My path to buying Caesars Mega Stack #81 started innocently enough with a last minute decision. My wife was planning to play, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to play poker for 12 hours. On Saturdays, I like to relax because it was the last day of my weekend, but my wife insisted that she wanted me to play. I’ve been reading a couple of new books on tournament poker and I was like, “What the hell?” I’ll try it.
I arrive at the Caesars Palace poker room and, as always, it’s freezing cold. I’m not a big fan of the room because I feel very isolated. I feel like I’m playing in a warehouse. I run to my seat and immediately throw my first hand into the mud. As I settle in, I begin to formulate my game plan. The general feeling of these Caesars tournaments is that the fields are extremely soft due to the low buy-ins. I realize that most players have average or below average plays, so there is a lot of dead money. A million thoughts go through my head. In general, my starting strategy in tournaments is to play a lot of hands, play in position, and be extremely aggressive both before and after the flop. There are 3 types of opponents I like to attack in tournaments: 1) Playing players who fold their button, 2) Playing players who fold after limping, and 3) Playing players who fold too much on their button. the flop. If you just follow those 3 rules, you’ll be one step ahead of the competition.
We start with 15,000 chips and immediately, I put the petal on the metal and raise and bet a ton of hands. Fortunately, there is little to no resistance from my opponents, so I can build my stack without showing my hands. If you’re building your stack without showing hands, you’re playing a flawless poker tournament. In the second hour, I am sitting with 21,000 chips. I feel good about how I’m playing, then this hand comes up.
BIG HAND #1 — “Just go with the read, dammit. Who cares if you get knocked out?”
The blinds are 100-200… I’m sitting with 21,000K… Player in middle position raises 600 from a stack of 19,000. I realized, apart from myself, that these players had been very aggressive pre-flop, and I wanted the opportunity to play a poke with him in position to see how he would react to a 3-bet (Re-raise) Re-raise. from the button to 1,600 with KJ offsuit. Everyone folds to the original raiser and calls… 5000 in the pot and two players. The flop 9 7 2 with two spades… It happens to me. I put him in a range of two big cards and possibly a small pair of 4s or 5s. I bet 1,750… he calls. The pot is now 7,000. The turn card brings another 9… Suddenly my opponent bets 1,900. The bet screams flush draw! This is an informational bet known as a “block” bet. Basically, it’s to see where he’s standing on the hand. My guess is that he’s putting me in big cards like AK or AQ, and hoping I didn’t connect on the flop. My options are to fold or raise… My opponent is around 16K so I decide to call my read and put him on a flush draw and raise to 5,000K… My opponent calls instantly. He called so quickly that I’m now 100% sure he was facing me with a flush draw… The river brings a jack. He was sure he couldn’t call a substantial bet if the flush didn’t come. the cat calmed me down. my opponent checks. I went all-in… he folds.
KJ’s hand gave me a lot of confidence and the belief that this aggressive strategy was my ticket to a deep run in the tournament. My newfound confidence would set the stage for a turning point early in the tournament, which I think made me realize I have a chance at a deep run… In my Part II, I will set the stage for the huge I meet with. rush that brings me closer to the final table.
