Play a Tournament With Me - Part I

I rarely play tournaments. In fact, ever since I bought my new house, and with all of my writing/reporting/TV activities, I simply don't get to play much poker at all, whether it's cash games or tournaments, live or online. Also, because my bread-and-butter game, the big pot-limit Omaha game in Amsterdam, is not as good as it used to be, I have decided to shift my attention to other poker endeavors rather than keep focusing on a game that was once great but now may have died out a little.



Because of these changed circumstances, I nowadays travel much more than I used to. So, when I heard that the state casino in the south of Holland had decided to host a two-day poker tournament, I went over there – more than anything because the cash games were expected to be very juicy. They had 20 tables for a maximum of 200 tournament entrants, and five tables would remain free for cash games that would go on before, during, and after the tournament. I booked a room in a hotel situated on the beach and just a five-minute walk from the casino, in order to enjoy an excellent combination of sun and poker – hoping that after the two days, I would be able to leave the place with both a nice tan and a couple of bucks.



Poor attendance changes things

But as it turned out, it was the hottest day of the year – not exactly a day to play poker. And because registration had not been possible in advance, quite a few players simply decided to spend their time in a different manner than they had initially planned. As a result, a mere 62 players showed up for the tournament – and there were no cash games at all. While I was not very pleased about this, I noticed that the tournament field was not unusually strong, so I thought this might be a great opportunity to hone my tournament skills. Ever since my highly successful run in the relatively small tournaments in Vienna, about three years ago, I have more or less put tournaments aside in favor of both cash games and my writing. But with the very slow structure of this tournament, a slower structure than almost any tournament I had ever played, I thought this would be a very worthwhile experience.



At first glance, it seemed that I had gotten quite an unlucky draw, because I was at a table with three regular players from my former cash game in Amsterdam who are decent players and far more experienced than I am when it comes to playing tournaments. In fact, I was fairly certain that none of them had ever seen me participate in a tournament: They usually saw me play in cash games and report on tournaments. As a result, they were probably unaware that my tournament style is quite different from the patient, rocklike waiting game that I practice in money play. Therefore, I hoped that I would be able to take advantage of the fact that – especially in the early stages of the event – people would probably give me credit for having a strong hand once I became involved in a pot.



This being a $275 no-limit hold'em tournament with $250 rebuys and one $250 add-on, I thought it was best to use the 90-minute rebuy period to try to accumulate some chips, possibly by taking a few chances here and there. As it turned out, it would be far from easy to build any big pots at my table. In contrast to other tables, people would without exception play a conservative game at my table, and while other tables had big stacks early on, there was relatively little chip movement in my game. I quickly figured out that despite this conservatism on the part of my opponents, there was probably one big edge for me: Most of the players did not do a lot of raising themselves, but found it hard to get away from any decent hands once they had decided they would get involved.



The Ace takes control
And that's exactly how I won my first decent-sized pot. In five-way action, I got a free play in the big blind with10-7 offsuit. With a flop of J 7 7, the small blind bet out $40 into a $100 pot, leaving himself with only $40. With a $920 stack, I tried to figure out the best way to play this hand. After some deliberation, I decided to raise $40 more, the exact amount that the small blind had left. I had three people behind me still to act, and I was fairly certain that this would look like a "normal" raise to them, one that was aimed to getting the bettor all in and that did not necessarily represent three sevens. The first two players folded, and then I was called by the button, someone I had a pretty good read on. From the way he called, it seemed to me that he did not have three sevens, and was not drawing, either. It appeared that he had a jack. His body language told me, "How can you raise while I am holding the good cards," and usually that means a fairly strong but not great holding.



When an offsuit 9 came on the turn, I decided to check, and my opponent instantly bet $200. Thinking it was unlikely that my opponent had a better hand than mine, but not wanting to blast him out of the pot, I check-raised him $300 more. He thought for a long time and then called. When a blank came on the river, I bet my last $340, and, again after long deliberation, my opponent called. My three sevens were good, and I was pleased at myself for the way I had played, for extracting the absolute maximum out of the hand. Most players probably would have either check-raised all in on the turn or bet out big with this dangerous J-7-7-9 board that had a flush draw, out of fear of getting outdrawn. But they probably would not have extracted the extra $640 that I had. After all, this was a relatively tight player who feared not only this board, but also the player he was up against – me. Yet, because I had kept the bets so small for him at all stages of the hand, he lost his entire stack with cards that he should have known could never be good.



Yet another pot

I then won another pot against this same player; for the sake of this column, let's call him Dave. It was the very next hand after this big pot, when the limits had moved up to $20-$40 and Dave had rebought for $1,000 in chips. I was in the $20 small blind. Everybody checked to Dave in the cutoff seat, and he immediately made it $200 to go, acting very strong. I judged this to be an act, though, and considering the fact that he was in steal position and had just lost his entire stack on the previous hand, it looked like my A-9 offsuit could well be the best hand. I reraised to $1,000, the big blind folded, and, much to my surprise, Dave instantly threw away his cards. And when not much later I won yet another small pot, I had built my stack up to $3,000 at the end of the rebuy period. After the $1,300 add-on, I had $4,300. Because there had been just one rebuy at our table (the one I mentioned), and because no fewer than three players had declined the add-on option, I was now the chip leader at my table by far – despite the fact that I just had won three decent-sized pots. But, in spite of being the chip leader at my table, I had just a bit more than the average stack in the tournament.



Yet, I actually felt pretty pleased, and thought I was well-positioned to go far in this tournament – for the following reasons:

• I was the chip leader at my table.

• I had not made any tricky moves up to this point, and had shown winners when I needed to.

• I had a strong image.

• Most of my opponents were playing both predictably and fearfully.



All in all, knowing that quite a few of my opponents were afraid to make any kinds of moves, and respected both my game and my chip status, my game plan was this: I was going to try to keep chipping away by stealing some small pots, in order to accumulate a large stack before the good, dangerous, and aggressive players were moved to my table – in other words, before the relatively weak players at my table busted out. In Part II of this column, I'll discuss whether or not this game plan was successful.

Rolf "Ace" Slotboom has been a professional money player since 1998, specializing in limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha. He is the tournament reporter for almost all major European tournaments, and the Dutch commentator for Eurosport's EPT broadcasts. His first book, Hold'em on the Come: Limit Hold'em Strategy for Drawing Hands, is scheduled to be available in March 2006. Rolf can be contacted directly through his web site www.rolfslotboom.com.