Clueless Wonder

Sometimes it’s hard to analyze your own game. Especially when you feel like you’ve been playing well but the results haven’t been reflecting it. I found a big leak for me I think. What is it? Well I’ve found that I am far to willing to take coinflips once I get a big stack. I play too much into my image at the table as well. If I have a pair of Ts or Js and there’s a raise or reraise in front I tend to push if it’s for less than 1/3rd of my stack. I figure that if my VPIP for the entire tourney is at say 12% (as it was last night) and I push for somebody’s entire stack (when they still are in good shape) that they will not be a donkey and call with say AJ or AQ. However, they seem to not have a clue about what I hold, just ‘Hey I have to paint!’.

You might say well you’re still ahead! True, but could I not just say call the raise and see a flop? Or just re-raise instead of push? I don’t know. Tight and aggressive is what wins and yes I’m doing both in this case. But when I have 3x the avg stack with half the field gone I have PLENTY of time to wait and have a dominating hand don’t I? Or is it correct to punish people and take and edge that I have when I hold a big stack? Right now I’m thinking it’s a leak in my game. However, I tend to also think that this is why I have a very healthy overall ROI in mtt’s even though my cash % is lower than I’d like it. Mostly this is due to grabbing HUGE stacks with this kind of play and finishing in the top 3.

How do YOU play a big stack?

Poker MTT, Poker, strategy

Cracknaces has an excellent post on his blog about playing the short stack aggressively. I’d like to point others to this and also refute his DO #2, which is:

Push in the SB every single time it is folded around to you, no matter what cards you are dealt.

In this case I’d like to use that old poker saying “It depends”. Because if the BB has seen you do this very many times I guarantee he will end up calling you with Ax at some point. Now again, Ax vs two random cards that aren’t dominated is only a 60-40 favorite. So in that case it still depends on exactly how short you are. If you have an ‘M’ of say 3 or less then by all means try and get your doubleup. If not though, pushing every time could just make you last a few extra hands if not go home even earlier.

Poker MTT, Poker, strategy