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The other day I was playing some cash and struck up a conversation with another player. We were discussing tournaments and the profitability and playability within them. It ended up being a very interesting talk. That will be the topic of discussion for this week.

I ask my readers, if you have poker questions about hands, general strategy, or anything else poker you’d like answered, send me an e-mail and I will incorporate those inquiries into future newsletters. I look forward to the responses.

Today’s Poker Advice:

Tournament poker is a fascinating thing. There are a myriad of variables to digest every single hand. From the starting positions, stack sizes, stage of the tournament, to the players you are playing, and so on. It is almost impossible to master the decision making skills it takes to be elite in the tournament world. Every hand is a new problem and every decision comes with different information.

One of the most important factors of a tournament is how they are structured. They are designed to increase the blinds, reduce the stack sizes, and force players to make decisions for all of their chips. This makes the variance in tournament poker very high. Some people might argue that because of this we will never have the data to determine who the best player in the world is, since the ones performing the best could be statistical outliers. Regardless of that theory, how can one survive in the tournament world?

First things first, capital is needed to play tournaments. If someone plans on giving it a go as a tournament player, a lot of disposal income or savings is needed. I would say, at a minimum, a tournament player should have 25 to 50 buyins available. If you would rather take a chance once in a while at a tournament, that is okay as well. Make sure you can afford the loss though. It is realistic that even a good player playing in 50 tournaments, might not get the return on investment they hope for, or be profitable. That is why I believe it is imperative to have other income that will support your tournament habits.

The next vital characteristic of a successful tournament player is a positive mindset. You will lose. You will lose often. You will get bad beat. It will STING! Keeping perspective, focusing on the decision making aspect and not on the results, is how one can find themselves in a good mental space. There will always be something to learn. If we bemoan our bad luck and never took anything from the experience, we wouldn’t get better at our craft. Learn and move on. This is a great lesson at the poker tables and in life. The poker world is continuously getting tougher, so you must study to stay ahead of the curve.

Finding the right tournament to play is also an important decision. The buyin should be within your bankroll. The rake of the event should be under 20% (some small to medium events are raked closed to this figure, such as 18%. This is about my threshold for supporting an event. Beware of the rake being too high as the structure is likely fast and higher rake removes money from the prize pool and from your pocket. I think 15% is appropriate, and smaller for bigger buyins.) You should feel comfortable playing the tournament. Don’t jump right into the deep end without feeling confident to give it your best shot. Know the structure of the event. Is it a one day tournament? How many chips do you start with? How long are the levels? When will play end for the night? How often will I get a break? When can I eat dinner? These are all important aspects so you can plan your day and plan for success in the event.

The last and most important thing to remember when playing a tournament is to HAVE FUN!!! If you aren’t enjoying the experience then what are you doing it for?!? The tournament scene is a competitive one, but it is also a social setting where you are around people all day. Take some time off in-between hands to relax a little, socialize, and take in the moment. When you find yourself deep in an event, all in as a coin flip, you should remember that the result is not that serious. We are gambling after all. Enjoy the ride.

With all of that said, tournaments can be a great place to win money and prove your poker knowledge. It might take a long time and a lot of money to realize this. Be prepared for the journey. From my experience, it took eight years to win six figures in a tournament. Eight years!! I was playing hundreds of tournaments online a month, and forty plus live events a year. Deep in big tournaments I would lose a key coinflip, take a bad beat, or be on the wrong end of a cooler. I couldn’t get past the hump. I’m still searching for the tournament success I desire.

The only way to succeed is to never quit. Get better, continue to grow, never stop fighting. Good luck!

Poker is all conjecture.
conjecture [kuhn-jek-cher]:
1) the formation or expression of an opinion or theory without sufficient evidence for proof.
2) an opinion or theory so formed or expressed; guess; speculation.

I ask my readers, if you have poker questions about hands, general strategy, or anything else poker you’d like answered, send me an e-mail, tweet, or DM, and I will incorporate those inquiries into future newsletters. I look forward to the responses.

Today’s Poker Advice:

Poker is a game where we formulate our opinion based on assumptions and incomplete information. Over time we gain info to compute, such as what starting hands someone plays and from which positions, but this too can change over time. Because of these factors, we will usually be guessing and almost never be completely certain.

This is also the great thing about no limit holdem! Although we can’t necessarily prove our opinion, there is enough substantial material present to us to make a decision. This includes, stack size, table position, history, structure of event, players remaining, personality of opponent, capital available, and so on… There are two beliefs I want to share that go along with the word conjecture.

Firstly, we must determine what information is valid at the current moment. We must sift through all the data we’ve received to make the most accurate assumptions, which will turn into the best possible decisions. Start with what you’ve been able to prove at showdown from your opponent then build off of that. Digest what your image is, how does your opponent view you? What has happened in the last thirty to sixty minutes in the game? How might this change the way the opponent plays their hand? Don’t let one piece of information persuade you to make a decision if it isn’t supported by another. Build from the ground up to avoid speculation.

The most important thing we can learn from conjecture is not to be too hard on ourselves! Poker is a game that involves a large aspect of luck. We do our best to reduce uncertainty and make sound choices. Sometimes this goes our way, sometimes we get unlucky and lose, other times we are just plain wrong! This is the nature of the beast. Embrace it. We will be wrong, we will be wrong often. This should not deter us from our process of making the best judgment possible. Go into your games being sure that you’ll face uncertainty. Do your best to tackle the challenge. Confidence will be gained from the hard work to prove your assumptions, and a better poker player you will become.

This week I will be discussing at what point we should rely on physical tells to make a decision. They can be a big part of making a decision in a poker hand, but only if we use them correctly!

I ask my readers, if you have poker questions about hands, general strategy, or anything else poker you’d like answered, send me an e-mail and I will incorporate those inquiries into future newsletters. I look forward to the responses.

Today’s Poker Advice:

Physical tells at the poker table are something that can be very deceiving. One player might get nervous or excited when they have the nuts, while another might do the same when they are bluffing. Other people could be sporadic and giving off too much to decipher at one point in time. Also, people can give off fake tells! For these reasons, I think physical tells need to be assessed in a minor way.

What that means is we should make sense of the hand first, analyzing our opponent and how they might play their range up until this point, then figure out how likely it is that they are bluffing or have a high value hand. That’s not meant to minimize the fact that physical tells exist, but since they differ vastly from person to person, we can’t always rely on them. Therefore, we should use them as a final measurement when making a decision.

Now there are times when it is obvious. Our opponent is screaming strength or weakness. Their pulse is beating through the skin on their neck! Again, this is why it is best for us to replay the hand and try to make sense of what they could possibly have. We don’t necessarily know what that means for this specific player. Once we think we have a tell on someone, it is best to confirm or deny it with evidence from a showdown.

Some common tells to look for:

Overall body language
Positioning in chair, how comfortable do they look? Are they attentive to what’s happening in the hand? How has any of this changed during the course of the hand? What are they doing with their arms, hands, eyes, etc?

Pulse
This is a classic one. Pulse can be noticed typically on the neck or wrists. It means their heart rate is up from resting and is usually significant one way or another. Either nervousness or excitement.

Breathing
This can go hand in hand with pulse. Sometimes they are correlated, but notice the breath to determine how relaxed someone is.

Movement with chips
How someone throws their chips into a pot can be telling. Some might use the same technique when they are comfortable and a different style otherwise.

Timing
How fast did the player act? Did they think for a very long time before making a move? Did they snap move all in without thinking?

When it comes to using tells at the poker table, they can be very rewarding at specific moments. If you try to read people too often, it can hurt you in the long run. Take your time to make sense of the hand first, while analyzing your opponent and their play throughout the course of the hand. Once you get to the river, you should have a better idea of where you stand, and after you’ve considered all the present variables, then take into account your opinion on the physical cues the villain is giving you.

On the flip side, be careful what information you might be giving off yourself. I was able to notice tells in other people by being aware of what I was doing in certain spots. Once I realized my actions, it allowed me to correct the mistakes and look for those same tells in other people.

Sometimes the tells are obvious, other times they are just random. Choose wisely!

Thank you once again for joining me. This week I want to discuss the decision on when to risk our tournament life in an event. I found myself in an interesting spot earlier this week and think there are good points to be made for both arguments.

I ask my readers, if you have poker questions about hands, general strategy, or anything else poker you’d like answered, send me an e-mail and I will incorporate those inquiries into future newsletters. I look forward to the responses.

Today’s Poker Advice:

When should we go all in preflop in a tournament? Well, this decision is usually made when we are short-stacked, or the pot has ballooned to a size nearing or over our stack size. Most of the time we will be short-stacked when faced with “all-in” choices. Sometimes 25bbs can be enough to move in over a raise. Other times, we will want to be the all-in-initiator when we are 15bbs or below. But how exactly do we know when to do what?

Like most answers to tough poker questions, it depends. If we have a very strong hand and can induce someone to give us more chips with a weak holding, a smaller raise can be most profitable.

Example to raise (strong range): We look down at KK on the button with 14bbs. We raise to 2.2x the big blind, because the small blind or big blind might move all in or call our raise and give us more chips if they connect.

Example to shove (weaker range): We look down at JsTs on the button with 14bbs. We move all in, because we will win the blinds and antes (~2.5x bbs or nearly 20% our stack size) often, and if we are called we will have good equity against hands that call us. Smaller pairs, Ax, AQ/AK. It’s not worth it for us to raise and fold, if our equity plays well against a calling range, and we don’t have a made hand.

The situation I encountered today went like this:
A new player with 60k in chips limps for 1600 in second position.
I raise to 6500 with AdKh and 25k remaining.
Everyone folds, the limper calls.
Flop 6d 7d 4c (~17k in the pot)
We both check.
Turn Td
We both check again.
River 7c
Opponent bets 5.5k, I call.

Now I don’t think the results of this hand matter much, in terms of if I won or lost. I like how I played it. Of course I could have bet/shoved the flop, but I didn’t think that was the best play at the time against an unknown limp calling range. On the river, I am 50/50 as to call with my ace high (and ace high flush blocker) or fold my ace high. I believe my hand is fairly “face up” and I can be bluffed or value bet here. Moving all in also went through my mind, which is likely unnecessary since my hand can beat a lot of bluffs. Calling is player / situation dependent and I don’t have enough info to determine the best play. Also, I am getting a good price to call and me having 20k or 25k in chips doesn’t make a huge difference to my tournament. What is important is determining if I should have moved all in preflop or not at the beginning of this hand.

The fact that I was able to see five cards, in position, and still had a chance to lose the hand gives merit to moving all in preflop. What if more people called behind me? How often will I win enough chips post flop to make my raise profitable, or how often will I lose chips? Is that worth the money that can be immediately won if I win the pot now, or the full double up against weaker ranges I might get if I shove and someone calls me?

When the pot is limped to me there is 5800 in the middle. I had ~30k in chips. If I move all in and win, I increase my stack by 20% with no risk. If I raise, I might have to play a pot in or out of position, with my stack nearing close to the size of the pot.

I raised to 6500 because I had a top of the range hand and I wanted to get value from the weaker range of my opponent, or opponents left to act. This is fine reasoning, but my hand is vulnerable to missing the flop. Maybe if I had AK suited, or a pair like JJ+ I would be comfortable with more callers or seeing a flop against one player. Therefore, I think this was a better spot for me to move all in. Even though I am playing almost 20bbs, there is enough money in the middle to pick up, coupled with the fact I will be out of position against half of the table moving forward. Also, my opponent limped in earlier position, which might make his range stronger than a late position limp.

The lesson to be learned here is that if we can be all-in and not at risk in a tournament, we don’t ever have to worry about losing the event. Sometimes it is best to risk our whole stack to apply the most pressure to others around us, since we won’t have the best circumstances to play flops moving forward. It is beneficial to survive in a tournament, regardless of stack size. If we have chips, we always have a possibility to win.

In this specific example, my opponent had 8d9d, for the straight flush! There was no chance of me making him fold after we saw the flop. This hand plays quite well against my holding, and shows why it is best to move all in preflop in some of these situations. We can either push the action to the maximum, and force strong ranges to call us and weak ranges to fold, or raise and allow the weak ranges come in. Be careful with which holdings you choose to do either or. Calculating risk is what makes poker great!!!

Welcome to Cre8ive Coaching Newsletter #07! It has almost been exactly a year since my last e-mail (one day away.) What a good time to start this Newsletter again and be more diligent with providing advice, strategy, and content to poker enthusiasts and friends who have subscribed to this list. I have spent the last year working on me, my poker game, and reflecting how I want to operate within the community. I have struggled with putting myself and my knowledge out there, but I enjoy helping people, writing, and giving back… so we are back and better than ever!!!

I ask my readers, if you have poker questions about hands, general strategy, or anything else poker you’d like answered, send me an e-mail and I will incorporate those inquiries into future newsletters. I look forward to the responses.

Today’s Poker Advice:

It all starts with your starting hand! The basic factors for determining which hands you should first enter the pot with:

1) Table position
2) Hand value
3) Stack size
4) Opponents left to act

The top 10% of hands can usually always be played (regardless of stack size) if you are the first one in with a raise. These hands consist of pairs 77-AA, AQo+, ATs+, other suited broadways like JTs+ and T9s+. This range is your solid baseline and can be played from under the gun forward. With fewer players left to act, this range can widen to include all suited aces, suited direct connectors (67s, 78s, 89s, J9s, Q9s, K9s), and a couple additional pairs 44-66.

When we get to the cutoff, we should be playing a much wider range since we will often have position in the hand and there are only a few players remaining. That range looks like all pairs 22-AA, all broadway hands JTo+, even more suited direct connectors like 45s+, 56s+, and with the occasional connected suited hand 86s, 97s.

When it folds to us on the button, our range should be close to 50% of hands which would include any ace, A2o+, A2s+, K2s+, Q6s+, J6s+, even more gapped suited connectors T6s+, 96s+, 85s+, and as low as 34s.

How we play these hands might differ depending on our stack size. If we have chips, then we should mostly be operating within our range listed above. It might be beneficial to deviate slightly away from the range if we have good, aggressive opponents left to act, or play a bit looser if we have weak opponents remaining. Become more comfortable playing postflop by widening your late position ranges and defining the range of your opponents. If we are short on chips, then we must change our complete strategy and going all in with a specific range might be the most profitable play instead of raising and playing flops. This usually happens with ~15bbs or less. I would refer to M theory and M charts/short stack shove charts for more information on this.

The premise for choosing a starting hand is: the earlier the position, the stronger the hand. The later the position, with fewer opponents, our range can increase tremendously. Don’t be too wide preflop to avoid trouble!

 

Thank you for taking part in the Cre8ive Coaching Newsletter! Head over to www.Cre8iveCoaching.com for more information regarding one-on-one coaching, or connecting with me. Also use the social media links below. Best of luck! -Tristan

Welcome to Newsletter number six! I hope the cards have been treating everyone fairly. They have been equitable for me. I finished 22nd out of 911 entrants in the $3500 WPT at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. Darryll Fish ending up winning. Congratulations to him!

Last newsletter I told everyone not to worry about being a short stack. It is going to happen almost all the time. There were a few strategies I touched on and I want to dive deeper into M-ratio today.

Today’s Poker Advice:

M-ratio, M-Factor, M, etc… is a simple formula used to calculate how many rounds around the table we can survive if we fold. It takes our stack size and divides by the addition of the small blind, big blind, and antes. Let’s say our stack is 6000 and the blinds are 200/400 with a 50 ante at a nine handed table:
6000 / (200 + 400 + 450) = 5.7

Being exact with our math isn’t always important when calculating our M. [6000/1000 = 6] We can approximate and play accordingly. If we are close to the money in a tournament, we might want to factor that into our short stack decision making and tighten our ranges.

The next thing to consider is our table position. If we are short and want to move all in, the more people left to act behind us, the greater the chance of someone calling with a strong hand. M theory works because it gives us a barometer of when the pot is worth risking our stack, depending on what hands we have and what might call us. If it folds to us on the cutoff, we only have the button and blinds to beat. If we shove X percent of hands and only get called 70-80% of the time, that means:

* We are winning one M the majority of the time.
* If we do get called, we will have decent equity to double up.
* We are at risk, but by making an aggressive, profitable play in a spot where we won’t always get called.

M Chart for Shoving Ranges

To the left is a chart that will shows what ranges we should play and from what position. Don’t mind the graphic, it’s just tilted! Save it to your phone or computer.

If our M is 4 or less, we mostly want to be moving all in. If we have a higher M of 6-7 or 15-20bbs, we have more options than that. We can raise our really strong hands and bluffs (hands that could see a flop but not call all in), while shoving weaker hands to win the blinds and antes without action. Hope this quick lesson on M along with the chart helps you with your short stack game!

Best of luck,
-Tristan Wade

Thank you for participating in the newsletter. It is nice to connect with the masses and hopefully help you improve, somehow. Lately I have been playing cash games and some tournaments near my home in south Florida, at the Hard Rock in Hollywood. Last week, I cashed (about double my buy-in) 102nd place out of 1366 runners in the WPTDeepStacks $1100 Main Event. This weekend, I am playing the $3500 WPT main. We just finished Day 1B and I bagged 114k going to 600/1200/200a. It’s a great stack size now, but I need to remember this one thing…

Today’s Poker Advice:

I won’t always have this many chips, so don’t get attached! Who doesn’t hate being a short stack? It’s much more fun to have chips, play hands, and see flops… but this luxury carries a lot of responsibility. What if you stumble and step into it; play a huge pot you aren’t ready for. Or get unlucky, stop making hands and hitting cards? This happens to everyone. Even the chip leader needs to be prepared to embrace the short stack! Their luck could run out too.

Almost always, at some point in the tournament you will be short (20bbs or less), this changes how the game is played, but also makes it much more mathematical and solvable. If you study which hands you should play from which positions, along with different short stack strategies (such as: raising as a bluff, 3b as a bluff, shoving over a raise, open shoving, flat calling and when) then being a short stack becomes a breeze! Do not stress about it. Become knowledgable and study the topic. Start with M theory, then once you’ve used up the free resources (there’s a lot) you can venture into programs that cost money to use, like holdemresources.

Hard Rock Homecourt!

Today at noon we restart the WPT $3500 with 343 players remaining and 117 making the money. The eventually winner will receive over $500,000. My goal is to become the champion. I have to work towards this one step at a time. One day at a time. One hand at a time. First, I’ll make the money, then the final table, then grab ALL the cash!!!

Best of luck. Run good, play better.
-Tristan Wade

Welcome to 2018!
What are some things you want to accomplish this year?
How will you develop your poker game?

My 2017 ended with a trip to Sydney, Australia, where I played a few WSOP Circuit events. My only decent result was finishing 7th out of 341 players in the $1100 NLH 6-max event. Another deep run but no big money. That’s okay though. Tournament variance is tough to conquer. We must keep the right (positive) perspective when playing poker. There’s always room for improvement.

Today’s Poker Advice:

When I go to play a session I like to enter the game with a focused frame of mind. Take my seat, say hello, observe the players, stay off my phone, and focus on the game. I watch the action and also my tablemates. Who are they? What are they doing when they aren’t in a hand? What can I learn about their perspective? I try to be objective, while digesting the information. Also, I don’t want to make complete assumptions based on one hand. We need more information than that. We don’t know what has happened up until now.

But what does all this say about me? Lately I have done a poor job identifying how my opponents react to me, which has led to a few bad decisions. This has to deal with gameflow, which is basically someone’s perspective of the game based on what has been happening. A player might be a calling station, but if they’ve recently been incorrect a few times, be less likely to call down. If we can register what has happened up until now, pinpoint how someone is feeling at that exact moment, and what they think of us, we will make better decisions overall.

 Hard Rock Homecourt!

Over the next couple weeks I’ll be playing a bunch of tournaments in Hollywood, Florida. Notably the WPTDS $1100 $1MM GTD and the WPT $3500 $2MM GTD. Seminole Hard Rock has been my home card room ever since I started playing poker, but I’ve never won anything there! It’s time for that to change. Hopefully I can pull everything together, play great, and get lucky!!!

Best of luck. Run good, play better.
-Tristan Wade

Another Deep Run! (12th place)

Last week I played the $1100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event in Oceanside, California. The tournament had 326 entries and I finished in 12th place. The tournament prior to that, I finished 7th place. I was close to making back to back final tables!

I had many interesting hands on the way to the final table, but I want to accent one mistake I made at the end of day one. Below I show the math behind the hand and other factors to think about or watch out for when you are playing a poker tournament.

Cre8ive Coaching Hand of the Week:

The hand I want to discuss comes from the end of Day 1, when there is about 15 minutes left in the night. I find myself sitting on a 20bb (48k) stack and I was just moved to a new table.

Early position limps for 2400. I am on the hijack with AsKs and raise to 8k. The button moves all in for 50k. He is a competent player that has been active (shoved twice over the chip leaders open) with a short stack. The small blind, who is an older gentleman with over 115k stack, mulls over the decision and then finally moves all in. Action is now back on me.

I usually would never fold in these spots. I am getting a great price. I have to call ~40k to win ~160k. I am ahead of the first shovers range, but I believe the second all in has a hand like JJ/QQ/AK. My fear of getting eliminated 15 minutes before the night is over sets in. I didn’t want to grind another full day of a poker tournament. I’m also worried about sharing cards with the second shover. I decide to make an awful decision, based on fear, and fold. That fear distracted me, clouded my judgment and took my thoughts away from the proper variables to analyze.

That is the lesson in this hand. We play a card game where we have to push our emotion, ego, and fear to the side and only focusing on making the proper decision. I failed to do that. Let’s look at the math of the scenario.

Above is a picture of a range calculation from PokerStove. PokerStove is a program that is basically a poker calculator, but for hand ranges. A range is a group of hands that we think someone would play in this fashion. In our example, we are analyzing one hand vs two opponents’ range of hands.

I assigned both players in the hand a range. The first shover, I gave him pairs 77 and above, plus AQ/AK suited and unsuited. The second player who went all in, his range was JJ or better and AK. We could make an argument he doesn’t have AA/KK because of how he acted prior to moving all in, which would improve our odds.

With me getting 4-1 on my money, I need 20% equity to make this a profitable call (4-1 means I need to be good 1 out of 5 times, hence the 20% equity needed.) As we can see, I am close to 28% here. Some people might say “Tristan, it’s only 8%! That isn’t that big of a margin, you should pass on this spot!!”

The margin of 8% doesn’t seem like a lot, but in poker tournaments it’s a big edge! Some players would make the argument for taking any edge. What this math shows us is that this play is a profitable call. In poker, we want to focus on making WINNING plays, even if they are marginal. Also, if we widen the ranges to include AJs/AJo/KQs/other hands we might dominate of the first shover, and remove AA/KK from the second players range, we now have even more equity, almost 32%.

This large edge, mixed with the fact that I can re-enter the tournament, along with the possibility of me having 50bbs+ going into Day 2 rather than 15bbs, means this is a slam dunk call!

Luckily for me, I made the wrong play and was able to recover from it. Even though I passed on this obvious winning spot, I grinded my short stack to finish 12th in the event. Had I made this call, I might have been in a better position to win the event and surpassed my 12th place ranking. I’ll never know.

The point is: Don’t let fear distract you from making a winning/profitable play. Focus on the right variables. Think about players hands in ranges. Also consider the pot odds and math behind all situations you find yourself in. Then, make the best decision possible.

 Good Luck Catching Fish!

In November, I will be spending most of my time in Florida. My plan is to coach and play cash/tourneys here. The Cre8ive Coaching website should be finished soon and stay on the lookout for more newsletters. If anyone has comments or content suggestions, send them my way!

Best of luck to all of us at the tables!

Good day! The first ever Cre8ive Coaching Newsletter went out last week. There were free coaching opportunities, along with gear giveaways.

I have sent those e-mails to the winners, so check your e-mail and see if you won!

I also mentioned I would be playing the World Poker Tour DeepStacks (WPTDS) Iowa tournament. The event finished on Monday and had 118 players. I finished 7th place. Below I will talk about some of the hands from the final table.

Cre8ive Coaching Hands of the Week:

Today I will discuss two different scenarios I faced at the final table, as a short stack playing 14 big blinds or less. Playing a short stack is one of the toughest things to do in a poker tournament, and knowing what hands to play and how to play them will give you an advantage!

HAND 1:

The first hand took place when action folded to me on the button playing seven handed. I had a 280k stack at blinds of 10k/20k/3k ante. This means there is 51k in the middle to fight for.

I looked down at 97cc and thought what to do. With two very solid players in the blinds, I believe it is profitable to move all in. I will win the 51k often, and when they do wake up with a top 20% hand that they decide to play, I will have decent equity with this suited connector.

Instead, I felt like I had some room to maneuver, and raised to 45k. The big blind called. The flop landed Ks 7d 5d. I flopped middle pair. He checked, I bet 27k. I like my bet here because it is a dry textured board for the most part. I don’t expect my opponent to have 86, 46, or 89 often unless it is suited. Usually I will win the hand with the best of it. He thought for a while, grabbing chips to raise, but just called.

The turn brought the Tc and he lead into me for 100k. This was a weird line. It seemed like he wanted to put me all in on the flop, and now he was betting into me. I don’t think this was a very strong hand, but more of a combo draw or maybe a weak king or ten. I mulled over the spot and ended up folding. My opponent later told me he had JTdd.

HAND 2:

The second hand finds me with 200k under the gun, still seven handed. With 51k in the middle, I am winning 25% of my stack if everyone folds. I look down at 44 and move all in. A solid player to my left immediately moved all in over the top of me, and I knew I was in trouble. He rolled over aces, and the flop had me drawing dead!

I would be shoving a tight-ish range from UTG here. Probably around 15-20% of hands, and almost all pairs. I think we could make an argument for folding 22, but depending what hands my opponents will fold, and which ones they will call with, dictates my shoving range. Either way, folding 44 was not an option! As I will usually be flipping, or at WORST 20%. I was 20%, but 0% after the flop.

All in all, I think I played these hands, and the rest of the final table to the best of my abilities. There is always room to analyze hands you’ve played, and become a better player. Which is why I dissected these two scenarios to make sure I didn’t make an error! Next final table I will be even more prepared.

 Next Stop: WPTDS Oceanside

I’m writing this e-mail next to some sea lions near Oceanside, California!

I will be playing another WPTDS $1100 Main Event, hoping to best my 7th place finish in the last tournament! Follow along at WPTDSLive.com.