Endgame Strategy Summary
These articles are meant to be read in succession of one another. That being said, click to review the articles on Endgame Strategy pt. I... Endgame Strategy pt II... part three of Endgame Strategy... Endgame Strategy part four and finally yesterday's Endgame Strategy part five.
Over the course of the past few weeks, we covered a lot of ground. For those of you who are new to poker, relatively inexperienced, or haven't read much on poker strategy, the tactics covered probably made you a bit "uncomfortable," thinking to yourself "this doesn't sound right/feel right," or "I can't do that, what if I get called while having an M of five and am holding J10s pushing all in?"
These series of discussions are meant to remove you from your "comfort zone." These plays, by their very nature are not supposed to "feel" normal. They are aggressive plays, made at the appropriate moments, under the appropriate set of circumstances and designed to propel you to the final table with aspirations to win, not merely to survive. If your goal is to WIN poker tournaments, not just bubble or crack into the money, then this indeed is your strategy. I've presented the "playbook," no its up to you as the offensive and defensive coordinator to adapt such a playbook to your game. That being said, be mindful of other player's M's and how their game is changing based on the dynamics of that statistic.
Try this new playbook out in smaller tourneys, such as the $1 donkfest tonight. I experimented with it (when first reading on this) in sharky's freerolls and buyin tourneys, even going so far as to "donk down" to a certain M so that I could experiment earlier in the tourney as opposed to later.
Download pokerstove. Open it up and play around with how different hands hold up against random hands (i.e. - 10-8 off suit vs. a random hand or two or j-10s vs AA). Get comfortable with trying to win tourneys, making the appropriate moves when you should be, and refusing to "accept" a coin toss when its not appropriate. Know your M calculation at all times, and those of your opposition at the table with you. Commit to memory when its appropriate to open up the red zone offense, or orange zone play. Know which hands are "playable" and which are "junk." Determine when pushing, raising, calling, or folding with 3-3 or 8-6s is appropriate and when it just doesn't line up with your "scripted plays." Make peeps play YOUR GAME as opposed to playing theirs. And finally, I encourage each and every person reading this to purchase Harrington on Hold'em vol. 1 & 2. These books can be found on the Two Plus Two website.
Tomorrow for off-topic Thursday, we're going to have a huge announcement regarding what we're doing with the CheckRayz Leaderboard, how this affects you, and what you can do to get on board. Next week's "strategy" column topic has not yet been selected and suggestions are always welcome.
Private WSOP Qualifier
Poker great and blogger, "MissT74" has set up a series of private WSOP event qualifiers. These tourneys are private, run by her, and award seats to various WSOP events. In any event, she needs some help in rounding up some peeps interested in playing, that being said... here's the details:
Wednesday, March 15 @ 9:00pm EST NLHE for a $1,500 WSOP event
40 players MAXBuy in is $10/$1, with $27.50 received in advance
Prepay $27.50 to misst74 from (Kingman) on PS and then send her an email (her email address can be located on her blog.
She will then forward the password to you.
Mike's note: I played the first event she put on this past weekend. The event was professionally run and went off flawlessly. I highly recommend playing in this event if you deem something like a WSOP seat in your goals.
CheckRayz "Donk-fest" tonight at Titan
CheckRayz are holding their "donk-fest" tourney tonight at 10pm EST at Titan Poker. This donk-fest of a poker tournament will contain $150 added to the prize pool, with an entry fee of $1+.10. Unlimited rebuys will be permitted during hour number 1, and addons will be allowed at the end of the first hour. Password is available on the CheckRayz "poker tournament schedule" page.
Mike
Poker Tournament Strategy
Poker Strategy
Endgame Strategy
