Tight/Tricky

Although I plan to play a ton of hands in the main event and in future big buy-in, deepstack tournaments, I have generally been playing pretty tight here in the preliminary events at the WSOP. I don't think there's usually much value playing suited connectors and small pairs -especially in early position - when the average stack is twenty big blinds. In the past I've siphoned chips defending my blind with hands like T9o or A4s, so I've cut that out of my game (unless the other players in the pot are particularly weak). I'm probably winning around 10% of hands. In all three of my cashes, I spent most of the tournament playing extremely tight.

I think most of my opponents decide after an hour or two of playing with me that I am a basic weak-tight rock. The reality is that I am playing few hands, but playing them very hard when I do. Several players - including Joseph Hachem - have tried to bluff me in huge pots knowing I did not have a strong hand. They have underestimated my hand-reading ability and willingness to make a brave call for most of my chips.

I also play hands very unconventionally before the flop sometimes. In the shootout the other day, a guy limped in late position and I elected to just limp in the cutoff with AK. The plan was for a player behind me, most likely David Pham, to raise, allowing me to go all-in. I had a stack in which a raise would leave me in an awkward spot after the flop, but it was a perfect stack to reraise all-in. Although this time the pot was not raised and I ended up missing the flop and quietly folding, there have been many times when I have played a hand like this with favorable results. Last night in our house freezeout, the most important hand at the final table went like this: Kevin (in town to make the documentary) limped on the button. I just called in the SB with ATs, expecting Matt Viox in the big blind to raise this obviously weak situation. Sure enough, Matt raised and Kevin folded. I quickly pushed all-in and Matt beat me into the pot with A9, unable to put me on any sort of a hand after I just called in the small blind. I won that huge pot and went on to win the tournament.

Another advantage of playing very tight is it allows me to make critical blind steals and resteals, especially late in the tournament when I really need the chips. Often my steals come from early position, and I've even raised under the gun in the dark. When a guy goes two straight orbits without playing a hand, you have to give him credit for a gigantic hand when he raises under the gun. You also have to give him credit for a hand when he reraises you.

I feel comfortable playing this style, and think it suits me well. There are times to play fast, and I need to hone my higher gears for those times. I am still struggling to play a medium stack. My game still needs a lot of work. But I am very confident in falling back to this default, tight strategy.
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No matter how tight you play, there's no folding KK preflop in one of these $1500 events. For the second time in the WSOP I ran KK into AA, and for the first time, I lost the hand. Today is the 2.5k PLHE, my best remaining chance to win a bracelet.
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2k Shootout: +2805
1.5k NLHE: -1500

Year to date: 167,991