It's almost tourney time
Sunday will be the Pokerstars Blogger Championship and I can't help but feel a little giddy about it. I think I've just about shaken off the doldrums from earlier this week and will show up ready to play.
But I am somewhat at a loss for what to expect. This is a huge field and the "money" places aren't very deep, so anyone who wins anything will have to possess a rare combination of luck and skill on that day, or else just get stupid lucky like no one has since Robert Varkonyi.
But what will the actual play be like? Is this going to be your typical freeroll chock full o' asinine behavior, or will people approach this one a bit more seriously? I am tempted to think it will be the former, because Stars has opened it up to ALL bloggers, not just poker bloggers. That means that someone with an "I love kitty cats" blog has just as much opportunity to play, and I'm certain that a lot of dead money will be attracted to the table.
Now, I'm not saying that poker bloggers have the natural upper hand in this tournament (even though they probably do, because who plays, studies and obsesses about poker more than us?). But there are probably some good players out there who have other interests to blog about who will be showing up. I'm not thinking there will be too many, but they will be there. And there will be those who will get stupid lucky and knock some of the more formidible players out when they catch a two-outter on the river.
I think my approach to this tournament (because I'm feeling very serious about this) is going to have to be to play it very cautiously starting out. That means probably no bluffing until we're at least a couple of hours in, because I'm thinking a large number of the players will be unbluffable. (I've written about discovering the futility of doing that before.) Assuming there will likely be in the neighborhood of 1,600 players in this thing, I don't think we'll get down to playing any actual poker until we're down to 400 or so. Until then, I think the best strategy will probably be to play for survival and set small goals ... survive the first hand ... survive the first level ... survive until the first break ... survive until the second break.
Of course, the problem with that is that I've done it before, only to survive until crunch time and not have enough chips to make any moves, and bust out on the bubble when the blinds were threatening to knock me out. Obviously, assuming a somewhat novice field overall, I will have to really push to get maximum value on my premium hands. But premium hands will probably be scaled back quite a bit. Early on, I'm not planning to enter any big pots with anything less than QQ, certainly not AK.
(While writing this, I just busted out on the second hand of a lucky dollar tournament holding AK. The guy in front of me went all-in, I started to fold, because I am getting better about tossing "Anna Kournikova" in such situations, but then I thought, "Wait, this is a lucky dollar tournament. If he had AA or KK, he would almost be stupid enough to try to slow-play it even though there were four limpers ahead of him, so he probably has a small pair or a high ace. Whichever is the case, I'm almost certainly in the range of a coinflip dog or better. Plus I don't really care about losing my $1 investment. And I don't want to struggle through 682 person field just so I can bust out on the bubble, so I need to take a chance to build a big stack early. I know I shouldn't, but I'll just gamble and hope for the best." One other person also called, and I found myself up against 5-5 and 10-10. Obviously, I didn't improve.)
But, back to Sunday's tournament, that's the best plan I can think of without actually knowing what I will be facing. Of course, to be successful at poker (not saying I am ... yet), one has to adapt to circumstances on the fly. I might find that the tournament is completely different than anticipated, and if so I will have to alter my approach accordingly.
One other thing to consider about the tournament: I bet there will be a shitload of "away" players. For one, I figure there will be quite a few people who have signed up who don't really care about poker. They just saw something free, signed up, but then they'll find something else to do, or they will forget all about it. Two, if this latest hurricane hits by Sunday, then there will probably be a sizable number of people without power, meaning they can't get in to play. That always figures to dictate a change in strategy, because if you do have lot of people posting and folding, you are pretty much playing a short-handed tournament. That could make things interesting. And wouldn't it be great to show up and find that you've been placed at a table where you're the only person who isn't away?
But I am somewhat at a loss for what to expect. This is a huge field and the "money" places aren't very deep, so anyone who wins anything will have to possess a rare combination of luck and skill on that day, or else just get stupid lucky like no one has since Robert Varkonyi.
But what will the actual play be like? Is this going to be your typical freeroll chock full o' asinine behavior, or will people approach this one a bit more seriously? I am tempted to think it will be the former, because Stars has opened it up to ALL bloggers, not just poker bloggers. That means that someone with an "I love kitty cats" blog has just as much opportunity to play, and I'm certain that a lot of dead money will be attracted to the table.
Now, I'm not saying that poker bloggers have the natural upper hand in this tournament (even though they probably do, because who plays, studies and obsesses about poker more than us?). But there are probably some good players out there who have other interests to blog about who will be showing up. I'm not thinking there will be too many, but they will be there. And there will be those who will get stupid lucky and knock some of the more formidible players out when they catch a two-outter on the river.
I think my approach to this tournament (because I'm feeling very serious about this) is going to have to be to play it very cautiously starting out. That means probably no bluffing until we're at least a couple of hours in, because I'm thinking a large number of the players will be unbluffable. (I've written about discovering the futility of doing that before.) Assuming there will likely be in the neighborhood of 1,600 players in this thing, I don't think we'll get down to playing any actual poker until we're down to 400 or so. Until then, I think the best strategy will probably be to play for survival and set small goals ... survive the first hand ... survive the first level ... survive until the first break ... survive until the second break.
Of course, the problem with that is that I've done it before, only to survive until crunch time and not have enough chips to make any moves, and bust out on the bubble when the blinds were threatening to knock me out. Obviously, assuming a somewhat novice field overall, I will have to really push to get maximum value on my premium hands. But premium hands will probably be scaled back quite a bit. Early on, I'm not planning to enter any big pots with anything less than QQ, certainly not AK.
(While writing this, I just busted out on the second hand of a lucky dollar tournament holding AK. The guy in front of me went all-in, I started to fold, because I am getting better about tossing "Anna Kournikova" in such situations, but then I thought, "Wait, this is a lucky dollar tournament. If he had AA or KK, he would almost be stupid enough to try to slow-play it even though there were four limpers ahead of him, so he probably has a small pair or a high ace. Whichever is the case, I'm almost certainly in the range of a coinflip dog or better. Plus I don't really care about losing my $1 investment. And I don't want to struggle through 682 person field just so I can bust out on the bubble, so I need to take a chance to build a big stack early. I know I shouldn't, but I'll just gamble and hope for the best." One other person also called, and I found myself up against 5-5 and 10-10. Obviously, I didn't improve.)
But, back to Sunday's tournament, that's the best plan I can think of without actually knowing what I will be facing. Of course, to be successful at poker (not saying I am ... yet), one has to adapt to circumstances on the fly. I might find that the tournament is completely different than anticipated, and if so I will have to alter my approach accordingly.
One other thing to consider about the tournament: I bet there will be a shitload of "away" players. For one, I figure there will be quite a few people who have signed up who don't really care about poker. They just saw something free, signed up, but then they'll find something else to do, or they will forget all about it. Two, if this latest hurricane hits by Sunday, then there will probably be a sizable number of people without power, meaning they can't get in to play. That always figures to dictate a change in strategy, because if you do have lot of people posting and folding, you are pretty much playing a short-handed tournament. That could make things interesting. And wouldn't it be great to show up and find that you've been placed at a table where you're the only person who isn't away?
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