It doesn’t matter if you are playing online or a live poker tournament. The chips that you have in front of you are not real money. They are simply weapons to be used at your disposal. How are you utilizing your weapons? In a cash game when you win a pot you win money but in a tournament this is not the case. I see poker players all the time that win big pots early in the tournament and they simply sit on their chips. This is contrary to the basic concept of tournament play. The idea is to build a monster stack and to do that you need to be in their swinging every chance you get.

Now don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. That does not mean that you are careless with your chips but you want to call small raises and raise pots with small pairs and suited connectors especially when the antes kick in. With a monster stack comes monster respect in most cases. This is especially true if you happen to have an aggressive image. Have you ever noticed that the small blind will typically fold the blinds to you when you have that monster stack and the antes have kicked in? I have and I love it!

With a large stack I want the table to have a significant amount of fear when it comes to getting involved in a pot with me. In many poker players fear causes them to make mistakes and that is in my favor. So put those chips in play and make the most of your ammunition when you have it. Remember, having one of the top three stacks at the Final Table gives you a significant edge at winning the entire tournament.

I want the monster stack.

Yes I have heard all of the stories and told a few myself but for my money Pocket Aces are still the hand I would most want to have. So how do you explain how they don’t always hold up? Well, that is simply a matter of variance. Time after time I have heard stories about how players Aces got cracked. Sometimes it was totally the fault of the player that lost the hand. Other times it was the dreaded one outer that lost that broke the camels back.

It happens.

One thing that I have learned and preach to players both new and old to this crazy game. There is no such thing as “always” in poker. If unpredictability bothers you then you are playing the wrong game. You may want to try a board game then. Those games have set rules that always apply no matter what the circumstances. Sans the die or dice being thrown for each turn the places on the board are always in the same spot and the rewards never vary.

Poker and the strategy that goes along with it is based on probabilities. This means that even if you are 99% likely / probable to win the hand variance can step in and steal you most brilliant poker move from underneath your feet. It will happen to you hundreds of thousands of times no matter what hand you are playing that is highly favored. You can be a pre-flop favorite, post-flop favorite or even a favorite after the turn but the key word is favorite. That means you are likely to win the hand but do not have a lock on it.

Understanding this will help you to overcome those bad beats and realize that no matter what the best hand, Pocket Aces, is still overwhelmingly the best weapon to take into battle with you. That’s why Pocket Aces are still the king in No Limit. That won’t be changing any time soon.

The flop came down [7][8][3] with a flush draw on the board.

The small blind bet out and I immediately put him on a flush draw or top pair. Feeling confident in my read I raised to find out where I was at in the hand.

I smooth call and the turn brings a harmless [9] and a potential straight on the board.

At this point in the hand I am confident I have the best hand even with the possibility of a straight on the board. I then bet out another $650 which was enough to keep my opponent in the pot if he was on a draw and enough to push him out if he had put me on a draw instead without having a hand.

The river brought a [K] which is the last card I wanted to see.

However, after thinking through the hand I was fairly confident that he did not have a King but checked the hand nonetheless. As it turns out I was correct. If he had a King he likely would have raised pre-flop or bet out when it hit the board and I would have known my Jacks were no good. Had he made a small value bet I likely would have had to call for the pot odds. The bottom line is that I missed another opportunity to get money in the pot and get maximum value from my hand. On the other hand the check wasn’t a horrible play but it was a passive play on my part even though it is very likely that my opponent would have simply folded his hand.

How would you play this hand?

No matter how many times I have viewed this particular clip I still come back completely puzzled as to why Brad Booth made this particular play. As I recall Booth had just sat down in that particular game and had barely played a hand. Perhaps this added to his image at that moment. At a glance it was clear that Booth wanted to establish himself at the table and let it be known he would not be pushed around. However, I am not sure that risking $300k to a player than can easily afford to lose it if he is wrong makes a whole lot of sense either.

We can all figure out what was going through Ivey’s mind in a general sense and it was clear that, after the flop, Phil had a big problem on his hands. I am sure that Ivey’s biggest concern was if his opponent had flopped a set. Ultimately, Ivey folds the hand but I sure would have enjoyed the look on Brad’s face had Ivey called his All-In bet. That would have been priceless!

My ultimate question is this: Was the risk worth the reward?