COMMERCE TOURNAMENT

I wanted some live action, so I went to the Commerce for a $225 tourney with one optional rebuy. I decided I would play like a pro and buy in only once. If it didn't happen for me, so be it. I wanted some practice on how to look at my cards and try to get some reads on players.

The starting stack was $1000 with the blinds increasing every 20 minutes. The lower the starting stack and the faster the levels, the more of a gamble the game becomes. Patience is rewarded in poker, and the faster the blinds increase, the less patient you are able to be, and if you can't stay ahead of the blinds, then you're forced to join the ranks of the gamblers. It's vital to get some chips early to enable you to play poker and not simply gamble.

I folded nine times out of ten, maybe even more than that in the early going. My best chance for accumulating chips came when I got JJ in first position. I called so I had a chance to get off the hand if the flop proved unfavorable. There was a call from second position, a somewhat loose player, and then a raise from a tight player. I called and the three of us took a flop, which came 6JA rainbow. It was the ideal flop for my hand; I just had to decide how to play it. I could have checked it twice and been in no real danger of getting outdrawn. I was fairly sure that the raise from fourth position indicated a strong ace, so I decided to come out betting in hopes that the loose player would call and the tight player would raise. In a perfect world they both have aces and at least one of them ends up with two pair by the river. Much to my dismay, both players folded and I took down a much smaller pot than desired.

The blinds kept creeping up on me, and before long I had about $700 with $100/200 blinds. My strategy became simple: if I can be the first player to fire at a pot, then I need to push in my entire stack and hope to either double up or take the blinds. The later my position and the stronger my cards, the better my chances for surviving such a play. I first tried it when it folded around to me on the button and I took my QJh all in. The small blind decided to gamble with his pocket nines and I won the race when a queen flopped. This gave me enough chips to wait a little longer for a hand to play, but when it never arrived, I wound up pushing all in three times, each time taking the blinds.

One time I made a wise laydown of AJ when I was not the first in the pot. A player after me had AQ. That same player raised from first position soon after, and I folded A8 from the big blind. He showed me an ace but not the kicker. I may have had him outkicked, but A8 is not a hand I care to die with unless I am the aggressor. Finally I got a decent hand, pocket tens in late position. Rather than push all in with it, I bet half my chips to better induce a call. That leaves a question in my opponent's mind if I am committing myself to the hand or if I'm leaving myself an exit strategy. My foe put me all in, which I quickly called. He flipped over QT, a questionable tactic on his part. He had me covered, but not so much to push in with such a weak hand. So, I've got his ten covered, which leaves only three queens that can hurt me. Two of them fell to the felt and I was eliminated.