Thursday, 28th March 2024 18:08
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When migrating from cash games, I really like to play the Sunday tournaments or the big daily guarantees. They have good structure and big player pools. These fields also tend to be soft. Apart from the fact you always have to adjust to the table, generally I played a lot of flops in the beginning and then tighten up as the blinds get bigger. At the start the stacks are pretty deep and you have a lot of room to play flops or make some moves. The bigger the blinds get, the more pot committed your opponent is, the more solid your hands have to be, because he is going to look you up more often. You see a lot of rookies trying to make moves when their stacks aren’t really deep enough.

I do think that over the last year(s) people have learned to play a lot more disciplined. They play stronger hands, therefore making less mistakes. This is only natural, because the poker community gets more and more educated with all the info out there. Everyone is getting better. So it’s up to you to stay ahead of the masses.

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I really like the idea behind the new Time Tourneys on PokerStars, launching Oct 19, 2011. One of the things I like most about cash games is you can play whenever you want, however long you want. You can just stand up and leave. Otherwise, some people register tournaments even though they know they can’t really finish them, or they have to get up early in the morning. With Time Tourneys you can still play a tournament format, but now know exactly what time it’s going to end. Also this is a very new format for tournaments, so it’s cool to develop a new strategy or play style for it.

Logically it’s going to be very important to gather as many chips as possible. The prize pool will then be chopped up after the set time has passed. Imagine you play a one-hour time tournament; do you really want to start out playing tight? You have to take every spot possible, patience is less important. However, when you play a three-hour tournament, this strategy might be completely wrong. It’s very cool that something like this will give tournament poker a completely new perspective! I can’t wait to try this out….

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