I’m going to talk you through a step by step account of a recent free poker tournament I played in. My intention is making you think and question future plays of certain scenarios.
Tonight’s game is 10 of 31 paid, good odds here about 1 in 3 so lets play it smooth for a little and see what happens. Some hands that I’ve played early are 52 suited in the small blind and K9 off with 6 to 1 pots odds, AJ off I slip in cheap. Pot odds are simply the ratio of the cost to call to the size of the pot example $100 to see $600 pot would be 6 to 1.
I have built up around a grand playing the K9 forcefully with Q9Q flop and hitting a free ace on the river with an ace / jack. I find myself saying the same old thing time and time again: you have to gamble in the uncertain plays if no one else has or you will end up with nothing else to go on.
I bet 3x with my KK and get one caller, the flop comes up 5,8,10 and he bets so I string his J10 along for another 1k. Slow playing should most often only be done when you have an unbeatable hand but the action here is few and far between.
An example of cards I have had to limp off with are: A2, A3 suited, and 88 due to the poor odds. By poor odds I mean to work out how much cash your opponents are holding and to know if it’s possible to bankrupt someone with good cards calling five dollars with junk may not seem as bad if you can take their fifty dollars in doing so.
Some hands that I have passed on now that the blinds are higher and pot odds are getting slimmer are K10 suited, J10 suited and Q8 suited and the Q8 turned out to be a bad fold. About 1 hour 30 minutes in and I still have the 2k I made early plus another $560 with random small pots.
It’s too early to go flat out so I fold an ace / queen as I can smooth play to the final table. Being able to fold a decent hand has taken a lot of time, practice and control before the bubble- like all things- time helps master this habit. The bubble means the last person to leave the game before pay out. I finally finish in sixth place and I’m pleased with this- if you can regularly find yourself in these positions you can earn a wage. The idea is to start small, play free poker tournament sites and climb the ladder as you become more experienced.
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June 14, 2010
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