It is a thing of true beauty when you go on a card rush in a tournament. You’re dealt big pairs and big Aces almost every hand and you hit flops like a sledgehammer cracks an egg. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen all that often and you’ll be stuck with marginal hands or worse a lot of the time.
This is exactly what happened to me in the London Poker Championships £500 freezeout at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino. A 40-minute clock and 160 big blind starting stack allowed plenty of time to find a hand, but despite getting A-K twice (which I raised preflop, c-bet on the flop and had to fold to a check-raise), I was essentially card dead. This didn’t stop me from playing though. The good thing about folding a lot of rubbish hands is that it helps build a tight table image, which is great as long as you don’t live up to that image by only raising when you do have a hand. It’s really important to make an occasional play given the right circumstances, even if it’s just that the action has folded to you in the cut-off.
Dodging and weaving
I took advantage of my image and the weakness of limping opponents at my table by making plays near late position with hands such as K-6o and 7-5o. When the blinds are 75/150 and one or two limpers have entered the pot, a raise to around 800 will usually be enough to take the limps and blinds. The times you’re called you get to see the flop with position and are able to play your opponent accordingly, and if that means getting your hand caught in the cookie jar occasionally then so be it. In a faster paced tournament you are still better off waiting for good spots and then shoving, but with a slower clock and deeper stacks you sometimes need to get your dancing shoes on.
As it happens I made the final table and busted out in fifth for £2,250 – better than a slap in the face – after shoving from the small blind with Q-8o into the big blind’s Kings. So maybe it’s not best to play your rags all the time after all…