Overview

I’m down

some prolific posters on the old official board but probably just a couple casual posters here. Here is the link to the group.

I'm interested

Anyone here we would recognize?

We run an online home game tourney every friday. Some dudes from the old bills message board sim league mostly. We usually get 7-15. Play on pokerstars home games. Usually 30 beans(venmo) with a super deep stack. Always looking for more people. If anyone is interested let me know and i will post the deets to join. There is a game tonight at 830 est.

You want cash advice Tournament strategy is a different game

@SDS One more point: Position was a major and primary factor here. 53o one spot before the button is late position. Only the button (if he calls) would have position on him. If only the SB or BB calls, or both, Gus has position moving forward. And position is what wins you the most money over time. Being able to make decisions last with the most amount of information by being last to act is the most valuable position in poker. Gus would not ever try and steal blinds here if he was UTG (under the gun, first player to the left of the button who acts first) or in early position with 53o at a full table. He has to get through most or all the players without a call and will be highly likely be out of position every street after if he is called as the only people he has a chance to have position on are the blinds if either of them were the only ones to call.

@SDS One more note: Gus is like I said, hyper-aggressive...very talented but still very aggressive. This makes him seem reckless to a lot of lesser players. But just because he is capable of playing anything at any time if he sees an opportunity to isolate a weaker player, it doesn't make him easy to beat. When at a cash game, you will see players who play anything, have a hard time folding, etc. That doesn't make them a talented or dangerous player, even if they are having a big night. Cards are cards, they can hit anyone on any given night and I have seen terrible players make horrible call after horrible call and keep winning. Most nights they would lose big because of this. So don't be fooled by a super loose player who is sticky and never folds as if they are suddenly a Gus Hansen clone. Those are the players I try and isolate because I know I can get paid on my strong holdings because they will keep calling me. I do have to pay attention to board texture against them, like say river brings a 4th card to a flush and this person called my set all the way down. They are fully capable of still just having a top pair weak kicker for example even then, but also, they could have a weak flush now too and just got lucky. But players like Gus, they are sticky, meaning they are hard to make go away, not because they are weak, but because they know if certain cards come they will give him the chance to bluff his weaker opponents out on 4th or 5th street. This 53o is an example of a hand he could do that with too. Lets say Gus misses the flop, but he continuation bets anyway and gets called. The turn brings an inside straight draw. This is a terrible hand to "draw" to going into the river with only 4 outs to come. You will never be getting the right pot odds here to make this the right call on just the purpose of making your hand. But lets say the board texture now is a bit scary, the right card comes on the river and he could bluff his opponent off a solid hand. Or maybe the turn card was already that scary card. Gus can again aggressively lead out here again and put pressure on his opponent solely on his read of the player, his position, tournament stage, his reputation, etc. Maybe there is a 9-8-2-A board now. Gus can easily have 2 pair, set, flush draw or a straight draw here based on what he can open raise with. Sure Gus has an inside straight draw with 53o to make the best hand, but the pot odds are terrible to be the correct call just on trying to make the hand. However, if he put his opponent on something like 10-9, that Ace is already a scare card to his opponent. And maybe the flop brought a flush draw too, Gus will also know a river 3rd card to flush would also be a bluff card along with any card that makes the 9-8 into a finished straight as Gus can easily be sitting on J10, 78, etc too. Or already have 2 pair with 98 or a set. If you are Gus though, what you don't do is make these kinds of plays against STICKY players who don't fold a lot (regardless if its because they are talented or weak). You can't push out a player who doesn't fold. That is the MISTAKE people make most often when looking at making moves. They don't take into consideration who is in the hand, their hand history enough, and ESPECIALLY what your table image likely is to everyone else based on how you have played and what you have showed. So just again, more insight on Gus table image and his read at the table and who he is playing. He knows enough that he realizes they are not likely going to be "sticky" in this situation and only likely call or raise with strong holdings. So the chances of him picking up blinds is strong from late position. Same goes for hands with flops, turns, and rivers. Too often people keep checking it down just to lose to a hand they would have folded had someone bet. Thats a mistake 100% of the time, because your stack got smaller when it should have gotten bigger, and in a tournament with rising blinds and antes this is costly mistake. And it wont always work, someone may call you still with Ace high and win, or bottom pair. But it doesn't have to work 100% of the time to be profitable overall.

@SDS This is a great one to examine. First, for future reference when you send me problems/questions, whats your experience level? Have you played both cash and tournaments? And if you have played a tournament, have you ever played a larger tournament like at a casino or are they just small ones in a home game with friends? Now to the hands you posted. In a cash game, your blinds are permanently fixed, they never go up and never include antes either. That means you can see many rounds at the table without negatively impacting your stack, or get "blinded out" by the blinds. In a tournament, ONLY the early rounds of the tournament have smaller blinds like this as they increasingly and aggressively increase throughout the tournament. For example, lets say you play a tournament with 3000 in starting chips. Blinds say start at 10/20. Well, the blind structure in that first round and first couple rounds represents a small amount compared to your chip size, so if you don't get any cards and just fold, you aren't doing too much damage. But each round those double and increase. After not too long, the blinds will be 100/200 each round. Lets say you have barely played and only picked up a couple of small pots along the way until then and still are at 3000 in chips at the point. That means each time the button goes around the table (where you play one SB and one BB hand) you will lose 300 chips, which at that time represents 10% of your stack the first time, now 300 of your remaining 2700 represents over 11% of your stack, and so on. Plus, the round after that, the blinds will increase again, probably to 150/300 or 200/400 or will just add an ante EACH HAND. So now, those blinds will be a massive part of your hand. So if you are not increasing your chip stack aggressively, you will be blinded out to nothing. Weak tournament players will be scared to play when their stack gets small unless they get at least a solid starting hand too often and will keep folding. Lets say the blinds are at 200/400 and they kept folding hands like A2s, 67s, QJo, etc waiting for a more premium hand. Now they pick up JJ and go all in, but ONLY have 700 in chips left. That means if they get called by someone, and still win, they still have a tiny stack left and are in danger in being blinded out soon again. This is the difference with Cash vs Tournament. If you are too passive in tournament, you can see the blinds and antes substantially dwindle your chip stack to where you quickly get below 10 BB left, and once you are there, you can't play poker any more and are just in an ALL IN or nothing position. Table dynamics: Now on to Gus. Don't know how much you know about Gus Hansen before this book, but his reputation is that he is very talented, dangerous, hyper-aggressive and high stakes poker player. He can be holding anything at any time, so its hard to play with him because not only is his opening range of hands wide (because he will play position, the player, and situation more than he will play his cards in these moments), but he also plays them aggressively when he is in a pot. So people sitting at that table know if they get into a hand with him, he is not likely to let off the gas regardless if he hits the flop or not, and you won't be able to know if he did, because even rags can hit his holdings big because of how wide of a range of hands he will play compared to most players. Tom Dwan is another player like this. Second, as Gus stated, they are a day away from making the money cutoff. Large scale tournaments with big buy ins and large prizes like this are multi-day tournaments because the field is so big. As the cutoff gets closer to finishing "in the money" a lot of players will tighten up and play less hands to survive into the money. This tourney was probably a $10,000 buy in tourney and the money cutoff is probably $20k. So as people get close to that, they tend to play to survive more than they do to play to "win" the tournament because the money is a big deal to them. Third, on this particular table, the chip stacks are not all that big, this table of the tournament doesn't have a lot of chips on it, so that again lends to these players likely tightening up more because they can't afford to get into many pricey pots and still easily suruvive to the money cut off. Putting it all together: So what you have here, is a talented and experienced player with a what less skilled players see as a reckless image, making him dangerously expensive to play back at without a premium holding. Gus recognizes that, so when he is in later positions and everyone has folded to him, he has a very strong chance to steal the rather sizable blinds here. He is getting 4:1 odds, all this has to do is work one out of 3 times to be profitable, and the reality is, the odds are much greater that he will successfully steal here at a rate better than that given what we know about the: Chip stacks, tournament stage, his table image, and the reads he has on the players at that table. Gus is not playing his "cards" here, he is playing the situation when he is one off the button with 53o. His opening of the hand at that moment means he only needs to get through 3 remaining players who are likely going to avoid playing back at him without a premium holding. Again, this is a flat out steal attempt to pickup some blinds. And if someone calls him, he can still hit a flop that plays well and comfortable for Gus as he is comfortable playing hands like that post flop. Lets say he gets called by AQo but the flop comes 9-5-2. Gus is going to feel really good about his hand there and not be afraid to play it strongly. Now his opponent isn't going to be able rule out Gus has no part of that because he is capable of opening pre flop with a much wider range of hands than any other player at that table. He could have 9-7s, 5-8s, 67o, etc. Gus could pick that pot up right there as well. And if Gus was to get re-raised, he probably folds that 53o unless he has a good read on that player and sniffs out that he was bluffing and decided to 4 bet him pre-flop, something else Gus is capable of even with a weak hand. And honestly, if you are going to play a pot with a player like Gus in a situation just like this one in this example, your better play is to re-raise him pre-flop and see how strong his hand is or fold. I probably never smooth call here unless I just have a drawing hand I love but don't want to play a big pot with. Like say 78s or something. And as you can see in his chip total, in 3 hands he added about 4K in chips picking up the blinds and antes uncontested, which at this stage is another 10 BB worth of chips. That is significant in a tournament with ever increasing blind and ante structure.

@Alphadawg7 ok, betting money on a 53o? I don’t know what’s going on here.

So in a "public club" there's no "membership?" I'll just need to remember that this is here lol

One of my favorite books. And this hand spurred a great convo and as we discussed, the outs and cards to come were accurate and correct in the book.

Nothing really to add, just seeing if this has a need.