McCann's Open

Yesterday, I was playing in the CMPPA McCann's Open event. I was running very good and playing great poker. Got a very weak player next to me and in two hands was able to double up. I used this stack to grow it into a even larger stack by first break. I was able to make a couple of critical lay downs and keep the pressure on the table. Eventually, I did lose a few chips and just before second break I was around 40,000 chips about double the starting stack. I was second chips on table. I was one behind the button and had J-9. I decided to limp in because big blind was a guy that normally checks. He was the chip leader. He decided to raise. It was a pretty big raise, but I instantly put him on an ace. I decided to call. Flop was J-5-5. I check he bets out 6000. I call Turn is a 6. I bet out 10,000 because I am sure that I am ahead. He moves all in. I think about it a little and still think I ahead. I call. He turns over A-6. I was right. He had nothing on the flop and had picked up a pair on the turn. River is a 6 and I am out of the tournament. What a cruel game poker can be. I feel as if I played the whole tournament about as well as I am capable and still am out by second break forced to watch the rest of the day. Later during the second tournament I talk a player into playing and he is on my right. I have hardly played a hand and am big blind with him as small. He makes a big raise. I look down and have JJ, so I reraise. He calls. Flop is 5-6-9. He checks. I move all in and he calls and turns up 6-9. LOL! Out of another tournament. Glad I talked him into playing! Today's a new day anyway!
Had 90 players show up the tournament with many new people. It is amazing when players come from games that don't play by all the TDA rules. They have a real hard time when you actually enforce rules. A couple of times they were almost fights. you have to love free poker!

#12 Tournament Director

Now you may not think of this as a poker style, but it really is. As a tournament director (TD) if you are playing in the tournament and get knocked out early then you are stuck watching the rest of the time. There are many times when this style will lay down the best hand to a big bet because they can't leave if knocked out. It is a tighter style then the player would normally play. All the Tournament Directors that I work with have talked about this many times folding when they know they would have called in a different situation. The other thing that happens when a TD plays is they will get called more often when raising as everyone wants to take out the TD as he must be the expert. The pluses of the style is that you will usually last longer and make points in a points league. The big minus is that you fold to bets that you normally wouldn't allowing players to bluff at you more then they normally would. I will add that I don't believe that a person being paid to run a tournament should play in it and in the early days of MN bar poker I rarely played. The times have changed so much that many times I will spend as much as I making running tournaments. So, I now negotiate that in with the bar when I set up a game.

This style is also closely related to the players that will fold to an all in or large bet based on how much is left in their beverage glass, so I will not discuss this style.

#11 Tight Agressive

Tight aggressive is a style played by many of the better bar poker players. This player doesn't play a lot of hands yet when playing will almost always raise pre flop. Just because this style doesn't play a lot of hands doesn't always mean they are playing big hands. This player uses position and knows a lot about the other styles of players at their table to use their aggression to their advantage. They know when to make a continuation bet and when to get away from their hand. This player will make the points often in a points league and occasionally win tournaments. They are usually towards the top of any points league as long as they attend regularly. The pluses to this style is that they are smart players and know their competition. They know how to calculate odds and use it to their advantage. They tend to make it farther in tournaments because of their style. The only disadvantages to this style is if they are not getting any cards they have a hard time adjusting to play more hands and if a weaker player thinks they are tight to the extreme and always assume that they have a big hand they might not get as much action on their big hands as they would like. This is my prefered style when playing cash tournaments as I don't get a chance to play at Cardrooms or Casinos much, so I am not as fimilar with the other players as I am in bar poker.