Kama Sutra Poker

Yes, it is all about position. Whether it is the original defining text or one masquerading under the name Super System II or such — position can mean everything.

There are two bad things we can do in the name of position:

• misuse (Fancy Play Syndrome against those who wouldn’t recognize it if it bit them.)
• abuse (You start beating a dieing horse and then he’s dead.)
  

As a tournament progresses, the importance of position is reduced. Late blind structures allow positional bluffing from the early positions. With abusive blinds, the out of position move indicates some strength and those behind understand it takes a bigger hand to call than to make a move and more respect is given the hand than it might deserve.

In early play though, it is seldom that you’ll ignore position with reasoned success. People play for a variety of reasons. Many want to gamble early and often. They have a joy in bluffing and sucking out. Against such play, the risk:reward is skewed against us. We don’t have good reads.

As much as we might rile against a style, they can all work. Tournaments are won by table captain types that play the tournament in a riskier manner. We’ve a blogger/boss here that loves the style. In his recent video blog he thought PL Omaha was possibly his best game – PLO is the game with the most gamble in it. While intimidation may introduce risk, it isn’t as health threatening at a poker table as it is in a late night biker bar. You need to respect those making the move in either place.

While we all think ourself capable of ‘changing gears’, we tend toward a style. At no time is that more evident than in early tournament play. The more you contest hands from early position, the more you disclose to the table. The importance that has cannot be over emphasized. Poor players have no idea it is happening. Vanilla player doing it paint targets on their chest. Even with so many hands not showing down, you still get a good idea of how/what that person might be playing. Repetition produces confirmation when one doesn’t watch out. [If there is anything important in this article, it is this paragraph.]

Most tournament players have a stronger side to their play. We all say or think we are TAGs but we tire and we have distractions. When that happens, we become our default style. For some it means tight-passive and for others it is loose-aggressive. If you are honest you will recognize which game is your stronger/default preference. The tight-passive tenancy folks should hit some Turbos, rebuys, or 6-player tournaments. The LAG should find some deep stack tournaments. Both will have the opportunity to work on their weaker side.

Tournament play rewards aggression. If you take your tournament game to the cash tables, god help you. If you try to make the moves that you see on High Stakes Poker without the experience that those players have, god help you. If you make similar moves at the low limit tables, god help you — ‘advanced moves’ don’t work on a stump.