
Four Dogs
Legend
Silver Level
I played a $10+1 nlh tournament this morning which ended in frustration after nearly 3 hours as I placed 19th out of 159 entrants to miss the money by 1. Considering that I was nearly completely card dead for 152 hands it was really amazing that I made it that far, and even on the last hand where I went out, I was favored.
But apon reflection, the really amazing part was that out of 152 hands played, I only saw the flop 14 times, 9.21% of the total. In fact, I only bet 18 times. No, this wasn't some excersize in supertight strategy, but rather a complete and utter dearth of playable hands and or opportunity. After reviewing the results, I can't help but believe there is something to be learned from this. If I wasn't getting cards or stealing blinds, how did I outlast 131 opponents? Super efficiency in the hands I did play. By waiting, (out of necessity) for the right opportunity I was able to win over 50% of the flops I saw. Of the 7 flops, 5 went to showdown, and I won 3 of those. Ordinarily I'm semi loose agressive, playing about 30% of my hands overall. This time, while the agression factor remained high, I was achieved better equal or better than normal results with about 1/4 the hands.
I won't go so far as to suggest one should play less than 10% of your hands, but It does make me reconsider my aggressive style. I believe that 2 or 3 more real hands would have put me deep into the money.
But apon reflection, the really amazing part was that out of 152 hands played, I only saw the flop 14 times, 9.21% of the total. In fact, I only bet 18 times. No, this wasn't some excersize in supertight strategy, but rather a complete and utter dearth of playable hands and or opportunity. After reviewing the results, I can't help but believe there is something to be learned from this. If I wasn't getting cards or stealing blinds, how did I outlast 131 opponents? Super efficiency in the hands I did play. By waiting, (out of necessity) for the right opportunity I was able to win over 50% of the flops I saw. Of the 7 flops, 5 went to showdown, and I won 3 of those. Ordinarily I'm semi loose agressive, playing about 30% of my hands overall. This time, while the agression factor remained high, I was achieved better equal or better than normal results with about 1/4 the hands.
I won't go so far as to suggest one should play less than 10% of your hands, but It does make me reconsider my aggressive style. I believe that 2 or 3 more real hands would have put me deep into the money.