Obviously I was delighted to walk away with 3rd in what us one of the biggest online tournaments of the year. $269k is a huge score, and you have to be grateful if you ever get an online score like this. I was at the same time very disappointed to finish 3rd having had over 2/3 of the chips in play. At this point I maybe should have taken a deal, but I felt I would win and wound up getting unlucky three handed. I am generally happy with my performance, particularly the way I was able to adapt to the tournament conditions and the players I faced.

The WCOOP two day structure was very slow, allowing lots of play and the opportunity to see a lot of hands before I was under any pressure from the blinds and antes. It was very important to be patient and disciplined, and there was certainly no need to force the issue, as with a regular structure. I was gifted a great number of chips as people ran bluffs in an effort to accumulate chips too quickly. I was able to capitalise because I was still in the tournament having been extremely patient in waiting for the right spots. I also played for 16 hours straight on day one, so I was really pleased to have got through the day without surrendering to fatigue.

The structure also provided for essentially a post flop tournament. For the majority of the tournament I was over 100 bb’s deep rendering position even more important than usual. I successfully used peoples preflop aggression against them by calling in position and taking the pot on a later street.

Another key to this tournament was that I was able to single table Day Two, and also the latter stages of Day One. Over a long period of time I was able to observe patterns in my opponents, and to think about how I was going to exploit them. You need to have the flexibility in your game to out manoeuvre people in a variety of ways, and the confidence to execute a plan when you see an opportunity. However, to be able to do this, you need to be able to watch your table conditions and game-flow very closely in order to get your timing spot on. I believe observation, adaptability, and timing are 3 essential ingredients to defeating the stronger online fields. I would not have been able to do this if I were multi-tabling.

If you are backed by poker-allies, and would like to watch hand histories, please message me, and feel free to ask questions regarding any hand I played.

Neil

The most exploitable bubbles exist within large buy in tournaments with big pay jumps, where a high percentage of the field have won a satellite entry. We see these tournaments every Sunday. Satellite players are playing effectively above their bankroll and will want to finish in the money, These players resort to extreme risk aversion before big payout increases. I recommend finding low buy in players using OPR. For example, if a player’s ABI is $18 and the tournament cost $500 to enter, the first payout level of this tournament could represent their biggest ever score. These players will also make themselves known by discussing the bubble in the chat box, and timing out every hand. These players are our prime targets.

We aim to play against them just before the big pay increases. We play against them when we have them covered (i.e. we can eliminate them) and we leverage their tournament life on any hand we play. This may mean opening their bb if they are incapable of playing back without the nuts. We can also 3 or 4 bet them light if we think they will raise/fold. It could also mean representing any potential scare card that hits the board. In short, it means putting our opponents to the test when there is an unusually large amount of money involved for them.

If you are a medium stack the above options are open to you against the short stacks. We cannot pose the threat of elimination to our big stacked opponents, however, we be able to exploit the bubble in another way – by exploiting those big stacks that are aiming to exploit the bubble.  Anybody who is half decent with chips at this stage of a tournament will be very active. If they are anything like me, they will be entering pots with marginal holdings, and you should punish them for this.  To do this you must 1) be the first player all-in and 2) you must have fold equity when making your play (your opponent cannot be priced in).  In  situations against a hyper aggressive opponents I tighten my 2 bet range to the point where I am never raise/folding against them, and I lighten my 3 bet range where my stack size is right to satisfy requirements 1 & 2. Trapping with big hands can also be very effective verses overaggressive opponents.

What about if you are the short stack? Obviously the bubble isn’t going to be anywhere near as profitable for you. As a rule with an m of 3-6 I try to push when the other Short stacks are in the big blind. Their calling ranges will likely be tighter than usual. Never tighten your own calling ranges. I’d take a neutral (and possible negative) ev spot near the bubble, if doubling gave me the opportunity to be the bully boy.

If you can apply these strategies, I believe the bubble is a great opportunity to accumulate whatever your stack size, because the best investments in tournament poker, like business, are when risk aversion is the order of the day.

Next week we are going on a 4 day road trip to Rotorua and Taupo. Will be good to have some time off.

I’m afraid to say it’s been more of the same at the tables. I’m still down although volume is good and I’m on course to meet my target volume for the month. I’ve analysed it and despite making some mistakes, I’ve run very badly. I’ve had several final tables without a win, and I’ve only had one second place (I also got disconnected for 10 minutes heads up which cost me dearly). I’ve lost several key hands at these final tables, or at least deep having got them in good. It’s really hard to accept. It also demonstrates just how big variance can be. I really believe you need a minimum of 200 buy ins if you don’t want to go bust. Things are made worse by the fact that Neil has asked me to write an article on dealing with bead beats and downswings. I actually leant quite a lot about this sort of stuff when I was trading on the markets. I will put the article up within the next few days. On a side note – feel free to write your own articles if you think you have something to offer. Send them to us and we will put them on the site.

The start of the premiership season has provided a fresh source of misery. I don’t understand why Ramos is rotating players at this stage. If anyone has the answer to the following, please let we know

1)      Why is Lennon being preferred to Dos Santos?
2)      Why was Bentley on the bench against Villa? From what i’ve seen he’s been our best player so far.
3)      What is going on with Ledley King?

I hope things improve – its just as painful to watch live at 6am, 10 thousand miles away as it is from the Paxton. COYS

Finally, Wednesday night witnessed our first appearance at the local bar’s quiz night, finishing a respectable mid table, having dropped quite a few points with questions only a kiwi would know. We plan to add a couple of kiwis to our team. I think Shaun will go next Wednesday. It was a fun night and we plan to make it a regular thing. Expect us to be pushing for European qualification next week