Poker Heartland Poker Tour

HPT is in town this week. I think I am a decent recreational player. I use to play much more a few years back. I believe there will be a fair amount of players above my level. How do I approach the tables knowing I am at disadvantage? How does an average player adjust to better players at the table? Thanks for any input.

CLVR

 

Great question....as a new player myself I will be interested in the opinions of others.

 

Hey Brian and Jeremy, I hope lots will weigh in on this one in particular.

First, you can't win the event in the first hour, and in some cases the first day, so sit back and play YOUR table, each table you may switch to, trying to play smart, increasing your stack, even slightly on every revolution around the table, and watch others play. Start to identify the types of players you have at your table and use that info when you get involved in a hand. NOTE: Remember, they (or some), might be profiling you as well.

Don't throw away ammunition you will need in later rounds, just because it's cheap in the early rounds, but do use your position to advantage and if possible see flops cheaply and hit big (two pair or more, or a huge draw with tons of outs). As the event progresses, the draws will decrease as they will siphon off many of your chips (they aren't always profitable - lower % to hit, although you will win with some by barreling).

It's important to remember that early on, players tend to open their ranges up and pots seem to be contested by multiple players, so the bigger pairs and broadway cards tend to get crushed when one pair is all you have. As the event progresses, you can use your stack more effectively to isolate and dominate and make bigger cards stand up, in contrast to the way draws decrease in value in later rounds.

You can't be the sheriff at your table, no one appointed you and you should not step into that role. However, if the table is tight, you can play more aggressively, and if the table is super aggressive, you might want to tighten up a bit and pick you spots.

When you play at a table with a super tight player(s) and they play back at you, tend to get out of the way, unless you have a huge hand yourself. If you make a mistake and get caught in any hand, and feel you have put your foot into it, cut your loses early, don't double compound it by trying something you know very well might not work out in the end. It's not cowardly to stop betting when you know you have little chance to win.

The biggest mistake my clients inform me about is when they get "marginal hands" that they have trouble playing. My response to them is: "Listen to yourself!" If you think they are marginal and get you into trouble, or you can't play them well after the flop - "Don't Play Them!"
Hands that seem to fall into that category are AT, KJs, A9, QT and small pairs. Avoid spending chips on these hands when conditions: position, short stacked, etc. are not involved.

One last thing. I've been told by many players: "But Teach, I got no pairs or big cards for more than an hour and I ran out of chips!" This happens, but I remind them that they had position more than a few times during that 60-90 minutes, a table image of a NIT or tighter than a bull-frogs (_!_), so why didn't they STEAL some pots (using this image), as everyone would buy in to their making a hand.

Again, love to hear more comments and Rondster, please talk about your recent tournament successes and in particular about ladder climbing late and the fatal mistake(s) seen, or you made please.

 

First I must say "I always listen to the Teach!" But if someone asked me that question, I would try to articulate a response very similar to what Al said... in the early rounds 'tight is right' - wait for position and good spots to increase your stack without getting into too much trouble. I myself have so many situations where I don't get decent playable hands for what seems to be an eternity... if you have been paying attention to the table dynamics, you will find those situations where you can steal the occasional pot. It's so easy when you're card dead to 'try and make something happen' - don't do it! Patience is key. As the field reduces and the blind go up, open up your range. Keep tabs on the table dynamics as you move around and make adjustments accordingly.

Having said the above I've never played a big event like this - I can only hope I would follow my own advice and of course , that of the Teach!

 

Thanks for the replies! First, I will frame my response by saying as an newer player I have been playing primarily online freerolls while I work on my fundamentals and just try and turn alot of hands. I understand that in these types of free for alls there is alot of "reckless" play so not everything works. Recently I have found that by being tighter in the beginning as you, and many others, have indicated I have been able to consistently move into the top 50 of 4-500 player fields but then I come across a reasonably strong hand such as AK, AQ, QQ, and try to bet them accordingly. Suddenly by the turn I am in for over half my stack and unable to push away. I seriously need to work on finishing.

 

Hi Brian good to hear from you ,so the first thing that I do is to identify who the people are that I am playing against at my table how many are loose , passive, aggressive, tight ect ect ect also I want to establish hand ranges they play I do this by watching and trying things out to see how they respond. Once I have established who the strong and weak players are I tend to go after the weak players and try to stay out of the way of stronger players. How ever sometimes like judo you can use their over confidence against them You just have to keep your eyes open for an opening,when blinds are small its a lot harder to steal so you must look at your bet size to make a steal happen and be prepared to bet a higher amount to make it successful. Its always good to be tight in the beginning and look for your spots and using good position is not always possible so some time you have to do things that take you out of your comfort zone in order to start adding chips.I find that when you widen out your starting hands and vary your betting patterns you will confuse a lot of players especially tight players. As an example dont be afraid to open up two from the button with a k q or a kj ect you will be surprised at your results of course we only want to do this when there is nobody behind us and do so people dont notice by varying your play. Your aim is to loose only the min and to try to keep adding chips. dont forget to use all your tools like 3 betting and 4 betting when the time comes.

Ok now if things are going well for you and you have been adding chips were heading into the latter rounds one of the things that you are telling us is that you have some trouble when you have some excellent starting cards like ak aq queens ect and by the turn you have over half your stack in. Well for starters every hand is different so its hard to ans but in general depending on my stack size and what I have and what position I have and what other people are betting pre flop will determine what I am going to do , some examples I am in the big blinds with ak and we have a limper from middle position and a min raise from a very loose player form the button what do i do well I cant fold and a call might get me in trouble latter so a three bet is in order here so if I know that I am going to be commited I might shove in this spot any way work on your preflop game to control the pot and the people your playing against because you are going to get most of your money in at one time or another so pick your spots good hunting.

rondster

 

i don't think i would approach any table thinking i am at a disadvantage, because i don't think you will be, one you don't know the players and they don't know you, i played a WSOP senior event, my first. got knocked out in about the 7th round do to my mistakes,. what did i learn , simple, i now know i can win at these events if i stay on my toes, and do not make crazy mistakes like i did,. my worst mistake was loosing track of the flop , by this i mean what the table said the nut hand could be. i played into a made straight, yet amazing as it is, the man with the straight took a long time in calling, i had more chips than him,. and pushed all in to push him off of this hand, bear in mind i did not realize the flop had a made straight in it,. this guy had the middle two cards, he thought so long, that and said i don't think i am beat,. and made the call, by his taking so long i realized he was a week player,.and he made the right call, and it cost me half my chips., about two rounds of the table i was out of the tournament,. yet i now know in my mind i can win one these types of tournaments,. let your opponents make the mistakes, try to minimize yours or try to make none.