Poker Tournament : Riding the Hot Deck
A recent poker tournament that I won was a real lesson on how to ride the hot deck. I played in the local casino, with a small entry fee. I was a little nervous as it had been a while since I had graced the live felt. If you ever have a hiatus away from live play you will sit down at the table feeling like everyone has more experience than you and that you will bust out early. That is exactly how I felt. Watching the other players helped me settle in and the early levels were slow which gave me a chance to wait for good cards.
I did not have to wait long as my first hand was KK in middle position. I made the standard two and a half times the big blind raise and received one caller, a player sitting to my right who seemed like a regular. He shuffled his chips well which is always a sign of a decent player. The flop gave me KXX with no draws so I focused on extracting value. I managed to get the player to stay with me until the turn where he gave up and folded with me winning a nice hand. I was card dead for the next full hour and twenty minutes not really hitting any cards, kept entertained by the lady sitting to my left who was very outgoing. I was fortunate that the flop textures were being kind to me throughout the tournament allowing me to improve most times I was in a pot which kept my decisions relatively straight forward.
The next major hand I was involved in had me holding 9 10 offsuit and I limped in. The flop was a tasty 4 9 9. I had around 15,000 in my stack and the pot ended up around 10,000 with my opponent showing me 9 3 and I won with the better kicker. This player had a tendency to play weird starting hands and I was concerned that he might have the A 9 as I was pretty sure he had the other 9 the way the betting worked out. Fortunately I had the winning hand and that gave me a really healthy stack. My online game suffers from not chipping up in the middle levels, so this was a major obstacle overcome in the tournament for me.
I appreciated that I was catching cards, nearly every draw to a flush that I had generally hit, with me getting paid off. Gradually players started respecting my raises and allowed me to steal the blinds a few times when I needed to.
For other players reading this it is important that if you feel the deck is running your way you do not alter your game too much. I held KK and made the set four times during the tournament and fortunately no flushes or straights hit that would dent my stack. I still played conservatively, resisting the urge to throw my chips in when the right move was to smooth call and see how the hand developed. Playing for 5 hours straight was a rarity for me but I felt my concentration levels were good. The same way that you should play through a bad run, you also learn how to win correctly. I have lost more chips pushing good hands in tournaments than overplaying bad hands. Folding those trash hands is the easy part. I kept an even temperament throughout the tournament which is important if you wish to give yourself the best chance to win when you get to the final table.
I ended up winning the tournament. After getting heads up with my opponent we decided to chop and I had a slightly larger stack going into heads up so was credited with the win on paper. I had a good run of cards which helped me and it gave me confidence that I can play good poker against decent players.
By Malcolm Clarke
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Tags: casino, play poker, playing poker, poker, poker tournament, winning in poker