Won 2nd place in 300 person tourney...never raising!???

On spadeclub today i got, 2end place out of 300 people (for 20$ free monthly membership,top 2 pays) and i did this by not raising once!?...(maybe couple times at beginning) but def not after hour/1st break. everyone is always saying be aggressive you have to be aggressive. rasie 3x BB etc etc. i took advantage of aggressive palyers by limping in with good hands, calling there raise, and then let them try to steal only to lay hammer down on them by reraising (if i hit flop good) or pushing all-in(with nut) and it worked!? reletively easy too. people would steal my blinds a good amount, but when i did get in a hand i was doubling up very easily. do you think this is effective strategy? or luck (even though every freeroll toureny needs luck). i could prob could of came in first but 1st and 2end place was same prize so i pushed all in chasing nut flush, only to loose to 27 (7 hit on river). any opinions on how this happened? luck good strat... bad player ?? thanks for opinions.

I am a little confused by you saying you never raised and yet you say,

So you played basically passive poker until you had the nuts, AND THEN 'raised' their bet/lead out...That system works absolutely awesome--so long as you get cards. Without good cards, just will not work.

You did well if you didnt raise,but i see you contridicted that 2 lol CONGRATS on 2nd EXCELLENT JOB !

When you consistently make huge hands and get particularly lucky, this works. Any other time, it doesn't.

sorry, i would never raise PRE-flop, after flop anything went (usually just made min. cont. bet, or would check if i was BB and hit expecting the loose agresssive people to bet into it, only to see my re-raise, but they would still play it till showdown.) it was crazy, it seemed like no one knew what to do or how to play me, and def couldn't put me on any type of hand. i took position very seriously. didn't get sucked out on and never sucked out on anyone (which is hard for these freerolls). thanks for opinions... hopefully more will come.

Weak tight/passive. Yep good cards with this and you're win ratio will be great. No cards=no goot

^^this I think is true.

Congrats.
Weak tight can be devastating for opp. as said - if you hit.
Very hard to get through a MTT like that though, sometimes you wont hit.
Well done.

I was in a home game in December and folded every hand until I was heads up.
It was a wild game.

Yeah, I finished 2nd, but they paid top two positions.

I would say you are lucky to have gotten that far

Well, with a winning hand, raising in the turn as the dealer, you get more chips. It's weird that u made it that far without raising.

In MTT's I go through really long sequences of getting nothing but junk. That's ok, that's when you learn how to steal and re-steal. Going through an entire tournament catching cards, that's for a lucky few--which I'm not.

I like playing with weak/tight players, because it's so easy to hammer on them and steal their blinds. But going through an entire MTT playing weak/tight....well I guess anything is possible.

i try to steal with no luck at all.

could you elaborate on this for me...? like when, where and how to do it? lol. i am not good with this at all and need it in my game. any books that will help me with this? currently reading harrington on hold em.

^^ Try stealing in late position vs tight players...in other words, not in freerolls, haha.

This is a recent post aimed at cash games Stealing [Cash Games] If you use the search feature I think you'll find an article by KingCurtis about stealing in tournaments, and perhaps a few others (try to avoid bumping old threads though)

so never try to steal in freerolls?

another thing i noticed is that ALL-INS=NUT (in freerolls, usually)... do you think this is true? or a lot of people bluff that way?

Well, some new players thinks that all-in is just for ppl with guts, but all-in for nothing, is dumb, and most of the time they lose.All in is only to push, bluff(rarely) or maximise your winnings( with a winning hand in the turn.) Normally, even in freerolls, players with very low stack, in one on one, do all in a lot of the time, to steal the blinds, since sometimes their stack is equal or only a few times bigger then the big blind.

In a free roll with 2700 people (Full Tilt), the first 1,000 people do NOT try to steal or bluff, no way will that work. Straight, basic Poker because you will have to showdown your hand. People will also call you with the worst hands.

Once the antes are added things start getting interesting. You will have a mix of people at your table. You need to observe the 2-3 people on your left very carefully. Do they fold often? Do they raise or just call? Are they call stations? Are they strong, are they weak? You need to figure out if they can be bullied.

If the entire table folds to you and you have a + EV hand you need to consider putting in a raise in an attempt to steal the blinds/antes. Pay attention to why type of raises bring down a pot without resistance--it could be between 2 1/2 to 4 X BB. If you are going to steal you need to be the first to the pot.

I learned to steal by being a railbird at the high-limit SnG's where stealing is a way of life. You should consider doing the samething.

will do... but how do i know when they are stealing vs actually have a hand?


also, what if 2 players to left of me are aggressive and will continually call my raises? Should i retreat and go back to basic poker or keep trying even though they keep pushing me back.

if i raise 3x BB with BB at 100. and i do this say four times and all four time i dont hit and someone challenges me. thats 1200$ down the drain...

also it seems like when i do fire bullets (raise preflop then make 3/4 size of flop, see turn make another 3/4 size of pot) (should i then check or fire another one) AND/OR if i do fire 3rd one or go all in or something they call me with MID or even LOW PAIR!. this really annoys/baffles me!. am i some how making it obviose? and should ijust be getting out of hand?

No offense but when you try this tactic in a real money tournament let me know how it works out.

wellk this only works if u are a fool as far as im concerned i would never play like a dead dog that needs too be kicked im always agrressive and you are truly lucky for doing well with this style of play.

It might not be that as much as just try this when you don't get insanely lucky.

Sorry also thought I was implying long-term and not just in one tourney. ie play with that style in a real money game for like 20 tourneys or so and let me know how your roi is doing.

Congrats on the win, but poker isn't about using one style all the time because once your opponents put you on a style then your day is done. Eventually, you will have to learn to adapt your play to each situation, table, and player. "Adaptation is a profound process. Means you figure out how to thrive in the world." This applies to the poker table as well.

congrats! that is very good. i have never done that well without raising

yea, i have tried it couple times since only to be bullied and kicked around because the good hands just weren't coming. so i have been working on other gears and even stealing pots with some success! (later on in freerolls with antes and people being scared. def not in beg.) and i even came in 1st in a freeroll on spadeclub with 100 people in it(by stealing and being aggressive and switching play) it was only for points but it made me feel good! lol ... and man it was fun! a lot better then being a dead dog haha...

the book harrington on hold em is also helping me a lot along with help from everyone here.. so thank you, i do appreciate people taking time to help a poker noob.

No worries. I was agreeing with you anyway.

I have never witnessed this happening and winning. But thats just on a personal level. Congrats on the win

If your card dead this strategy will get beat 9/10. It all depends on the cards, if your not getting them the blinds and chasing the flop will eat you up, but if you've got the cards I say slow play appear weak and bash their skulls in every time you can!

Pretty crazy that you lasted as long as you did....you must have been slapped with the deck...

The book from Collin Moshman about SnG's goes into pretty good detail about stealing. He also has many. many examples. I really think it's worth a read.

Harrington does address the issue of stealing, but Collin's book has more examples and deeper explanation of what he is doing and why.

Well done on your tourney win, but unfortunately your strategy will not work out for you most of the time. Especially if you're planning on playing real money tourney's one day. Raising PF in position gives you a distinct advantage over your opponents who limp/call, and can setup a pot for a nice stealing cbet

Nice! thank you for recommendation, i have been looking for a new poker book. i will def check it out.



ps thanks for honesty guys, def cannot be successful playing that way, only lucky