In any tournament you play, whether sit and go or multi-table, you have to get lucky to win. Don't let anyone tell you differently. In a typical multi-table tournament, you will have to go all in about 10 times in order to win the tournament. Some of those times you will have the best hand, and other times you will be a dog. That is the nature of poker. From time to time, you have to get lucky. I'm writing this because I won a tournament tonight and had to get lucky a couple of times. One of the players kept saying that I was a predictable fish and that I was such a bad player. Whenever a player would get lucky, the others would start calling that other player a donkey, a fish, and talk about how they play badly. What they fail to understand, is that according to the action, it may have been the best play.
Early in the tournament, I play pretty tight, and don't want to race off a lot of chips. I'm looking to slowly build a stack by playing small pots and generally only playing big hands. So I get AK on the button, and there is an early position minimum raise. I just call with position and no other players in the pot, other than the blinds. Flop comes K-7-5, rainbow. Early bets half the pot. I know I'm either a huge favorite here, or a big dog if he flopped a set or has aces. So I just call. The jack of hearts comes on the turn, putting two hearts on board. He bets the same amount on the turn. I raise to 450, he folds. SO with this hand, I set up my image and I also got the chip lead early. So that helped me build my stack to about 4000 with the blinds at 20/40. The blinds are now 30/60 and I still have the chip lead. The same player that made that early min raise play limps under the gun. He had been a generally weak player. I get KK in the cutoff and raise to 220. He min re-raises. He only had about 900 chips when the hand started. So I stopped and thought about it for a second. There was now 750 in the pot, costing me 160 to call. But what could he have? I have the second best hand in Hold'em. I decided that if I'm gonna play the hand it is going to be for all of his chips. SO I re-raise to put him in and he calls with AA. Sucks when you hit a cold deck like that. The flop came A-J-10. UGH!!! the turn brought a 9, and the river was a Q. That was the first time I had to get lucky. That's when the typical, "FTP is rigged", "Typical FTP setup", and "The donkey wins again" comments started. Now I ask you, who has ever folded kings in this spot? If he had been a tight player, I might have considered folding. But the hands he was showing down and the plays he was making didn't tell me aces. So he made a great play, but I got lucky.
So I was the massive chip leader, I had about 7000 with 6 people left in the tourney. I kept playing my typical small ball style and stealing pots when I could. When we got down to 4 handed, I got AQ spades in the small blind. UTG min raised, and I just called out of position. The flop came 467 with two spades. I knew he would be just about any flop, so I checked it to him with the intention of raising. I don't normally check-raise, but he was a pretty aggressive player. I knew that if he had a pair of 8's - J's, then I was a slight favorite. SO we got it all in, he had KK and I aired the rest. So now I'm sitting 3rd. Would I play the hand the same way in the future, probably. With such a massive chip lead, I'm willing to gamble in that spot to not only secure a money spot, but to also have the other players dominated 5:1 in chips. Just as how much getting lucky in tournaments is necessary, the same goes for not getting unlucky. I had aces and queens both cracked. AA vs. KK, he flopped a king. QQ vs. A6, he turns an ace.
SO, long story short, I was getting low on chips, continued to stay aggressive and slowly built my stack back above average. My pet peeve in poker is players that play tight passive. I find it hilarious that most of the complainers in poker are tight passive players. They check call and limp in a lot of hands. Then when they lose, they complain that the other player sucked out and got lucky. Stop complaining and play your hand the right way. If they call your bets without pot odds, they are making a huge mistake. That is what you want in poker. That is the goal, to get your opponent to make the biggest possible mistake.
Early in the tournament, I play pretty tight, and don't want to race off a lot of chips. I'm looking to slowly build a stack by playing small pots and generally only playing big hands. So I get AK on the button, and there is an early position minimum raise. I just call with position and no other players in the pot, other than the blinds. Flop comes K-7-5, rainbow. Early bets half the pot. I know I'm either a huge favorite here, or a big dog if he flopped a set or has aces. So I just call. The jack of hearts comes on the turn, putting two hearts on board. He bets the same amount on the turn. I raise to 450, he folds. SO with this hand, I set up my image and I also got the chip lead early. So that helped me build my stack to about 4000 with the blinds at 20/40. The blinds are now 30/60 and I still have the chip lead. The same player that made that early min raise play limps under the gun. He had been a generally weak player. I get KK in the cutoff and raise to 220. He min re-raises. He only had about 900 chips when the hand started. So I stopped and thought about it for a second. There was now 750 in the pot, costing me 160 to call. But what could he have? I have the second best hand in Hold'em. I decided that if I'm gonna play the hand it is going to be for all of his chips. SO I re-raise to put him in and he calls with AA. Sucks when you hit a cold deck like that. The flop came A-J-10. UGH!!! the turn brought a 9, and the river was a Q. That was the first time I had to get lucky. That's when the typical, "FTP is rigged", "Typical FTP setup", and "The donkey wins again" comments started. Now I ask you, who has ever folded kings in this spot? If he had been a tight player, I might have considered folding. But the hands he was showing down and the plays he was making didn't tell me aces. So he made a great play, but I got lucky.
So I was the massive chip leader, I had about 7000 with 6 people left in the tourney. I kept playing my typical small ball style and stealing pots when I could. When we got down to 4 handed, I got AQ spades in the small blind. UTG min raised, and I just called out of position. The flop came 467 with two spades. I knew he would be just about any flop, so I checked it to him with the intention of raising. I don't normally check-raise, but he was a pretty aggressive player. I knew that if he had a pair of 8's - J's, then I was a slight favorite. SO we got it all in, he had KK and I aired the rest. So now I'm sitting 3rd. Would I play the hand the same way in the future, probably. With such a massive chip lead, I'm willing to gamble in that spot to not only secure a money spot, but to also have the other players dominated 5:1 in chips. Just as how much getting lucky in tournaments is necessary, the same goes for not getting unlucky. I had aces and queens both cracked. AA vs. KK, he flopped a king. QQ vs. A6, he turns an ace.
SO, long story short, I was getting low on chips, continued to stay aggressive and slowly built my stack back above average. My pet peeve in poker is players that play tight passive. I find it hilarious that most of the complainers in poker are tight passive players. They check call and limp in a lot of hands. Then when they lose, they complain that the other player sucked out and got lucky. Stop complaining and play your hand the right way. If they call your bets without pot odds, they are making a huge mistake. That is what you want in poker. That is the goal, to get your opponent to make the biggest possible mistake.
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