be a better player

Ask Questions. Why? Because questions, when honestly answered, give us answers. And answers give us an advantage.

But now we arent asking questions about our oppenents, or even the likelihood that our hands are the winner. This question needs to precede those others.

How good am I? Honestly, on a scale from 1-10 how would I rate my overall game?

I must answer honestly, because if I give myself too much credit I'll be playing against competition that is too good for me to win consistently, and if I dont give myself enough credit then I'm cutting myself out of potential profits.

Why do I need to ask/answer this question before every single tournament I register in? Well, have you noticed that the blinds structures for the tournaments vary? Some are also freezeout or rebuy, some are short handed, some are deep-stacked. What does this have to do with how good I am? Let's take a look.

The slower the blinds go up in a tournament, typically the better you need to be to make the final table. In contrast, fast blinds typically lends itself to being a luck-fest where you cannot take the time to develop reads and set up moves.

Likewise 10 person tables take more skill to beat than 6 person tables, freezeouts require more skill than rebuys, and the bigger your starting stack the more skill you'll need to make it deep into the tournament.

What I've seen, and what I used to do myself was that I wasnt giving any thought to the structure of a tournament. I used to think, "well poker is poker isnt it?" Well, no, it isnt so simple.

Let's go to the extreme. Imagine you had Phil Hellmuth's skill. Why then, would you want to enter a tournament with super fast blinds. Those fast blinds stand in direct conflict with his skill, and he becomes just like everyone else at the table, a guy relying on luck to win.

To the opposite extreme lets say you have no NLHE experience at all, why then would you choose to sit down at a tournament with deep stacks and slow blinds? Typically in these tournaments the solid players will rise to the top over time because they arent forced to make moves by the blinds, and can instead focus on setting people up.

So what about those in the middle somewhere, like most of us are? Well we have to take an HONEST inventory of our game. Can you establish working reads? Are you patient? Can you make big lay downs? Do you have a working knowledge of positional poker? Can you effectively play small ball? These are the questions that need answering.

I grew up in poker on cash tables. So I feel like the strengths of my game are my reads, my patience, and the fact that no matter how much money is one the table I wont get rattled.

The weaknesses of my game are that I can have a hard time in MTT's knowing when to be patient and when to be aggressive. And because at cash tables the range of hands people play is a little narrower, when I'm in an MTT I sometimes have a hard time realizing a guy hit his weird straight, or set, or what have you.

But overall I rate myself around a 7/10 or 8/10. A work in progress. So when I'm looking at a tournament I need to check a few things out.

What is the blind structure?
What is the starting stack?
How many entrants?
Freezeout or rebuy?
10 handed or 6 handed?

Because of my style of play I tend to consistently make the money when I am in slow moving freezeout tournaments.

In the faster paced tournaments, or rebuy events, I have a hard time. Those tournaments, by design, limit the impact the strengths of my game can have. So I just stay away from them period.

But by the same token, 2 years ago I had more success in turbo and rebuy events. In the longer tournaments I was consistently getting outplayed, where as in the turbo events I at least had the chance to get lucky from time to time.

The point of these questions isnt to beat yourself up, or inflate your ego. You need an honest inventory to decide what tournaments you have the best chance of winning consistently.

So in conclusion:

Rebuys, Shortstacks, turbos, and shorthanded = luck plays a bigger factor.

Freezeouts, slow blinds, deepstacks, and full tables = skill plays a bigger factor.

So knowing this, all you have to ask yourself is, "At my current skill level can I expect to finish in the money a high % of the time, or do I need to be in some of the rebuy/turbo events?"

I'm not saying by any means that you shouldnt try to improve the flaws in your game. I'm just saying, be honest with yourself, or it could cost you alot of money.

Good players need to be in tournaments that lend themselves to skill.

Inexperienced players need to stick to tournaments that lend themselves to luck.

That is, if you expect to make a profit.