; they are just the ones I am willing to gamble with when I am forced to gamble. Realize that you have no fold equity, so your opponent will call you with just about any hand. In certain situations, it would even be incorrect for them to fold 7 2 off suit, which is the worst possible starting hand.

If you play poker for long, the odds are that you will find yourself in a similar situation to the one above. Consider what hands you will be willing to play, and that is one less thing you will have to think about at the table. Until next week, good luck at the tables!

One of the areas of my poker game that is lacking is my sit and go abilities. I have tried many different strategies, and continually attempt to improve, but continue to struggle. A friend of mine, who happens to be a very good poker player, suggested one of the most interesting strategies that I have found.

It consists of either folding or moving all in pre flop until you reach the final three spots, which are the money positions. Once you get into the top three, you revert to what would be considered more normal play.

This system has a pretty solid set of guidelines, which we will cover shortly, but in my limited experience, it only works with any degree of success at the lower level buy-in sit and go’s. I tested it at the 10 plus 1 buy-in level, with some success. The reason it works better at the lower levels is that there are many more players willing to gamble, by calling all ins with hands as poor as A9 or even KQs at times. As you advance to higher buy-ins, the numbers of players who do things like this are greatly reduced.

The list of hands that you will move all in with during the early rounds includes AA KK QQ JJ AKs and AK. As you move further into the tournament, you will either have been able to increase your chip stack or the blinds will start eating away at your stack. In the event you have been fortunate enough to improve your stack, you can continue playing the same way. However, if you start getting short stacked, you expand your hands to include TT 99 88 AQs AQ and AJs, and if you get severely short, you add all other pairs and possibly ATs and A9s.

This style of play offers many positives. If any of your opponents is paying attention, they will realize that you are playing tight and that when you do play you have a good hand. This can help you steal a few blinds late in the tournament, when they get big enough to fight for. It also gives you a great chance to double up in the early rounds. Lastly, because you are only playing a few hands, you can easily play more than one sit and go at a time.

If you do well at these tournaments, I don’t recommend trying this system, however, if you are like me and struggle with them, by all means give it a shot and see how it works for you. Until next week, good luck at the tables!

In no limit Texas holdem play; I am always concerned about players from early position who limp into the pot. In my experience, there are two kinds of hands that do this, assuming that the player in question is an average player or better.

The first type of hand is a drawing hand that has a chance to make a big hand on the flop, like medium or small pairs, hoping to hit a set. The other type is a big hand like Aces or Kings, hoping for a raise behind them so they can push all in before the flop.

Because of this, if I decide to play a hand behind an early limper, I almost always raise when I enter the pot. I want to find out before I get too involved how much they like their hand. If they push all in after my raise, I tend to fold all but my very best hands. Of course, I do tighten up quite a bit on my starting hand requirements in this position, unless the player is particularly poor. Then I will play the hand as normal. If the early position limper is an above average player, I will fold hands as good as AQs at times.

The important points are that you need to have a solid idea of the strength of your opponent, the range of hands he or she will limp with and your ability to outplay them after the flop. The rule I follow the majority of the time is when an early limper moves all in after a raise, I assume they have at worst AK, until they prove otherwise. This move is a clear sign of strength in most games I play in.

For this reason, I will limp in behind with a few hands that have a chance to do well on the flop, like medium pairs. Many players who think they are playing correctly will limp with a big hand hoping for a raise, and move all in on the flop or turn when the pot isn’t raised pre flop. Against these players, when I am able to hit a set I have an excellent chance to double up. When I hit a set on the flop and it is checked to me, I always bet in this situation to give them a chance to move all in.

Like many situations, if you have any doubts, your best bet is to fold before the flop. In no limit play, you only have to win a few big hands per session to make money, and there will be another hand in just a few minutes. There is no need to get involved when you don’t have the best chance to win. Until next week, good luck at the tables!

Though it isn’t often the path to higher profits at the poker table, there are certain situations where it is correct to call a bet on the river with only an Ace high hand. This usually happens in a limit game, but I have seen professional players make similar calls in no limit tournament play.

Like most hands at the poker table, many things must be taken into account, including the size of the bet and the size of the pot, but the most important things to consider are the tendencies of your opponent, betting pattern of the hand and the make up of the board.

It is very important to understand your opponents playing tendencies. Many players will not bet on the river without holding at least a pair. Needless to say, you would never call a bet from one of these players with only Ace high.

On the other hand, many players will play a draw aggressively on the flop and / or turn, and when they miss, the only way they can win is if they bet and you fold on the river. I have used this style in many games against opponents who would fold for one more bet when I missed a draw.

Here is an example to illustrate when a call may be correct. You have AK, raise before the flop and have two callers. The flop is T 9 6 with two clubs. You bet, one opponent calls and the other folds. The turn is a blank, you check, your opponent bets and you call. The river is another blank.

Assuming that you check, if your opponent bets you need to seriously consider a call. He or she may very well have been on a flush or straight draw, missed and is trying to steal the pot from you.

Knowing the player and their playing tendencies will sway your decision, but folding every time a situation comes up like this is incorrect. Even when you lose you send the message that it is difficult to bluff you on the river.

While you are at the tables this week, look for situations where players may have missed a draw, to learn how they handle the situation. Until next week, good luck at the tables.

Though the main event at this years World Series of Poker is still a couple months away, I decided it was time to start playing in a few satellite tournaments. So I started looking at the offerings of many of the online poker rooms to find the tournaments that gave me the best chance to advance.

In order of strength from best to worst of my personal poker playing is, ring games, multi table freeze out tournaments, multi table tournaments with rebuys and add-ons and finally single table tournaments. Now you may be wondering why I have decided to share this with you in a poker column, but it is a very important part of the selection criteria when it comes time to qualify for the World Series.

This decision is really no different than table selection when you play in a ring game. I realize that I need to play in satellites that give me the best chance to win, so I instantly narrow my selections down to the rooms that have the most multi table tournaments available.

Of course there are a wide range of possibilities, including buy ins that range from less than ten dollars to ones over a thousand. I also tend to play tournaments late at night, so finding a site with many late night offerings is important as well. All of this information goes into my decision about where to attempt to qualify, because just about every poker room I visited had some form of satellite tournaments available.

What I hope you take from all of this rambling, is make a decision on your best games set up, analyze the amount of money you have to attempt to qualify and use this information when finding the best room for you. Some players do better in huge tournament fields while others perform better in smaller fields.

There is no shame in either, the only shame is not recognizing which gives you the best chance and taking advantage of this knowledge. Once you compile all of your personal information and compare it to the different offerings, it will be one less concern on your way to Las Vegas.

Until next week, good luck at the WSOP qualifiers, and I hope to see you all there!

One of the areas of my game that requires constant watch over is the way my current opponents are playing and my estimate of their abilities. I play in a wide range of games, from the lowest limits, filled with players who act like they have never seen a Texas holdem game, up to games with players capable of not only thinking beyond what I think they have, but also to a hand two hours from now. Each of these games requires a completely different type of play. This is best illustrated by an example.

In a game with new and/or poor players, when I flop a strong hand, the best play is to bet. Any fancy plays, like slow playing or check raising, tend to not work well against these types of players. In addition, they don’t play in any predictable fashion. In a highly aggressive game with better players, it is easier to predict how a player will play. This is not to say that a game with better players is easier to beat. Nothing could be further from the truth. To maximize your winnings, it just requires different playing styles.

Of course the correct playing style depends entirely on the current situation, and we don’t have the space here to get into all of the ins and outs. The important thing to learn today is that you must not play the same against both sets of opponents. As a general rule, play solid straightforward poker against weaker opponents, while using your advanced skills against advanced opponents.

Before you join a table, observe the playing ability of your opponents and use this information to maximize your winnings. Most games will include players of a wide range of playing abilities. There is much more to winning than getting good cards.

Until next week, good luck at the tables!

So much of the poker information that I talk about here in the Poker Column every week touches on the psychological aspects of the game, that you would think that I would recognize when I am not mentally prepared to sit down at a poker table.

Sadly, this is not the case. I must maintain a constant measure of my mental abilities both before sitting down and probably more importantly, as I am playing. Just when you start thinking you are above things like that in poker, it blindsides you in a rush. Here is my most recent wake up call.

I was playing in a lower limit no limit Texas holdem ring game and was holding my own at the table, even though I hadn’t seen many playable hands the first couple hours. I then found myself in a pot with one player in front and one behind me and we had seen the flop. I had a flush draw and an inside straight draw, giving me at least 12 cards that could come on the turn or river to win the hand.

It was checked to me, I bet, the player behind me moved all in and the next player called. The pot was offering me close to three-to-one odds at this point and I had at worst close to a 50% chance to win. Of course I called, which was the correct play by a large margin. The turn and river did not help me, which will happen half the time in this situation, so it wasn’t a big deal. This is where the trouble started.

I have been in this situation hundreds of times and realize that this is the way I make money at the poker tables. 95% or more of the time I can simply let this go and move on. This time though, I couldn’t stop thinking about that hand. Once I realized this, I should have quit playing immediately, because I know better. Of course, if I had quit when I was supposed to, you probably would be reading about playing JTs from late position or something else right now.

I bought back into the game and played another hour or so, but my play was not up to its normal standards and I ended the session down quite a bit. I finally realized that I was creating the problem, and walked away from the game.

The key points of the column this week are, no matter how good you get at the poker tables, always keep your guard up to defend against yourself, and everyone has sessions where they don’t play to the best of their abilities. By watching these things, you will be able to reduce your losses during these sessions by correcting your mistakes or quitting, which will lead to bigger profits over the long run.

Until next week, good luck at the tables!