All right, so unless you are one of the final table participants in the Main Event, the World Series of Poker is over for you.
Did it go well?
Great.
If not, let’s do a postmortem.
I’m going to ask you some questions, and we’ll see if we can figure out why this series did not work out the way you wanted.
Tell me which one of these sounds most like how your tournaments went south.
1. You called too much
Did you find yourself making big hero calls that did not work out?
Did you find that you were doing well in tournaments, only to make one massive call that did not pan out?
This happens to a lot of people.
During the re-entry period of a tournament there are many players gambling, moving all in with ridiculous hands, and generally willing to rumble with you. Calling down a little wider against those players can be a good idea.
However, as players get more time and money invested, and once the re-entry period ends, many of them start taking the game much more seriously.
That is when you start seeing people show up with fewer bluffs than they should.
Most of your opponents cannot triple barrel enough. They cannot overbet often enough. They cannot raise the turn enough. They cannot raise the river enough. They cannot donk lead huge, check-raise huge, or make many other aggressive plays with enough bluffs in their range.
If you have a bluff catcher and you do not have an exact read on your opponent, you often just have to let the hand go.
This is something you need to work on before the next series.
2. You bluffed off your chips
A lot of players are cruising in a tournament, and then they suddenly start assuming someone is picking on them.
The most common spew I see is against 3-bets.
A lot of the time, you do not actually have the implied odds to call out of position with a mediocre hand, despite how often you see players do it on TV when their real results are not public.
Most players are still not 3-betting enough deep in tournaments.
Yes, they might be 3-betting hands like nines or eights more often, whereas earlier in the tournament many players would have just cold called with those hands.
But just because people are slightly more aggressive later in tournaments does not mean they are trying to bully you. It also does not mean they do not have a real hand.
You see players lose their minds all the time because they think someone is going after them. Then they spew off all their chips and give themselves some ridiculous justification afterward.
They say, “That guy was capable of bluffing. I was just unlucky that I ran into a hand.”
No.
Most people are not capable of that many bluffs.
If you get 3-bet three times, nine times out of ten, it just means someone picked up three different hands.
The problem is that many players do not want to fold in these confrontations because they feel like they are getting bullied. That makes them feel bad about themselves. Spewing their chips at least makes them feel like they gave themselves a chance.
This also happens a lot when someone is playing against a calling station and running terribly against them.
They get angry and entitled because this basic strategy is working against them. The guy just stares at the board, looks confused, and calls every single time.
But if the guy is really not folding, that means you need to adjust.
When you have top pair third kicker, start overbetting. If you have anything short of that, shut down.
It is extremely boring.
But if you were busting yourself in multiple tournaments trying to force something that was not there, that is something you need to confront before next year’s World Series.
3. You never gave yourself a chance to win
Did you never open up your game?
Did every potential three-bet become a cold call?
Did every potential early-position preflop raise turn into a fold?
Did every potential double barrel turn into a check?
Did every potential overbet turn into a smaller bet?
Did every potential hero shove turn into a fold?
If so, you were probably honorably trying to play your best, most disciplined poker. But that is not enough in modern tournament poker.
People have more game now. You need to get outside of your tight-aggressive shell. If you felt like you were not playing your normal game because you were 'at the show' then what you were likely doing was nursing your chips in every tournament.
That leads to hours and hours of worthless poker, only to bust unceremoniously by barely getting into the money or busting right before the money.
You never had chips deep.
You never had room to maneuver.
You never got to actually play real poker.
Not only is that a recipe for not making money, it is also a recipe for exhausting yourself before you ever make a real run.
Real champions go down in a blaze of glory at the beginning of the tournament, right before the bubble, and right before the final table. You need to embrace more aggression in the future.
I hope these tips are beneficial to you and your game.
Wishing you the best of luck on the felt.
Alex Fitzgerald is a best-selling author published by D&B Poker. Check out Alex’s most recent book, ‘How to Beat Players Who Never Fold.’
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