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One of the nicest things about covering no-limit hold'em
tournaments is that you get to see the full spectrum of styles that make up
a tournament field. Most players know the truism that there's no one style
of poker that is guaranteed to win, and there's nowhere else that you'll
find a better representation of that statement than at a $10,000 buy-in
event on the tournament trail. Tight players, loose players,
hyper-aggressive players, trapping players - players who can be labeled in
all these ways routinely make the money in these big-money events. No matter
what your style, there's a lot to be learned from the players who make the
money in the world's richest tournaments.
For the tight and passive player, the players with the most to teach are those
who practice a loose-aggressive style . There are a lot of these players in
big tournament fields today, and most of the time they're young males who
aim to build a stack quickly or go to the next tournament. Michael "The
Grinder" Mizrachi is one example of a player who uses this style, which
involves raising with a lot of marginal (or downright poor hands) and
out-playing any opponents after the flop. Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Gavin
Smith, Andy Black, and John Juanda are other good examples of the
loose-aggressive style. Studying the way any of these pros play should help
a scared player become more confident. There's a lot of opponent-reading
that goes into this style so beginners often find it difficult , but
experimenting with it can sometimes lead to flashes of inspiration to
improve your own game.
For the passive player who finds himself involved in every pot, the
tight-aggressive players are the ones to pay closest attention to. Not only
do they show the virtues of avoiding involvement with less-than-stellar
hands, but they also demonstrate how being aggressive once involved in a pot
can build a big stack even without playing many hands. This style was once
upon a time the textbook approach to tournament poker, but has begun to fall
by the wayside as more younger (and particularly online) players employ a
looser approach to the game. Still, there are successful examples of the
style out there - players such as Dan Harrington and TJ Cloutier have
numerous titles to their names and tend to play a tight, aggressive game. It
may not be the most exciting style of play, but the math of poker is
definitely on the side of the player who starts with the best hand and
that's hard to ignore.
If you've noticed something that both of these groups of players have in
common, it's that they're both labeled as "aggressive." In general, poker
awards aggression and that's certainly true in tournaments as much as it is
in cash games. However, the brand of aggression exercised by the top players
is much different from the blind-rage sort of raising you see from
newcomers. Even many of the loosest players won't go crazy raising with a
poor hand from early position - more often than not they wait until they're
in a spot where they can take advantage of acting last before they go too
far. Also, good players know when to take the more passive approach and
simply call with the intention of letting a good (but not great) hand go if
the flop either fails to improve their hand or appears too dangerous to
proceed given the read they have on their opponents.
One final note: the final tables broadcasted on television are rarely good
learning tools for a new player. They're often short-handed and edited for
time, meaning that the final product rarely resembles a true game of poker.
The best way to get a feel for how the pros play is to watch them live -
either by attending in person or winning a satellite to play against them in
person. One way or another, you're guaranteed to learn a lot - even if one
option is much more appealing than the other.
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