First In, Last Out

rIn tournament poker, a good maxim to live by is the following:

"First in, last out."

This is definitely a macro poker concept, but it is always easier to be the one putting your opponent to the test by being the first to enter the pot ("first in"), rather than having to make the difficult decision and calling or raising. Tournaments are about scaring your opponents, so mixing up your game by raising with a lot of hands (as long as you can go undetected), especially in later positions (toward the dealer button), will often yield good results. You are forcing your opponent to play back with you, and they might not want to, for fear that you might have a monster. The person who does this best will often be the winner of the tournament ("last out"), or at least do better than a crazy who pushes with any two broadway cards (broadway is an A-K-Q-J-T straight).

Tonight I played poker at Ameristar like I often do on Tuesday nights. My first table was a relatively calm one, where raises were often working uncontested from all different positions. No one was especially good at my first table, so it made me more comfortable doing some raising with some A-crap and 7-9 suited kinds of hands. I was dealt A-A twice tonight and K-K once, and I only got action once on one of the aces. I never had a straight, flush, trips, or full house tonight, but my stealing/semi-bluffing opportunities were plentiful. Ultimately, I won the whole tournament. Let me tell you about some important thoughts I had along the way.

I was getting decent (but not great cards) in a lot of spots where I was acting after a raiser, which I disliked, and why betting is so powerful in no limit hold 'em. Hands like A-T, K-Q, 2-2, and J-T came up semi-frequently. Each time I would have needed to commit about 25-50% of my stack, and a re-raise seemed out of the question, so I would fold. I know many players in that room who would not take such a conservative approach, but I am not one of them. I want to be first in the pot, and unless I have a pretty big monster (A-Q or higher at minimum), I choose to play "solid." The problem is that this evening, this was occuring on most of my decent hands, especially in the last half of the tournament. When someone raises from late position, and I put him on A-x, two broadways, or a pair of some sort, I'm not thrilled about K-Q, which might be dominated, and it will most certainly be behind if the person calls a re-raise. So, patience it was. I did a lot of post-flop betting in position, especially when I had raised pre-flop, and I took down quite a few pots that way, as I was folding my K-Q hands face-up for all to see how "tight" I play. You know, like a rock.

Once we got down to 5-handed, I was the short stack, and the tournament was only going to pay four places. I was very concerned about being yet another bubble boy this year, so I opted to make a deal with the rest of the guys to get our $70 buyin back for a bust out at that point. Everyone agreed, and another guy busted out about two hands later.

Here's a tip: whenever you are destined for a split pot with A-rag, make sure you hit your kicker on the end to cinch the deal. I had A-4, and I went all-in for about 8 times the big blind with 4 people left, and I got an instant call by the small blind with an A-6. The flop came:

A-K-8

the turn:

A

the river:

4 (bam; full house)

Both of our kickers were dead, so we were bound to be simply splitting the big blind that had folded. But instead, I knocked him out of the tournament. That was my first bout with fortune.

There were then three remaining players, who were all very good competitors, and we all had about the same amount of chips. We opted to simply split $1500 of the pot 3-ways and play for the remaining $160.

Agressive betting against one guy (after he had repeatedly stolen my blinds) yielded a pot with what I speculate was either the best hand or close, as he seemed to have constant lengthy decisions throughout the hand. Ultimately, I had about half the chips in play, and I took him out. I then had a 5-1 chip lead, and several times I opted to call his all-in blind hoping just to get lucky without too much at risk. When I snap-called with something like a J-5 off-suit, he didn't quite know what to think, and I think it slowed him down from making moves like that too often. I did that about 4 times (after building chips up again when it failed), all of which I was either a very, very slight favorite or a slight dog, and I lost all of them, which sucks, but that is poker. Ultimately, we were both pushing all-in a lot, but when he pushed with 4-4 and I called with A-K, we literally coin-flipped for $160, as we had a comparable number of chips. I won.

So a long Ameristar tournament losing streak is broken. Thank goodness.