Don Strategies: The "stop & go"

    

My old high school buddy, Don, has "made me an offer I can't refuse".  He is entered into the WSOP and will pay for my entry in the main event if he cashes for $200K or more.  Even though it seems like a long shot, Don is an excellent tournament player who has cashed in two previous WSOP's.  He has also offered to bring Ron, our other h.s. buddy in as a spectator and cheerleader.  Don is looking for suggestions on how to win and I am hoping to pass along some solid advice, or at least some things to consider and study further.  I talked earlier about tight aggressive vs. loose aggressive, now I am thinking with the event coming soon we need to focus on some specific strategy.  My plan is to try to come up with some juicy "thoughts of the day" every day or so until the event (when exactly do you play, Don?).  Here is my first:

The "Stop & Go"

This is a very effective tool when you are short stacked, but have sufficient chips to force folds after a flop misses.  Let's hope you don't have to use it (cause you are never short-stacked), but remembering it can save your tournament life.  This is best executed from the big blind, but can also be used in the small blind.  The best time is when you have an pair, obviously the bigger the better.  Raising preflop you do not have enough chips to get limpers to fold, so you just check if no raises no matter what the pair (aces included).  On the flop, you shove no matter what the flop is.  Paired boards are obviously better since it is unlikely someone holds trips, but no matter, you are shoving anyway.  If you hit the flop you abandon the stop & go and just play good trapping poker.  For instance, you hold J/J and the flop comes J/5/9 rainbow.  This is a pretty dry board and you want to give the K/J the chance to bet his chips.  A flop like 5/5/10 calls for the shove.

My history with this is one of failure, that is, I failed to execute it with my aces and chose to shove preflop getting multiple callers (a limpede) and then checks to river with someone catching a flush one time and trips the other.  In both cases, had I done the "stop & go" I would have won the hand easily except for very sick calls.