Nathans Guide to Good Poker Pt III

[Nathan Butler]

Know your Targets!

In Part III i want to express how to pick the pots you play. As an example i will discuss a satellite tournament I played in recently.

Imagine this scenario. There were 47 players in a satellite tournament, the top four going through to the next event. There are five players left and you are second in chips.

So here are the specific details.
Player A - 17,000
Nathan - 9,500
Player C - 2000
Player D - 2000
Player E - 1500

Blinds are 120/240 with Ante 25

Now, in a sat tournament, whether you are first or last in the money (in this case 1st - 4th) you all receive the same prize so winning is not an issue. Your goal is slide into the points so to speak and win the same prize as the chip leader.

This is what happened in the sat i played was amazing awful. I actually started the final table of 9 with about 14,500. i had 30% of all the chips in play. When you are in this situation there is realy no point in playing any marginal hands. I spent almost 5000 in by the time we were on the bubble. I was still second in chips and only one more short stack needed to be eliminated to win my ticket.

At this stage, against any short stack the hand range i was willing to play was AA, KK, QQ or AK, AQ. In any other circumstance i would have to be in the big blind and the be getting a minimum of three to one odds in pot value. Otherwise there is no point me sacrificing my chip position.

Now, that was my hand range against the short stacks. There was still one player with more chips than i, Player A, So the only single hand i was willing to commit to against him was AA and nothing else.

After folding 5000 in blinds, i finally picked up AA. I raised to 900 (blinds still 120/240) Hoping a short stack would bite but unfortunately it was the big stack that did. The Flop came out all low, nothing higher then a 7. I put in a continuation bet of 1200. The big stack then moved ALL-IN, what would you do here? If you call and lose then you miss out on a ticket. If i call and an win, you are almost garunteed one, if you fold you still have 6000 in chips and 3 to 1 chip lead on three short stacks. So what do you do?

Well in the end i called. I Felt i was strong and the chip leader was possibly hold mid-range pockets. I was correct he had JJ, but that being said i did take an un-nessasary gamble with my tournament life.

So now, the VERY NEXT HAND.
Player A - 7000
Nathan - 19000
Player C -1700
Player D - 1800
Player E - 2000

I start the very next Hand with AA (again) I raise again up to 900. I am re-raise to 1800 by player A (7000) Flop comes A,Q,8. I bet 2000, Player A immediatly moves ALL-IN for his remaining 5,000. I call the extra 3,000 with top set.

We both open. I have set of As, and Player A has a set of Qs. I fourth A hits the turn and it is game over for Player A. Within two hands he went from being chip leader to out and no ticket.

So my overall point is pick the spots in which to play certain hands. My commitment on that final table was to not play any single hand except AA against any player with more chips than myself. If i were player A facing a raise, even with QQ i would have to fold. There are only two hand that my opponent could have that beat me but wager that chance vs not winning a ticket and QQ can become an easy hand to fold.

This principle appliess to normal NPL play too! Why mess with the big stack? Why risk your tournament life with less then premium hands. Pick on the players with less chips with a wider range of hands, and be aggressive to the big stack with a slim range of hands.

This tactic is very useful when trying to accumulate chips early and protecting them once you have them.

I hope this all makes some sense! [It does now that I fixed some spelling errors! You're shocking! - Pete]

Regards

Mr CBD
Nathan Butler

[simonk]

Very nice Nathan, but I knew it all allready

But now people will do it to me