Practice Game

On Friday afternoons I like to prepare for the Legion tournament by playing some similarly fast games.  These are also good practice for the "Morning Moose", with 10 minute blinds and 1500 starting chips.  Lately I have been reading "The Poker Tournament Formula", which focuses only on these types of fast tournaments.  There are some good chapters on playing position, playing stacks, and general good poker advice.  

So, playing a 9 player SNG with a $1000 play chip buy-in, I got hurt early when a loose player called my KK raise with A/10 (also called by QQ).  I C-bet the flop with a 1/2 pot bet and followed up with another on the turn despite the ace high flop.  They both called.  I gave up and checked the river in position and the A/10 more than doubled up.  I was down to around 1/3 my starting chip stack but just hung in there, doubling up a couple of times to get back in the game with 4 or 5 players remaining.

I ground it out, to play 3 way action, and noticed that the player who called my kings out of position was playing nearly every pot.  In addition, I noticed that he would bet if checked to in position, or bet the flop every time in early position with any pair.  I used that to my advantage several times, letting him bet until the river with my strong hands, then coming over the top.....which would nearly always elicit a fold from him.  The other player, who had a substantial chip lead over both of us sat out a while then got involved in a losing hand with the other player and became the short stack.  I ended up taking him out with a medium pair on his preflop shove while he was on tilt.

Now heads up, I again let my opponent do the betting, limping with strong hands, raising with garbage but leading out when checked to me.  We were about even in chips, I had a few hundred more, when our final hand played out.  With pocket jacks in the big blind, he limped with 9/5 offsuit.  I raised to 600 (blinds 100/200) and he called.  The flop was amazing: J/9/9.  I of course checked to let him bet, which he quickly obliged me.  Flat calling, the turn was even better, a 5.  Now when I checked, he bet big and feeling he was pot committed and sitting with a 9 or a jack, I re-raised him all in.  He insta-called and the tournament was over when no miracle 9 appeared on the river to save him.


Book description from Amazon.com
This is the first book to provide winning strategies for the small buy-in ($100 or less) no-limit hold'em tournaments that have exploded in poker rooms all over the country-and on the Internet. The strategies for small buy-in no-limit hold'em tournaments are similar to the big-money games, but the important factors-hand value, position, aggression and others, and speed of play-cause a radical change of strategy. Snyder recounts his own experience with these methods at a win rate of almost 300% and gives readers specific strategies for winning the big money available in prizes at the hundreds of small buy-in no-limit hold'em tournaments taking place weekly around the country and on the Internet.