May 17, 2005
Well after six weeks in Las Vegas, I needed 2 weeks off to acclimatise to pokerparty again. Eventually I dragged myself back onto the pokerparty again, and flew down to Barcelona (it is such a hard life). The major competition of the week was the Worlds Heads Up Championship, with a first prize of 100,000 euro. Not bad for a week of poker, but it wasn't to be.
Heads Up poker at a pokerparty room is completely different to 9 handed or even 6 handed poker for the pokerparty player. If you fancy a change, try it on the pokerparty.com heads up poker tables.
My first round online pokerparty opponent was Daniel Holm, one of the young Scandinavians that are changing the way pokerparty is played in Europe. Generally they play poker considerable more aggressively, raising considerably more starting pokerparty hands than I would. If they suspect any weakness after the flop they will fire away trying to pick up the pot. There have been poker players like this in the past, but certainly not the same number.
Personally I dislike playing against this type of online pokerparty player, because I much prefer "to be the aggressor" myself. I prefer to be the partypoker player who dictates when I want to play a big pot (preferably when I have position and good cards). I am not quite so keen on playing big pots every third or fourth hand. But this is inevitable against some poker opponents.
My strategy for playing against this pokerparty opponent is to rarely raise myself but to call pokerparty players with big hands and marginals such as suited connectors or say K7. (King high is much stronger heads up than you may think. The average starting poker hand for Heads Up play being only Jack high). I would then tend to do a lot of check calling until my poker opponent realises that he can't steal too many pots from me.
The first round match went very much along these lines. I took an early chip lead when I called a raise with A10. I flopped an Ace, (PokerParty Lingo) checked to my opponent and called his bet (which turned out to be a bluff). After about 30 minutes, I flopped top pair against his flush draw and the rest of his poker chips went in. Fortunately for me, he missed his flush and I progressed to the next round to face the intimidating Rob Hollink
In my opinion, Rob Hollink from Holland is one of the top ten all-round pokerparty tournament players in Europe. He plays "live cash games and competition poker" equally well. He is a prolific winner on the internet, and is also one of a very few players who repeatedly win Omaha competitions (myself and the great Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliot being the only poker players who spring to mind). He won last years online pokerparty Tournament. So I knew I was in for a Battle Royale.
Wrong! Rob raised the very first poker hand. The blinds were 100/200 and he raised 300 more. I looked down at Kd4d and called the 300, as there was already 700 in the middle. The pot odds were good for this pokerparty hand and the hand was average. The flop came down 10h4h3d. I had second pair so thought I was probably in the lead at this pokerparty tournament. There was 1000 in the pot. I checked and called Rob's bet of 700. Making a pot of 2400. (I don't think either of us wished to be playing a poker pot this big on the very first hand). The turn card was 10d, so I now had 10s and 4s with a King kicker. Surely I was in front? So I trap checked, as I had also picked up the flush draw. Rob bet 1700 and I quickly raised all in. I nearly fell off my poker chair when he called. He had 10J and my only out was a diamond. It didn't arrive, and now I am the proud owner of another record: the only pokerparty player eliminated from a WHU match on the first hand.
So, it's important to improve your game even if you stay at the same limits. Start thinking about tactics that work better against knowledgeable players as well, since the games will tighten up down the road and play will get much more sophisticated. Exercise good table selection while you're at it and consider playing at some lesser known pokerparty sites as well in the future, where the online pokerparty sharks aren't hanging out. Just like at the tables, adaptability and being able to switch gears is the most important weapon in your arsenal.
I don't know how many of you stayed up to watch the pokerparty tournament, square eyed poker performance on last weeks Pokerparty Million, The Masters. A few friends of mine did, and suggested it wasn't so easy to follow poker. So here's a few hints and explanations of what was going on in the poker party room, or more accurately, why it was going on. They also hold true for poker table competitions.
What happened in my poker tournament was quite typical of many poker tournaments, but probably not as likely to "occur in normal poker table competitions." Just because poker is on TV, most poker party qualifiers do not want to make fools of themselves, and especially don't want to be first out. So generally they play very passively for the first three or four levels. In my heat this resulted in no poker players being eliminated early.
Meanwhile the blinds are obviously going up. When we reached level 5 without any eliminations, the blinds were very high (8000/16000) in relation to the average chip stack (100,000). If we had eliminated 3 of the 6 pokerparty players the average chips stack would have been 200,000 and the blinds vs average chip stack ratio would be more normal - So what?
Well, should you have dropped below average, to say 72,000 - you are now in dire need of a poker hand to play. All your pokerparty chips will whittle away in three rounds of play. So that is why on TV you suddenly see some of the poker professionals moving all-in with K6, whereas earlier they had passed A10. The pressure of the blinds is beginning to take its toll.
Also should you have gone another round in the poker tournament and let your stack drop to, say 40,000, another situation occurs. Let's say you pick up 2 Kings and move all-in. The big blind has already invested 16000 in this pot. When the action reaches him, he has only 24,000 to call, whilst he can see 64,000 on offer in the middle. Excellent pot odds. So you will then see many of the poker professionals calling with unlikely looking pokerparty hands such as 6,8 off-suit.
Conversely, if you have allowed your poker stack to dwindle to 40,000, you can expect to be called. So now it is very difficult to make any "semi-bluffs" with poker hands like 9,10. You know you are probably going to get called, so it is only the right move if you want to gamble.
