Pokery Thoughts

It's Official.  Well as official as any decisions I make.  I'm playing in the Foxwoods Megastack Challenge on Friday, August 19th at 11:00am.  Click HERE FOR DETAILS. or just keep reading.  It's a $300 entry but $50 of that goes to the bounty - knock someone out and pick up $50 for your trouble.  I love me a bounty.  Plus it's a $30,000 guaranteed prize pool so there's some serious cash involved.  And there's 15,000 in starting chips which means lots of room to be creative with my play.  The other thing I like about the tourney is the antes start at level 5; fairly early on.  I'm a fan of antes because I like stealing blinds/pots.  If antes are involved, all the more chips there are for me to steal.

Below are some rough guidelines that I'll be using for this tournament.  They are in no particular order and this is more like stream of consciousness, so bear with me.

1. Identify the donkeys - Most likely half the players at my table will be good players and half will be donkeys.  I usually spend the first hour or two indentifyig which is which and then I focus on the donkeys.  Donkeys have a hard time folding a hand so it's key to bet hard when you think you have the winner and watch the pot grow.

2. Position, position, position.  Only play hands when I'm in position - this is a rule I'm strict with.  Unless I have a monster I'm not playing in first or second position.

3.  Steal blinds - especially when antes are involved.  IMHO people just don't do this enough in larger tournaments and there's lots of chips out there for the asking.  Of course once again it will depend on who I'm playing against.  I usually like to focus on one person at the table.  Someone who plays tight and with a smaller stack.  I'll hammer his blinds repeatedly and I do this for two reasons. The first reason is to pick up chips obviously.  All those little bits add up.  But also, once the guy sees the pattern - his blinds being raised by me every time he'll eventually take a stand against my bullying.  This usally happens when he just can't take it anymore, not necessarily when he has a good hand.  So he'll call my raise - I'll hammer him even more and Mr. Tight will end up giving me even more chips.

4. Check-raising and re-raising - Both are awesome weapons that are under utilized by most players, especially the re-raise, which I like to use, albeit selectively.  Most players don't know how to play against a re-raise correctly and end up looking like a deer in the headlights regardless of their hand.

5. Limping - It's just not going to happen alot in my game on Friday.  If I play a hand (and I don't play many) 90% of the time I come in raising, not limping.  I know there's something to be said for limping into alot of pots early in a tourney to see flops cheaply.  I've tried this and it just doesn't seem to be lucrative for me.  Rather than limping alot with crap I'd rather be selective and use those same chips to come in raising when I have a decent hand.

6. Playing Chicken - Going all in is an awesome weapon and I do it more often than most.  If I think I have the best hand or if I think you have only a mediocre hand, I'll pull the trigger.  I like forcing my opponents to make tough decisions.  Once again this has to be done when I have a good read on a person and know how they play.

7. Objects in mirror are not as they appear - I like giving the appearance of being a crazy, reckless bettor but nothing could be further from the truth.  It gets me action and I can't tell you how many times I get called, I win and hear "I really thought you had nothing".

Play smart.

Josie