No-Limit Hold'em Tournament in Tunica

As I mentioned in my last column about the World Poker Open in Tunica, I was able to realize a nice result, getting to the final table. Let me give you a blow-by-blow narration.

In the $500 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament, the number of entrants was so big that two hotels were used, and about 30 people who tried to enter at the last minute regrettably had to be turned away. There were 950 entrants. This was the first time I had played in a tournament with anywhere near that number of players. There are simply not enough top players to adequately fill a field of this size. I thought my starting table was a soft one – until I looked around. All the tables appeared soft, by the standards I had been used to, and were loaded mostly with strangers. Of course, some of the unknown players (unknown to me, anyway) turned out to be decent, but a lot of the new faces lacked experience. Some of the poker was atrocious.

We started with $800 in chips and $5-$15 blinds, a nice structure. My first test came when I picked up the K Q in the big blind and several people limped in. I declined to raise the pot, even though I liked my hand. The flop came favorably for me, K-J-4 rainbow, giving me top pair with a good kicker. I bet $50 into a pot slightly larger than that. Everyone folded around to the last player, who raised me $370 all in, a strong move with no flush draw on the board. What should I do?

This player had lost about half of his stack by playing bad hands, so I decided to call him. It turned out he had K-10, the type of hand I had hoped he would have. He had only three outs twice, failed to improve, and I got off to a nice start in the event.

My next test came when I was in the cutoff seat and everyone in front of me folded. I held the A 3 and decided to open for $75 to steal the blinds. A fellow who appeared to be in his late 20s called me from the small blind. The flop was a boomer for me: 5 3 3, giving me trip threes with the boss kicker. He bet $110 into me, and had $510 left. What should I do? On the previous hand, he had been in the big blind, the pot was raised and reraised to him, and he agonized a long time before folding. He said afterward that he had pocket eights. In my mind, he could have folded that kind of hand a lot faster. On this hand, I did not think he was betting a pocket pair, or he would have reraised me preflop. I figured his most likely hand was a flush draw for him to bet into me, but he could have had something else. Should I just call, hoping the flush does not come, and give him some rope to hang himself? I did not like the idea of letting a card come off, because there were also lots of straight draws (although one would think he would have bigger cards than the ones that had flopped), and I thought he might go with me if I put him all in. I raised him, and he folded. Afterward, one of my friends (who is a better player than I am) said he would have just called, to lure him into betting again, but I think my play was reasonable.

You will get a big laugh out of this next hand, although the joke was on me. There was a woman in the game who was obviously a rookie at no-limit hold'em. In fact, she was wearing a "Poker School Online" cap, and had attended my lecture to that group the day before. We had gone an hour and a half into the tournament when this hand came up. She had not raised any hands preflop up to this point. All of a sudden, when she was under the gun, she became very nervous and started shaking uncontrollably. This was the first time she had gotten the shakes. It was obvious she wanted to raise the pot, but could not decide how much to wager. The blinds were $10-$25. After about 15 seconds, she popped it $200 more, then put her hand down under her chips and folded her arms across her chest, still shaking. I was in the cutoff seat staring at two kings. We each had started the hand with about a grand. Poker is not about what you have, but how you match up. She sure looked to me like a woman with two aces. I threw my kings in the muck. That is the only time in my life that I have ever folded two kings preflop for a single raise. No one called, and the lady flashed her hand – two jacks. (Later on in the session, she got the shakes twice more, and had two kings each time, so I was not that far off the mark with my fold.)

Do not think I am always so meek preflop. I may have set some kind of weird record for winning pots with bad hands. When we were playing with a $50 ante and $200-$400 blinds, I picked up a 3-2 in the big blind, and was fortunate enough to get a ground-skinner (everyone folded). The very next hand, in the small blind, I picked up a 3-2 again. Everyone folded to me, so I raised to $2,000 straight, "going for the world record." I felt morally obliged to do that. The big blind folded, and I had just won two consecutive tournament pots with a 3-2. I have no idea if this tied or set a record, but it is the only time in my whole poker career that it has happened to me.

My stack kept growing, despite the fact that I was not catching big hands or drawing out. My timing was very good. I won a nice pot with A-K when a guy moved all in with A-Q. I had two nines, called a player who had moved all in, and caught him with A-8 suited. I won. Pretty soon, I found myself in the money (the event paid 36 places). The blinds were now very high and players were dropping like flies. Although I never had what you would call a huge stack, I was never under pressure from the blinds, whereas most of the other players were. Eventually, I reached the final table in decent shape.

I find that when I have a real nice tournament, the most important factor is that my good hands match up well enough to win the pot. I don't run into a trap, like holding a big overpair and running into a set, or having two queens against two kings, and so forth. The main thing is not to get ironed out. Holding monsters or making drawouts is seldom usual for me when I have a good tournament. I am OK as long as those other guys don't hold over me.

In my next column, I will tell you about the final table of this event.

Editor's note: Bob Ciaffone's latest book is Middle Limit Holdem Poker (332 pages, $25 plus $9.95 shipping and handling), co-authored with Jim Brier. This work and his other poker books, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Holdem Poker, can be ordered through Card Player. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons. E-mail [email protected] or call (989) 792-0884. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can download Robert's Rules of Poker for free. On the Internet, he is an "expert" on RoyalVegasPoker.com and an affiliate of PartyPoker.com.