Lately, there has been a bit of a battle cry regarding bad beats on PokerStars and Full Tilt. Player after player seems to want to complain about getting bad beat as if it never happens. That still amazes me to this day that online players have not grasped the concept of what a Bad Beat really is. A good player gets his chips in with the best hand. Bad players do not get their chips in with the best hand.

It seems clear that you cannot be Bad Beat unless you are a reasonably good poker player. In other words, bad players do not get Bad Beat because they never get their chips in with the best hand.This brings me to my next point. How is online poker site somehow responsible for the Bad Beats? How come players never blame PokerStars or Full Tilt when they hit their card on the river? How come they never call the site “rigged” then? The bottom line is that the sites are only bad when your hand doesn’t hold up. Right?

Wrong!

Understanding the concept of variance can go a long way in understanding Bad Beats and also “running good”. The fact of the matter is that variance can and will swing both ways and in some cases for extended periods of time for anyone that plays poker. So when things are not going your way and it seems like you are losing to one outers at every turn remember that the pendulum swings both ways. It’s only a matter of time before things turn around again. The real question is are you disciplined enough to recognize when to slow down until it does? If you are then your bankroll with thank you for it. If not, the deposit button is to your right.

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I know this concept my sound very contrary to some but there are times when laying down the best hand is the correct play to make. Over and over again we all have been told to get your chips in with the best hand. I happen to agree with that and I am sure most of you do too. However, there are circumstances that will turn up at the poker table that will put you in awkward positions that almost force you to call with the best hand.

What are they?

Well, I am speaking of poker tournaments to be exact. Early on in a poker tournament I simply do not want to call all of my stack when someone is drawing at a flush after the flop. I can always out play the flush chasers and pick a better spot in the early levels. This means that laying down top pair or even top two pair in the first couple of levels when faced with an all-in tournament decision is not necessarily that bad of a play. Why allow them to get lucky on you when you can wait it out, continue to accumulate chips, and nail them later on with a better board?

That doesn’t mean that you do this every single time you are confronted. On the contrary, you need to really understand whom you are playing against AND your own ability before you consider this kind of move. Remember, most of the time your opponent is going to miss their draws. However, late in tournaments when the weaker players are pretty much gone you may still lay down the best hand when faced with aggression from an opponent that has a stack as large as yours if you are near the Final Table.

For me once I am at the Final Table there is no folding the best hand but early on there are exceptions to this rule. That doesn’t make it right or wrong but simply a conscious choice I make as the situations unfold. Again, this is not an all of the time type of play but one that should be a small part of your poker strategy and approch to the game.

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OK folks, this is getting down right scary. I make yet another Final Table last night in a 401 player re-buy tournament and take down 7th place. That makes 10 Final Tables in my last 33 tournaments. That is outrageous. Sure, I expect to play well most of the time and I get rewarded for that by cashing more often than most. The thing is that I was already cashing around 18 - 20% BEFORE I tweaked my game. Now I am cashing in at a steady 23% clip.

The most intriguing thing is that half of these tournaments I am cashing in have fields larger than 850+ players. I do realize that I am on one hell of a rush at the moment and I certainly don’t expect it to last forever. My dilemma is this: Just how much has my game improved over the past two months versus am I just getting more lucky than normal?

Honestly, I don’t think I am getting lucky’er than normal but my hands are all holding up in crucial situations and that alone makes a big difference in succeeding or failing.

I never want to under or over estimate my ability. That could be an extremely dangerous habit that could result in a rapid loss of ones bankroll.  I suppose over the next six months or so there will be more than enough tournaments to balance out any rushes one way or the other. I am very curious to see just how long I can maintain this level of play.

Time will tell.

With time and a whole lot of experience I have learned some things that were glaringly obvious. It kinda makes you wonder why you don’t think this way when you first start playing poker but you cannot teach experience. Going All-In is the most powerful move in No Limit Hold’em. However, the timing of this move makes it even more powerful after the flop.

If you watch and / or speak with a skilled poker player they will likely tell you how they prefer to be all-in after the flop and not before. Why is that? Well it’s pretty simple. You do not want to give your opponent five cards to hit his hand. Poker strategy dictates that we make the highest percentage play as often as possible. When you allow your opponent to see five cards instead of three before making your move it gives them better percentages of hitting their hand on the turn or river. However, if they miss on the flop their percentages drop down to 13% if they have a smaller pocket pair than you.

This also allows you to maximize your profit in the hand. There are other variables that go along with this such as: flop texture, chip stack, ranking in tournament, etc. These variables will also help determine what the best play is for your particular scenario. The fact of the matter is that the All-In move should be your last resort and not your first so use it wisely when the opportunity presents itself. Obviously you must make allowances for online play due to the hyper-aggressive nature of the game. Again, pick your spots.

It seems like every time I turn around another freeroll tot he WSOP Main Event is popping up. Even Facebook jumped into the fray. Every major poker site has a freeroll of some kind to get you to the big tournament. This year I figure there will be even fewer players than last year as the economy continues to take a bite out of bankrolls around the globe.

On the other hand the play in these freerolls can be pretty wild so don’t expect people to fold flush draws early because it’s not going to happen. I have made the semi-finals on Full Tilt twice now and even in that tournament the play was still very loose almost all the way to the Final Table. So play your premium hands strong and forget about value betting unless you have the absolute nutz!

One of the most commonly asked questions is, “How much bankroll do you need to play comfortably?” Usually this question pertains to cash games. My pat answer is 300BB’s or more. Based on this response I have created a chart to correspond with the general bankroll requirements for cash games.

A while back I mentioned that I had recently read Arnold Snyder’s Poker Tournament Formula 2. In this book there were many concepts that we are familiar with. However, one concept particularly caught my attention and that is his take on Chip Utility. By definition Chip Utility is the usability or serviceability of your chips. This concept is utilized for tournament play only.

I have also talked about putting your chips into action and Chip Utility takes this concept to the next level. Basically, winning a lot of chips is always a wonderful thing for any tournament player. The more chips you have the more opportunity you have to play pots. The more Chip Utility you have allows you to play pots and bet and call draws based on your stack instead of based on Pot Odds.

One concept that Snyder talked about frequently is that playing Pot Odds was incorrect most of the time and he made the argument that Chip Utility should be your primary barometer of making the call with a draw or calling a large raise with a speculative hand against a big stack and the like. After reading this particular section it didn’t necessarily cause me to have an epiphany but it did cause me to rethink what Pot Odds are vs Chip Utility and ultimately changed how I view my chip stack in a tournament.

Having used this concept over the past week or so I can’t say that I have had any drastic changes in my results. I am still cashing in 25% of the tournaments I play with 180 players or less but I do feel as though I have a bit more knowledge and an additional edge due to the way I view my stack versus relying on Pot Odds so heavily as I used to before reading PTF2.

You also have to consider that Snyder is primarily talking about slow structure tournaments versus fast structure tournaments too. Even though this concept can be used in a fast structure tournament it is not always optimal depending on the level of aggression at your table. So, as with any poker strategy, you have to pick your spots. I will be touching on various concepts from Poker Tournament Formula 2 as time goes on. Again, it’s a great read and has excellent tournament concepts to incorporate into your game.

The Poker Tournament Formula 2 has been a great read. Arnold Snyder took his book to the next level and explored slow structure tournaments and all of the elements needed to win in them. PTF1 explored fast structure tournaments and what is needed marvelously but this book took even some of Dan Harrington’s concepts and expanded upon them even further.

Arnold doesn’t spend a whole lot of time worrying about crunching numbers. Instead he takes the approach of getting directly into what you need to know. He analyzes tournament structure and explains how to determine just how aggressive or passively you will need to play. He takes on Chip Utility and explains why it is so important to maintain an above average chip stack instead of simply calling them Red, Yellow, Orange, and Green.  Arnold also talks about the various stages of slow structure tournaments and how each of them should be approached. This includes final table play and deal making.

Snyder also goes in-depth in explaining why Dan Harrington’s approach may not be the ideal way of playing tournaments today versus three years ago. Overall, this book has excellent material for the above average player that is looking to take his or her game to the next level. It also gives you an entirely different way of thinking about tournament play in terms of concepts and there application. This is a MUST HAVE book and a very worthy rival to the Harrington on Hold’em series.

During my escapade into this weeks poker tournaments. I noticed that the value of stealing the blinds is heightened considerably in live tournaments. It will be even more important for me during the Main Event tomorrow. I think we all understand that you will never get enough cards to sustain you throughout an entire tournament. Ultimately, you are going to have to steal blinds in order to keep your stack viable.

The thing I try to do is identify the player types I have at my table first. Once I have done this then I have a good idea of who is waiting for premium hands and who is going to fold like a lawn chair. Last Sunday stealing the blinds is what kept me a live during a very dry run of cards for an hour. I only stole three blinds but they were enough to keep me going. That’s the point of the exercise. You don’t have to try to steal every single blind. You just need to steal enough to get you through until you can pick up some good cards.

Usually, I will raise in position and make it two-and-a-half times the Big Blind. This is enough to make them consider the call with a good hand but with a marginal or bad hand most of the weaker player will simply fold. I would raise a little more in an online format because the play is looser.

The cycle never ends and it becomes more important the deeper you go into the tournament.

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.

Playing Ace King is already a difficult task from the get go. Playing Ace King from early position can be extremely challenging. By playing this hand in position it gives you a considerable edge in being able to act last in the hand. Acting last allows you to control the pot size and get away from the hand if things get to heated. You don’t have such an advantage when you are the first to act.

So how do you play Ace King in EP?

Clearly I am going to raise the pot and I may raise the pot just a little more than normal if I had big pocket pair. Why? Because I don’t want and hangers-on in the pot. I also want to make it so that if I get re-raised big I can easily get away from the hand. I do not subscribe to calling huge pre-flop raises with Ace King especially early in a tournament. It usually means you are beat. Once the money is in the middle I am going to proceed to bet out after the flop to see where i am at no matter what hits the board. About 60 percent of the time I can end the hand with the post flop bet right there. If I meet some resistance and miss the flop I can easily get away from the hand. If I get a smooth call I am going to proceed with caution on the turn and flop.

To put it simply you need to be careful when playing Ace King from early position. Remember, Ace King is not a made hand.

Sometimes you just cannot avoid peeking at the chip leader in your tournament. You may get a little envious as you find yourself with an average stack but he already has quadrupled up after the first fifteen minutes. Curiosity is a natural thing for most people. However, do not allow yourself to be overly concerned about the chip leader when you are only an hour or so into the tournament. People get hot and they hit cards and sometimes that combination leads to a monster stack early. However, having a monster stack early usually does not guarantee you will make the Final Table. As a matter of fact most players that have that monster stack early rarely go on to win the tournament.

Play your tournament at your own pace and build your stack as you move through the tournament. In the end you will be just fine and have plenty of chips to compete for a shot at the Final Table.

Recently I posted an article asking if you were playing enough hands. This article could be considered a bit of an addendum to that post. Adjustments at a poker table go hand in hand with surviving and thriving in the game. Cash games and poker tournaments alike require you to make adjustments. Usually within the first fifteen minutes or so you will have a fairly good idea of how your table is playing and whom the aggressive players are. As time goes on, provided no one gets moved to another table, you will be able to fine tune your adjustments even further. Answers to questions like “Who can I be aggressive against?” “Who do I need to be leery of?” will be answered in short order if you are paying attention to the game and studying your opponents even in an online cash game where betting patterns are key.

One of the things I have noticed in my cash game is that the play appeared to be tight initially. Usually the largest stack is around $70 dollars or so. The maximum buy-in at the .25/.50 game is $50 dollars. If you are new to the micro-limit cash games like me it tends to give you a false sense of what the tables image truly is. As I have been playing this game regularly now for a week I have changed my mind about how tight the play is. I also have opened up my game a bit more to counter some of the non-aggressive raises that tend to be made regularly by particular players. Lastly, I have been taking more notes than I normally do in my natural tournament habitat. They help tremendously!

Only time will tell just how well these adjustments i am making will work. So far I am down $50 dollars thanks to a tough beat but that happens. I am much more interested in where I will be four weeks from now having completely settled into the cash game mentality. Table adjustments are on-going in a cash game and in particular online. There are many more seat changes than in a normal game from what I can see and each player brings a different variable to the game that must be accounted for. So don’t be afraid to switch it up and mix it up when it makes sense. You’d be surprised at how many pots you take down when you least expected it.

You might think that it’s silly but your poker mindset is extremely important. Last year I watched an interview with Mike Matusow and he revealed that he had changed his poker mindset and was focusing on positive thoughts. Well, for Mike Matusow and those of us that enjoy watching him it was a major epiphany. Over the years you always heard the same old lines from Mike. “I run baaaaaaad…” “I always get drawn out on…” “I never win races…” Repeatedly Mike was resigning himself to losing the hand before it had even played out even if he was ahead in the hand. I would just sit there and shake my head wondering why anyone would be so negative about themselves. You might as well not play at all.

The first rule of being a competitor is believing that you can win. If those are not the kinds of thoughts that are going through your head then you are not prepared to play the game of poker. It’s hard enough as it is to play this game with positive thoughts. So why anyone would burden themselves with negative thoughts to make it ten times as hard is beyond my understanding.

This weekend I took some horrendous beats in my cash game and in a tournament. Not much I can do about that and it honestly doesn’t bother me. My job is to get my money in the middle with the best hand. There is nothing I can do about what happens after that. Despite the bad beats I am encouraged and excited about getting my money in good the next time. Why? Because I am going to win those hands a lot more often than I will lose them. Sure, I am human too and there are times when those negative thoughts creep in. When they do I recuse myself from the table and return when my head is clear. That may be a few minutes, a few days or in some cases a few weeks. Every situation is a little different so keep your poker thoughts positive at all times.

I know a lot of guys that play poker each and every day. Most of them tend to be the same players they were a year ago and even before that. For those players my notes never change as I usually frequent the same tournaments and now cash game tables. However, for the few that actually seem to change their strategy I have to update my player notes on them a few times each year. Kudos to those players.

We should all be striving to get better at folding on the river when we are beat or making the strong bet when we sense weakness. That is all part of the evolution of your game. The bottom line is that you have to be hungry all the time. The game has evolved so much from when i started playing that I find myself constantly re-thinking strategy that I employed as early as a few weeks ago in some cases. I am looking for an edge. I am looking for a better way to play the same hand against each and every opponent for maximum value. I am never satisfied with my game no matter how well I may have done and that includes winning a tournament. Here are a few questions I am constantly asking myself in my push to get better:

• Did you win every pot you were supposed to win?
• Did you get maximum value from the hand?
• Did you leave any money on the table?
• Are you reading as much information as you can on various strategies?
• Are you brainstorming about hands you lost to confirm or refute where you got out played?

Playing this game is a lot of fun but you will enjoy it a lot more if you are doing everything in your power to improve. Sometimes sitting down with a friend and talking about a hand you lost or got out played in helps give you clarity. Every now and then we are too close to see the error of our ways and an objective opinion from someone you respect can help you re-gain that clarity. Do it for your game and you will benefit in the short and long run.