Small break from the fray

One days poker in 7 is about as much of a break as I take these days, but last night I went down to the Fitz to play the stress free €20 rebuy tournament but I never got to play in it. Instead when i went in i decided to play a €110 freezeout satellite for a €550 satellite for the €5k game. There were 10 players and 2 tickets, and it was going ok for the first hour, I had won a good few small pots but no big ones. The end came for me when I had AK and the board came AJ8 only for me to run into a caller with JJ. Ah well. Played cash game and finished the night dead level after some to-ing and fro-ing up and down, so at least got my tournie entry back.

The how of the above is not really important though now. A couple of items I would like to mention are related to my tournament play. There are certain situations I have problems playing, and I will try to explain those here.

Firstly, the situation where I flop 2 pair with a holding such as AT on a 99T board. Invariably when this happens I cannot stop myself putting out a bet. When I get a caller there are three things that go through my head:

1. Does he have a 9?
2. Does he have similiar to me?
3. Is he calling intending to pick off the pot on the turn despite his own holding?

A lot of the way I treat this delends on what type of player I am playing against. Some players just will not do option 3. A lot of other players will not just flat call with a 9, they will raise outright. I seem to misplay this hand a lot by betting the flop, even out of position and then passively checking on the flop, and allowing it to be taken from me. I think the problem here is that it is rare that i am playing in a deep stacked tournament often enough that will allow me to bet the flop, and bet the turn again unsure where I am still. This is a hand that is much better played in position, as to be honest, most hands are, but when you are not sure whether you are ahead or not, the last thing you want is to build a pot that you are never convinced you will stand a raise on.

This should be basic stuff to most people, but I am struggling to come up with a reliable line on this type of holding OOP as a lot of the time a follow up bet will commit you to the pot in most of the regular tournaments I play in. this is another aspect of my game that I have to work on in tournament play. The first step as they say in AA (apparantly) is admitting you have a problem.

It is amazing that the more you play this game the more you realise that you don't know about it. 12 months ago I would have had a higher opinion of my game than I do now, but that is not saying I was better then, I wasn't - I just didn't know how much I didn't know. Sounds a bit Donald Rumsfeld, but you get the message. I think I am a decent tournament player. I know the ABC, and maybe this is what I revert to too often to be truly an effective player. When I feel myself playing well it is when I am mixing it up, playing a lot of hands aggressively and winning most of them. This is not a strategy that I employ often enough, and at times I will not feel able to do this at a table, whether it is due to the other players and who they are, or whether it is because it is I do not have enough chips to effectively do this. I do this more often at the multi rebuy lower stakes tournaments. This is probably due to a few things:

1. The generally lower standard of player (not a universal though by any means)
2. The safety net of multi rebuys.
3. Being less gutted if I crash out due to less potential winnings.

The above is not meant to imply that I play 'scared' at few rebuy or bigger buy in events/freezeouts, as that would not be true. I have not played a lot of big tournaments, none with a buy in of more than €500 (excepting reg fee) and about 18 between €250-€500 entry, but only cashing in 4 of these with no "big" finish - yet. I play tighter in these events generally but I still pick my spots when I can, especially in position. I think more and more of my 'play dilemmas' will involve playing hands out of position. It is hard to find a generic position on these type of hands though, as each one depends on all the usual factors.

This was just a series of general ramblings and there are one or two other things that I meant to write about but between trying to write this and trying to work, and trying to stay awake I cannot remember what they were. Early night for me tonight, and will probably play the Fitz Double chance tomorrow night.

One other thing I will probably be doing this week is having a session with a mate of mine online, analysing each others online play and seeing where we disagree and each can improve. The day I think I have it all learnt will either be the day I quit, or the day i win the WSOP main event, and I think everyone reading this knows which one is a tad more likely.

Happy flopping to ye all (I am being optimistic with the plural I know, but hey...)