I love going for the triple-up in online poker tournaments. Especially if I haven’t been able to do anything early and have slipped to a below average stack. In fact I hate having a slightly under average stack! That is the worst scenario for me. I can deal with just about every other situation, but when I am beginning to get a little short-stacked in the early-to-middle stage of a tournament I am going to do something about it, and soon.

My favorite thing to do is find a spot where I can get 3-ways all-in before the flop with a middle pair or middle suited connectors; heck even 1-gapper suited connectors will do. You’d be surprised how often the other two players have each other dominated, leaving your cards live. Or, one player will have AK and the other a small pocket pair still leaving you in decent shape.

In order to get into this situation you need to see that it’s obvious two people are going all-in and all you have to do is join them. Here is an example from yesterday’s noon $20k guarantee at Poker Stars. There was a large raise early, a late shove, and just me left to act before the original raiser with:

So I push as well and of course the original bettor calls. My two opponents turn over:

and

Pretty good, no? They are gonna have a tough time hitting an ace. Flop comes:

Turn:

River:

And that’s the way I bust out of every tournament - by an opponent drawing thin on the river. OK collectively they had 8 outs, but what’s wrong with the other 34 cards in the deck? Why do they never hit?

When the triple up works I am in good shape and can start playing poker again. When it doesn’t, well, I got work to do anyway.

Technorati Tags: Poker, Poker stars, Poker tournament

One thing you can do to work on your game is save the hand histories of the more critical hands played during a session and review them the next day. This not only let’s you get an observer’s view of your own play, but after a while it gives you a better perspective of how general opponents are playing in your selected game and limit. There is one caveat to this exercise, however, and it is this: You won’t remember some of the decisions that were based on how your opponent seemed to be playing.

Here is an example from a Pot Limit Omaha cash game on Poker Stars that I saved from Friday to post today. After Superbowl weekend I now have no idea what I was thinking.

My hand:

According the hand history log I had $199 (in this $100 max buy-in game) and called the $1 blind in early position with this extremely marginal hand. There were two other callers, plus the big blind got a free flop.

The flop:

I bet the pot, $4.30, and got one caller to my immediate left.

The turn:

Again I bet the pot, $12.50, and again my opponent - the only other large stack at the table who started with $180 - calls.

The river:

I check and my opponent now bets the pot, $36.25. Well the log shows that I called and won the pot. Why I decided to save this hand I have no idea, and I have no idea what I was doing calling that river bet with the straight and spades out there. I can only hope that I had a good reason for attempting to pick off a bluff, like noticing this guy speeding around or something.

Now in my defense, the straight was a gutshot and the flush was back-doored, making them both less likely holdings for calling pot size bets on the flop and turn. And since the pot was laying me 2-1 I only have to catch a bluff on the river more than 1/3 of the time for it to be profitable, and in these 6-max games there seems to be a lot of bluffing.

Here is what my opponent had:

Don’t ask me what he was doing playing that in early position, or what in the world he was doing calling the flop bet, or why he didn’t just check down a possible winner on the river. If he thought two pair was beat why did he call the turn, and if he didn’t, he didn’t think he was value betting the river with a pot size bet into a flush board did he?

Well?

The only thing I can figure is that my opponent was another one of those NL Holdem players taking a shot at a PLO game while having no idea how to play. That’s what makes these games so profitable, and it’s why I play them.

Technorati Tags: Poker, Online poker

As I ponder my Pot Limit Omaha cash-game results, two things come to mind. The first is that even though the accountant in me hates the move to 6-max tables, the poker player in me prefers them - because I just love to pound.

You see, it costs much more to play at 6-max tables from both a blind pressure and rake perspective. You are forced to play more hands as a result, and you can’t make as much either. The accountant in me hates that. And since aggressive play is what gives you an edge, you need to be in there raising and betting if you are playing. The poker player in me loves that!

The second thing? Oh yeah. As much as I hate to admit it, I owe much of my PLO cash-game results to making good calls. This is a tricky thing that requires good judgment. Here is an example from a .50/1.00 game ($100 Max) at Poker Stars that I was in last night.

My Hand:

One caller in front of me in middle position. I decide to play this hand, so I make my standard entering the pot play of mini-raising to $2. The late players fold, but both blinds and the limper call so we take it 4-handed with me in position.

Flop:

The blinds check, the preflop limper bets $5 (the pot) and I make a mini-raise to $10. The blinds fold and the original bettor re-pops it to $30, a $20 raise. I call.

Turn:

My opponent bets $65, a few chips shy of the pot. I call. (Should I have? I didn’t think that 6 hit him for some reason. This guy seemed to be steaming a little.)

River:

Now that river is trouble. About 300 straights are now possible. But my opponent certainly could have been pushing a flush draw, especially if he had two pair plus a flush draw, don’t you think? And if that is his hand, it would be a miracle if he had a straight now also.

Anyway he bets all-in $65.50, well short of the pot size. Given my reasoning above and the odds that the pot was laying me on that bet (which I had covered) I called.

His Hand:

So it would seem that my judgment in regards to my opponent steaming was accurate, and that’s what won it for me. He was pushing a pure nut flush draw, and a weak one at that - being as he was blocking one of his own suits. I mean, what was he going nuts on the flop for? His hand is a decided dog against anyone committed to giving him action, as it must have certainly seemed that I was.

I consider his starting hand borderline at best. Yeah I know mine isn’t winning any prizes either, but I like it a lot better. It’s the kind of hand I like to try and run down aces with when the money is deep. I would have to be in a pretty fast mode to even play his hand, especially under the gun like that.

Technorati Tags: Poker, Pot limit omaha, Online poker