Still Learning And Finding More Mistakes

I played another $50 tournament.  I didn't cash.  I didn't try any of my bankroll preservation strategies.  The relevant situations never came up.  When I made it to the final two tables, I never had quite enough chips to consider coasting into a cashing spot.

The good news is that I'm learning new things (or finding more areas that need work) and that's always a good thing.

One of the interesting things that happened was that most of the players were pretty tame early, but one kept making big bets to push me out of pots.  So I stayed out of his way for a while, then I realized that at some point I had to take a stand.  I started calling about half of his raises, because:

1. He couldn't have a big hand every time, and
2. In general I had to send the message that I wouldn't be pushed around.

After that happened, I started bullying the weakest players and left him alone for a while.  Then came one of those moments when two players develop an unspoken understanding.

We both understood that we should stop competing to be the alpha dog at the table.  He knew that we were the two best players at the table, I knew the same thing, and for 15 minutes we played very few hands against each other and instead fattened our stacks at the expense of the weaker players.  He was doing it by intimidation (big bets and raising) and I was doing it by deception, slowplaying big hands and pretending I was weak when I was strong by how I played my cards, my posture, and anything else I could think of to give a false impression that wasn't too obvious (this is sometimes called giving off false tells.)

When we got down to two tables, the big mistake that I made was getting too tricky with my big hands.  Often when you're short-stacked your choices are all-in or fold, but there are a times when you can wait until a little more money gets into the pot before you strike.  I have a very good understanding of when it's time for standard short-stacked push-or-fold play.  I have a good feel for it and I understand the math.  I tried to get a little tricky too many times and it backfired.  I had already gone all-in several times, and only got a call with one of my seven or so shoves.  What I knew how to do was working, and I fell prey to FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome.)

When I am one of several small stacks, it might be OK to get tricky once in a while, but not very often.  Once you are down to two tables, a short stack will almost inevitably either make the final table, or get knocked out (or crippled), based on a confrontation with another stack big enough to cripple you or knock you out.  That's just the way it works.

There are a lot of situations in poker that can't be controlled in a tournament.  My job is to make the best decision that I can based on the odds, my hand and what range of hands I think my opponent might play in that situation.  I will get knocked out of a lot of tournaments that way.  But I will also double up in enough tournaments to be profitable in the long run, and that's what matters.

For that to happen, I need to be able to play often enough that there is a long run that means something, a large enough sample size that my tournament-by-tournament results eventually converge at a point when  they are somewhat representative of my skill level. Three or four live tournaments per month just doesn't cut it.  Again, I know that I'm doing the right thing when I spend so much time taking care of my mother-in-law.  But it was jarring to read an old post on 2+2 where I said that I would probably be tied up taking care of my mother-in-law for a little longer.

I wrote that post in 2013.