Poker Perambulation

Linda posted some interesting tournament hands and the thread is growing. It is a nice thread. There is a bit of hand and player history involved and the thoughts are varied. It is almost impossible to be wrong in posting a view. Views tend to be less right until the river is exposed and then it can be with a suckout in either direction. That doesn’t really resolve the process it just assigns a hand winner.

I think the analogy I posted was a good one. It was along the lines of:

Tournament poker play is choreographed. But that changes from dance to dance and hand to hand.

We do many crazy things playing tournament poker. Many are quick to scream ‘Donkey’ at moves and the fearful avoid plays because they don’t want to look bad. There is a fine line between an ‘advanced move’ and appearance. If you let that affect your game, you are in trouble.

Freerolls and blogger tournaments tend to share tendancies. The difference can be that stupid moves in one are advanced moves in the other. The problem to resolve is placing what passes for blame. Can you say that one was a clever move while the other was stupid? Not without getting into the mind of the player and that only works in Science Fiction.

Two of my favorite themes are ‘changing gears’ and bet sizing. The thread Linda started talks about a permanent LAG. Being that is the worst situation you can exhibit – baring having a luckbox attached to your game too. When that happens it is the most annoying aspect of poker. But, much of the time it points us to a cash station we can take advantage of. Results will always vary. You play back with a hand that normally could win against their typical card strength and the have those bullets they expose. You are as wrong as humanly possible but it was still a decent move.

All you can do in tournament play is your best and that will usually not be good enough. We all have strengths and weaknesses. We make our read of others but don’t make reads on ourself often enough. How we are perceived is just as important as how we perceive others. The very worst outcome is when the other guy was right on his read of us. And that is because we don’t change gears often enough. Sometimes the cards dictate such an outcome. The cards never fully conform to the table we are playing. But, we can make our tendancy make the outcome more certain.

What passes for my ‘A-game’ comes and goes. On my best day, I remain an enigma while sizing my bets to minimize my lose and maximize my profit. On my off days, I let the cards completely control my life and limp/call in a tight-passive manner. It is a tendency I fight but let slip into my play when the cards and table own me. When you are fearful of mistakes, you are dead money – that’s the only sure thing in tournament poker.

We’re all genius players when the cards fall. That is the luck factor. But, there is no dependability in that – unfortunately. Tournaments are marathons. Good hands come and go. Alert play is difficult to maintain. We play well for hours and then make that one stupid move.

Well, you all see what this blog has evolved to: It is a pile of generalities without answers. I may have answers; they just aren’t present. The reason is simple. We aren’t/can’t interact. And that is where our forum comes in. We can go beyond the generalities and exchange views and Linda started a thread that is doing that at this moment. You can float an idea and share the ride with others who may change or enhance your processing.

ADDENDUM:

This is my second blog for the day. You can get to the blog on Neteller by clicking here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 7:23 am and is filed under Journal, Tournaments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.