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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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