4 Months, 5 Days, 16 Hours, 40 Minutes (and counting)

The 2009 WSOP schedule has finally been published, here.  The World Championship Ladies No Limit Hold’em event is scheduled to begin at Noon on Sunday, June 7, 2009.  I have a LOT to learn before then!

In truth, it’s a little unnerving to think about how much I’ve learned about Limit Hold’em over the past few years.  I’m only now beginning to feel competent against the average players I play with.  I’ve always believed that my strength is my willingness to learn and study in order to get better.  When I started playing poker, I knew without a doubt that I needed to learn more in order to do well.  I put time into the game in order to practice, but it was reading that helped me the most.  Then making friends with another poker player who is better than I am at limit poker has also really helped.  He validated strategies I had read about, helping me to believe in the knowlege I’ve gained, making it easier to put them into practice.

No Limit is so different, but No Limit Tournaments are strategically quite a different thing.  So it has become my commitment that I will continue to play limit poker on a regular basis, as that is a substantial portion of my poker income; however, I am going to play in as many tournaments as I can, in order to gain experience and put lessons into practice.  I am also going to try and read as many books as I can get my hands on, having to do with No Limit Tournament poker.  I’m going to try and document some of the interesting lessons here, in order to help me to understand better what I’m reading.

I’m becoming a lot more comfortable with tournaments in general.  One of the big differences between limit cash games and no limit tournaments is the fact that you can’t dig back into your bankroll when you go broke.  Once you’re out of chips, you’re finished.  In a cash game I can rely on the size of my bankroll to allow me to play longer, knowing that if my overall strategy is better than my opponents, short-term losses won’t matter.  This is why I don’t care when I’m dealt pocket Aces and somebody draws out on me to make two pair or better; over the long run I believe in the strength of my play, and I make money.  In fact, I kind of smile inside when somebody calls my preflop raise with a mediocre hand; I know that they’ll do that again, and statistics are on my side.  :)

In a tournament; however, I don’t have the leisure to wait patiently for strong hands.  Well, that’s true to an extent.  I am still very patient and selective about what hands I chose to play, but I have to find the balance between patience and aggression that will both keep me alive in the tournament, and offer me the opportunity to make it to a paying position.

I am currently reading “Tournament Poker for Advanced Players” by David Sklansky, of Two Plus Two publishing.  Of all the books I’ve read about poker (I probably own about 40 or so) the Two Plus Two books are by far the best.  Concepts in Two Plus Two books are explained in ways that make sense; there’s no magic involved.  Concepts have mathematical and psychological foundations that give me reasons – and maybe even more important, the groundwork in which to try the concepts out.

One of the first concepts that Sklansky discusses has to do with “EV” or, Expected Value.  You see, in limit poker I wait patiently for situations and hands that allow me to maximize value.  I can play hands that only win a small percentage of the time, as long as there’s enough money in the pot to justify playing them.  A great example is small suited connectors.  Suited connectors just don’t win often enough to play each and every time they’re dealt to me.  Ideally, I want to play suited connectors from late position, after several people have limped in ahead of me.  I definitely don’t want to call two bets cold with suited connectors, so if anybody raises, I’m out.  But if 4-5 people limp in ahead of me, there’s generally enough money in the pot to justify seeing a flop for one small bet.  When the flop misses me, it’s easy to dump my hand, and I’ve only invested one small bet – but if the flop actually does hit me and I have a straight draw or a flush draw (or, hopefully both), I stand to make a lot more money because the pot is already big.  Suited connectors just don’t win enough to play them all the time – so you want to make sure that when you do choose to play them, there’s a lot in the pot to win, in order to make up for the times you lose with them.

In tournament poker, I generally don’t have the luxury of playing hands that stand to lose often, knowing that one of these times I’m going to win big.  Certainly if I am holding Jack, Ten suited on the button and 5 people limp ahead of me, I’m going to see the flop (an exception might be if I’m on the bubble (one position away from cashing) or my chip stack is severely low.  But under normal circumstances, I’m probably going to pass on most mediocre hands and wait patiently for better hands with higher EV.

Here’s a quote from Sklansky in “Tournament Poker for Advanced Players”:

“Balancing your quest for extra EV and your quest for survival is a major factor in proper tournament strategy.”

In the monthly freeroll tournament in early January, I was on the bubble (one away from cashing) with about 4 big blinds left to my chip stack.  This is a pretty small chip stack, so I’m waiting patiently for a good hand, hoping to double-up when the time comes.  A couple of players had fewer chips than I, so I was secretly hoping to see one of them bust out before I, so I could be guaranteed $200 (the minimum payout for that tournament).  I was on the big blind, and watched as somebody from middle position raised preflop.  Everybody else folded, including the small blind, and I looked down at Ace, King offsuit.  My opponent had raised to 3 times the big blind, which meant that if I were to call, I would be committing my entire stack of chips to this hand.  I know that a big pair like Queens is slightly better than 50% to win against Ace King – basically I would be hoping to spike an Ace or a Queen in order to win, but the chances are slighly less than 50%, of that happening.  And that’s actually the best case scenario – worst case is that my opponent holds pocket Kings or Aces, and I’m basically drawing dead.  I remember telling my opponent that I didn’t want to chance $200 on a coin toss, and showed my Ace King offsuit as I folded.  My opponent showed pocket Queens, and several people at the table criticized me for not playing my hand.

See, there’s the thing – in a cash game I could justify calling (I would probably reraise making it 3 bets to go in a limit game) because I know that I have time and a substantial bankroll on my side.  But in a tournament, as Sklansky made clear, I have to find the balance between survival and finding EV.  Since I was on the bubble, and waiting for at least one of the smaller chips stacks to inevitably bust out first, it was a good play.  I went on to place 8th in that tournament, and I think I won $300 or $400 in that particular tournament.  I *might* have busted out right then and there, and lost out on that money.

Well, I’m going to schedule 2-3 nights per week as study time, where I’ll read and absorb information about tournament poker, sometimes writing interesting things on this blog.  I’m going to use my frequent player points to enter tournaments on Poker Stars, where I’ll try putting some of the concepts I’m learning into practice.

I think in June I’m going to take Friday the 5th off, and I’ll actually drive down to Vegas and stay for the duration of the tournament.  I’ll return home later in the week.  I have always wanted to drive the strip in my Mustang Convertible, with the top down, playing something from Lynyrd Skynyrd.  Seriously.  I’ve dreamed about it!  And if I happen to be wearing a newly won WSOP bracelet, that experience will be just all that much better!

There are several people who have expressed interest in coming down to support me, so watch out Vegas, Washington and Alaska are about to invade!  :)

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