Step 2 Toward Not Being A Tournament Donkey

Stop flatting with small and medium pocket pairs to set mine when you're not getting the correct odds.

I see this all the time.

Both you and your opponent need at least 30 BB's in order for you to set mine in a tournament. This means that after the early stages, you're rarely in a spot where flatting is correct since most of our tournament lives are spent in the 10 BB to 20 BB range.

The fact that someone flatted ahead of you doesn't mean it's okay for you to flat, either. If you think back to previous tournaments you can probably remember how you always seemed to fold to a pre-flop shove or fold to a large c-bet after trying to catch a set with your 66, 77, 88, etc.

You can't do the same incorrect thing every time and expect different results.

30+ big blinds, no exceptions. Anything less late in a tournament is a shove/fold decision based on your reads.

Step 1 Toward Not Being A Tournament Donkey

Tighten up in early position during the early stages of the tournament.

You should only be raising AQ+ and pocket pairs from early position. I see so many players raising or limping things like 89s, JT0, KJs ... don't. You're not good enough to play these hands out of position and they simply don't have a lot of value in these spots. Re-read that last sentence until it sticks.

If you limp them, you'll often be faced with a raise behind you and now you're stuck playing a drawing hand out of position which defeats the purpose of playing a drawing hand to begin with. If you raise with them, you'll either be flatted and not know where you stand or you'll be 3-bet by better hands.

When say 'the early stages of the tournament' I usually mean all levels before antes come into play.

Anyone who reads this and follows it is guaranteed to bleed fewer chips during the early levels.

Small Stakes Final Tables

From my somewhat limited experience, there are three types of players at the final table of a small stakes MTT:

• The Nit: Keeps looking at the lobby to see how much each pay jump is while folding until he gets AA or KK.
• The Spewtard: Read somewhere that being aggressive at the final table is good - thinks that means raising every time it gets to him but folding when faced with resistance.
• Me: Good player who Raises The Nit and 3-Bets The Spewtard

I played the $10,000 Guaranteed w/Rebuys last night and scooped 5th place for about $550.

The hands down worst player at the table ran like a Kenyan in the Boston marathon, picking up big pair after big pair and holding every time.

The Spewtard was two spots to my right which meant I easily stayed afloat by defending my BB and 3-Betting his late position raises. I only had to fold once to a 4 bet shove from the SB after I had 3-bet on the button, and he showed Aces (surprise, surprise).

Unfortunately it was not meant to be, because our UTG Kenyan min-raised and I 3-Bet for about 2.5x more with KhKd. He flatted and the flop came Jack high, all spades. He checked, I jammed, and he time banked (lol) before calling with AdKs and proceeded to hit his flush on the river.

So it goes.

There's so much dead money in these tournaments that if you can reach the final 12 or so and have 10+ BB's you're almost guaranteed to stand a chance at winning the whole thing. That sounds like an obvious statement, but it's one that holds a lot less truth in higher stakes MTT's.

Just pay very close attention once you get there. There will be at least two or three players folding every hand to make the pay jumps and you'd better take advantage of that or else I will.

Intro

Bonjour. Hola. Guten Tag. Hiya!

I play poker on Players Only Poker under the screen name FkCoolers. This is my blog.

How is this different from the thousands of other poker blogs out there? It probably isn't. What it will contain are interesting hands with my thought process, thoughts on different players I run into, thoughts on different hands I see played in tournaments, plus some random non-poker related shit in between.

What it won't contain are thinly veiled brag posts and/or bad beat stories because no one cares about your bad beat stories.

I won't pull any punches, either. If I sucked I'll say it. If you suck I'll say that, too. Chances are both of those are going to be true on many occasions.

That's it for now. Next time I write something it will contain substance.