Hard Rock Memorial Day Tournament

Since it's Memorial day and I have the day off, I decide to go with my friends to play in the $85 + $15 at our local Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. I decided not to eat anything because I hate playing poker on a full stomach, so we pay sit down and get ready.

The Format
1. 283 Players today
2. 11 Players per table
2. $2500 chips to start
3. 15 Minute Blinds - $25/$50, $50/$100, $75/$150, $100/$200, $200/$400, $300/$600, $400/$800, $500/$1000, $1000/$2000, $2000/$4000
4. Alternates brought in after someone is knocked out no matter what the blind level

The tourney
I started analyzing the players at the table, I don't play tourneys at this place that much mostly just limit games, so I didn't recognize anyone. Naturally they all start to chatter about different things and I start to realize who I should watch for.

I folded for most of the first round because I didn't pick up any hands that weren't utter garbage, and the guy sitting directly to my left raised to $800 on the first hand, he was drunk or something he kept falling asleep and leaning in his seat (FISH).

Early on I noticed that there was very little to no raising it was a limp fest, and people are showing down AA, KK, AK, and other hands that would warrant a raise, but no one is raising.

Key Hand #1:
I am dealt on the Button, and the player in seat 5 had limped into the pot, the blinds were $50/$100 I raise to 4x the BB, and everyone folds except her, she just calls. At this point for some reason I feel I need to make a set to win, she had only played strong hands in the past, so the flop comes (2 clubs), she bets $500, I think for a few seconds and I go over the top of her all-in for another $1950 or so, she thinks for a few and agonizes when she says call and shows , my 9's hold up whew!

After that hand I won a few pots using continuation bets, and I had about $6500 chips which was definitely healthy at that point in the tournament.

Key Hand #2
With the blinds sitting at $100/$200 I have played tight and avoided trouble, and I have built credit at the table. I am dealt in the Cutoff seat, I raise to $600 there were 3 limpers before my raise, every says "crap" and folds except the player directly to my right, he just called. The flop comes , the player to my left checks I bet $600 he CALLS!!!!, the next card is a , he checks I ask him how much he has left and I see he has me covered, I consider pushing him all-in, but I decide against it because from the hands he played before he was content checking the best hand down to the river, but he would call any bet put before him most of the time. If my King held up I would make over $1800, so the hand was checked to the river and he flips over for a split pot.

Then I start to notice that the blinds seem to be creeping up on me, I am sitting around with about $7000 at this point, but the blinds are now $200/$400 things just moved so fast my M at this point is barely above 10 after all of that. Then it happens we lose 3 players from our table and get 3 new players who had been sitting on the rail (this deep in a tourney that's crazy), so they come in and start playing with a new $2500 chip stack, and we are still 11 handed.

A player who had just sat down goes all in on the first hand they played, and was called by another new player the first players sutied loses to . The player who won the hand got AA, KK, JJ, and AK all in a row, and won each time, and was the tournament chip leader within 4 hands. Then she starts to raise every hand causing other players to go all-in, at this point I threw away K Q off suit 2 times, K J one time, and A small a few times, these hands just didn't seem playable in a multiway situation for all of my chips.

So I am wittled down now, to about $4000, and the blinds arent' getting smaller,

Key Hand #3
I am dealt off suit in first position, being that I had been folding and I needed to take a chance on accumulating a few chips to stay ahead of the blinds I decide to limp into the pot with it, that way I could get away from the hand if raised (which I assumed was going to happen), there was 1 caller other than me, and the BB just checked. The flop came 8c 6d 3c, the big blind moved all in for $1600 I had him covered, I contemplated calling, but folded because of the person acting after me and the Gap principle. The other player calls and shows Ac 10c, the BB shows Q 6, the turn is 2d, and the river is Jh, I would have won the hand and knocked out 2 players!!!!

The next 30 mins to an hour of the tourney saw me folding hands because of all-in bets that weren't even heads up, I would have been the 3rd or 4th person coming into the pot in most cases.

I am now wittled down to less than the starting chip amount, and the blinds are now $300/$600, everyone folds to me I look down at I convince myself that I probably have the best hand since it's only the SB and BB left, so I push all-in hoping to steal the blinds and buy some much needed time, and I am called by the BB who shows , he makes a on the flop to crush any hopes of winning the hand, and I am eliminated in 132nd place.

My Mistakes:
1. Not checking the tournament structure before sitting down to play the tournament.

2. Not adjusting to the tournament structure once I realized what it was.

3. Falling into the table culture, and not staying aggressive pre-flop which is my most comfortable way of playing. I limped into too many pots (a bad habit I have picked up lately).

Summary:
I am sure I made more mistakes than that, and of course I couldn't write everything that happened, but hopefully you get the gist of how I was playing, and can analyze my play and comment. I hope to learn from this experience, and get better from it. Thanks.

SNG Strategy Vs. Tournament Strategy

I just realized part of my problem with going into varience through loses, I cash fairly consistently in SNG's but I don't get first place as much as I would like. I get a lot of third places and a few second places which isn't enough to sustain the loses and come out significantly ahead. The problem is I have been playing my SNG's and my tournaments almost the same exact way, when they both require very different approaches.

Single Table SNG's

These games require a bit more patience and tighter play (remember all these comments are my opinion and I am not saying I am 100% correct, but this strategy seems to work best). What I mean by patience and tighter play is the simple fact that you have to pick and choose your spots carefully in SNG's, the reason is because the blinds move up quickly and you won't have a chance to accumulate enough chips to keep the blinds insignificant no matter what you do. People feel pressed in SNG's, for some reason they take more chances in SNG's (I am guilty of this myself sometimes). People are more likely to call raises with junk, and hope to get lucky, and the raise pre-flop, all-in on the flop play is used quite often. Continuation bets work well, but most of the time the pot won't be huge in these situations. I would say it is of more value to watch all your opponents in SNG's because you won't be moving tables, and you will be spending time with these players for the duration of the tournament. I usually don't even play the first few hands because I like to see what type of table I am dealing with. If the table is very tight then get ready for a long game, you won't get big pots often at these tight tables, so guarding your chips and waiting for a monster hand or draw is the best thing to do.

MTT

I am still perfecting my MTT strategy, but for the most part you can be really aggressive and steal pots along the way very easily because you will be moving tables, and people won't know what your play style is. Also, you can get away from a bluff because in the early parts of a MTT you will have a better blind structure, and a little more time between levels. If you attempted this in a Single Table SNG you will get called, or re-raised sooner rather than later. The worst part about it is, you will be getting called and raised with hands like J 10 (os), K 9 (std), A 8 (std), and your attempts to bluff while they will work sometimes will more than likely no work most of the time. That's the beauty of the MTT Tournament, you can steal almost at will, and the approach to tourneys is much different than approaching a single table SNG.

That's what I noticed for the most part, if you play tight early in a single table SNG you will give yourself a great chance of cashing in the end. After a few people have gone out then open your game up, raise pre-flop when the blinds are around the 50/100 - 75/150 level because a lot of the players will tighten up trying to not get knocked out on the bubble. We will see how my strategys play out, but that has been the best strategy I have used so far in single table SNG's.

Wow this is Unreal

The past few weeks have been fantastic when it comes to poker, now let me preface this I didn't win a million dollars or anything; I have been on a good winning streak, and although I am not winning thousands I am happy with playing good poker. Here are some of my latest results:

BPT Grad Party Poker Tourney - 1st out of 24 players
Pokerstars $20 + $2 - 38 out of 647 players
Pokerstars $10 + $1 Sit n' Go's - 1st, 2nd, 3rd (my last 3 results)
Home Game (Friends House) $20 game & $10 game (both 1 - table) - 2nd & 2nd

For the first time since I started playing poker seriously my poker tracker tournament profit sheet is in the green, for the past 2 - years it has been at about $80 in the negative (which isn't bad at all most players lose a lot more), now it's +100 in profit. I really want to score a decent size win before the WSOP, then I will feel better about playing in the $1500 NLHE at the WSOP.

Hand of Note:

I am sitting in the small blind with Ad 5d the blinds are $25/$25, barbs raised to $125 since it was early in the tournament I called the extra $100 figuring I would see if I could make a straight or flush out of the hand, I didn't want to catch an Ace as that would have made the decision more difficult in terms of kicker issues. The flop comes (5 5 8 rainbow), I check barbs bets $250, I smooth call, the next card is a Q she I bet $500 she calls, at this point I am not sure what she has, I am running through the gambit of hands she could have, and I could only figure she had a set or a decent sized pocket pair. I must admit I was a little baffled, but I still felt my set of 5's were good, the river came a 6, I checked she checked and she flipped over Pocket Aces, I show my set of 5's and take the hand down. I wish I would have put her on Aces because I missed an extra bet on the river, I should have bet it anyway, but I still have moments where I play a little timid, plus it was a game among friends at this particular tourney.

End Hand of Note.

My play has improved, and I feel comfortable when I sit down at a poker table, the biggest improvement I would say has been my identification of players at the table whether it's online or a live game. Almost second nature I seem to notice little tidbits of things about other players when they are playing that help me avoid trouble. I will admit I don't always follow my own instincts all the time, but when I do they are right more times than wrong. I just need to work on building stacks in tournaments, I play well with a large stack and I can relax and focus on trying to play well rather than what hand am I going to push with. I hope to have better results in MTT's soon, I just have to continue working hard and reading all these poker atricles and websites.