Feb 23 2009
The Plan: Success Or Failure???
I my previous post I talked about how I had a specific plan going into a tournament even though this is not typically a good strategy. Prevailing ideology says that you should roll with the punches and be able to change up your game based on how the table is breaking and the cards you’re being dealt. I decided to take a set of hard rules and stick with them throughout the tournament. Without any further adieu, here were the rules that I played by:
- Do not utter the words “all in” unless I absolutely felt I had the best hand. That said, do not use an all in move as a bluff or even a semi-bluff.
- Raise with any paired hand regardless of position or previous action.
- After applying point #2, fold to any re-raise when holding 88 or lower.
So… how did things go. Was I successful in my strategy? Well, it depends on how you define success I suppose. I did not win the tournament so I suppose ultimately I was not successful. That said the odds of winning every tournament you enter is slim to none so I’m not sure I’m comfortable rating success or failure just on whether I won the tournament. I can tell you that I followed my rules to a “T” and did not deviate from this strategy… with one exception (see Hand #7).
As for rule #1. I only said the words “all in” once in the tournament. Unfortunately I was outdrawn and was out of the tournament. I am happy to report though that I had far-and-away the best hand when I did make my move (telling me that I was at least reading the situation correctly). Part of the reason that was not successful in that particular hand was that I had allowed myself to get so low that I had two callers. Had I made the move earlier in the game I would have had a larger stack and might have been able to scare some people into folding. As it was my stack was just too small to do any damage.
As for points #2 & #3. I was faced with this situation twice. Once with 22 in the big blind and once with 66 in the small. I was reraised when I had my duces and per rule #3 folded immediately. When I held my sixes I raised and promptly flopped top set!!!
All in all this was a good little experiment. I plan on putting some new rules in place the next time I play. I’ve been doing this type of thing all season long and have only just recently been sharing it here. My results (winning and losing) have been TERRIBLE but I think it’s making me a better player. Time will tell.
See you after the flop!
