Fear

Last week I was in Vegas. I played some tournaments here and there. My favorite tournament in Vegas has always been the noon Venetian, and so I played again on Friday.

Usually, when I'm playing in a deeper-stacked tournament at my buy-in level (7500 chips and 30-minute levels, $150), I find a few fish, but I rarely find people who I think are incredibly better than me. Incrementally yes, but monumentally, never.

Until Friday. My first table, I play a few hands, get lucky a few times, etc. But then a new guy gets transferred to my table. On first glance, he looks like a thug who likes to brawl in back allies. I'm positive this image really enhanced his actions at the table as well.

This guy wasn't your typical hyper-aggressive. Those guys are incredibly easy to trap. No, this guy was willing to build huge pots, sometimes with nothing, and sometimes with huge hands, and bet amounts that either got people to call or fold at his bidding. It was really sick. It was the first time in my history in Las Vegas that I was hoping to be moved to another table. I believe at the time my table broke, around level 7, I had about 11,000 (well below average), and he had about 85,000. Pure domination.

Which leads me to the point of my post. A loose-aggressive image in a deep-stacked tournament might be as close to optimal as No Limit Hold 'Em can get. Your opponents rarely have gigantic hands with which they are willing to go broke. A bit of maneuvering and a lot of angry scowl can go a long way, especially if your reading ability and intuition are tuned properly. It is definitely a style that I am more comfortable with when playing online, for some reason, but wow is it effective live.

This guy was a hold 'em master. I bet I'll be seeing him in the future when I play there, as I'm guessing he's killing that tournament. I wished I would have taken his picture, but I'll never forget his face as long as I live.

P.S. 17th place out of 119 for me in this particular tourney. Quite unfortunate. No cash (top 13). It is the deepest I've gone there. $4000-ish for first. I'll get it someday.