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The final table is what every poker player that enters a tournament wants to reach.
It’s hard work to get there, so whenever you do, you definitely don’t want to go out first. Especially if you know that the real money is in the top 3 places.

So whenever you’re at that precious final table, make sure you play your best poker of the whole tournament.

Depending on what stack you’re having, you’ll have to change your strategy, because you can’t just play anything with a low stack and high blinds. So when your low stacked, it’s probably best to go all in preflop whenever you have cards like AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010 and even 99. Also suited AK, AQ, AJ or non suited AK can be played like this. If you get called, you probably have the highest chance to win the pot. And if you do lose, well to bad, cards are unpredictable. But if you do win, you’ll double up and you’ll have another chance to play some more cards and finish higher. So key play here is very tight!

If you’re mid stacked, you can play a bit more hands than if your stack is low, but you’ll have to be careful whenever you play a hand. Especially against a player with a high stack. They tend to try and scare other players with making big bets, even if they don’t hold anything. So only call those bets if you’re more than 80% sure you can win it. Otherwise it isn’t worth the risk, you can start to play the low stack strategy again before you knew it.
On the other hand, if you’re playing a low stack, you can make some small bets to see how far he’ll follows. Mostly they fold after the flop if they don’t have the highest or 2nd pair. If they didn’t fold on the flop, try again on the turn, but make your bet a bit higher, make sure he won’t get the river card for free. If he still call’s this bet, he’ll probably have a better hand than you, so check on the river if you can as it could cost you more if you don’t.  Only make a bet here if you’re pretty sure you’re holding the best hand.

If you’re high stacked, I feel it’s probably best to first observe how your opponents are playing. Only play top hands at first and let them think you’re playing very tight. An advantage of observing is that some impatience players will go all in after a few hands and hopefully loose, making sure you’ll end up higher than the 9th place. Another strategy is to play against the low stacks. Make big bets, almost pushing them all in preflop. They only call with big hands. And if they don’t call, the blinds will shrink their stack play by play.
After you observed your opponents, you probably recognized their playing style and you can adjust yours to beat them. What I try to do is always stay in the top 3 stacks at the table. Don’t take too much risk, but do call a hand sometimes (if it doesn’t cost too much) even if you know you’re losing, just to know what they’re playing. You can use this info later in the game.
If you came to the river against a low stack, always go all in if you think you’ll have a 60% of winning. If they call and you win, it’s a player less to worry about. If they win, too bad, but it didn’t cost you much. If they don’t call, congratulations, you won another pot.
Playing against mid stack players after the river can be played like this also, but here you’ll probably be 90 to 95% sure you’ll win. This will cost you half your stack if you lose, and we don’t want that.

Before you’ll know it you’ll be playing heads up.

What about you, do you change your strategy once you’re at the final table?

Yesterday PokerStars smashed the previous World Record of the biggest tournament organized.
The previous record was 35000 people, where people had to pay an $11 buy-in to join.
The new record set yesterday had a smashing 65000 people in the tournament. You could join for a buy-in fee of $1, that’s it. Or you could play in a freeroll satellite tournament to get in for free.

I managed to do just that.  I a satellite where 25000 people registered, they awarded 1000 tickets to the World Record attempt. So all you had to do is beat 24000 others, simple as that
Well at the beginning I had 2 bad beats when I got rivered against a straight and a higher pair, but after that I managed to crawl back into the lead slowly. With the blinds getting higher every 3 minutes, I had to push myself all in a couple of times to get some needed chips. But I was wisely enough to only do it when I thought I had a 80% chance of winning the pot. I won my all-in times 100%.
As we got closer and closer to the last 1000, I stopped taking some risks I did take before. Others did the same, at the time I got pocket Aces, I raised to 4 times the big blind, to see everybody folding. I did win the pot, but it wasn’t that much.
Not that long after I ended up in the first 1000 and won my ticket to PokerStars World Record attempt.

So yesterday I started playing against 64999 others hoping to end up high. There was $130000 to be divided over 16250 players. $13000 was for the winner! The smallest price was $2.
After 5 minutes of playing (started out with 2000 chips), I got the big blind and holding 910. With another 2 10’s on the flop I made trips and made a big raise. One guy followed. On the turn I made another big bet, just leaving me 600 chips, to see what he would do. Again he called, leaving him just 100 chips. I went all-in on the river, and saw my trips beaten with a straight he made on the river. Damn I hate those river players! With only 500 chips left, my chances for ending up high where very small. But after 30 minutes of playing I did manage to hang on, but still with a small amount of chips.
One time I went all-in and won, but another player who had lesser chips than me won from me, so in total I just won 100 chips more than what I’ve put into the pot.

After1 hour, the first break came up, I was still in play, but in the last 1000 places of the 40000 people left. Just a few hands after the break, I got pocket 8’s, and made raise. I got re-raised to an all-in, so I called. 88 against AK. With a king on the flop I needed a 3rd 8 to stay in the tournament, but I knew my chance of cashing big was over. The turn gave me nothing and the river dropped me out.
Too bad, If I hadn’t got rivered early in the game, I think I could had a better chance in finishing high.

Anyway, congratulations to PokerStars for the new record, I’m proud I was one of the people that attended the event.

Did you play in the tournament? Won any money? Do you also think they should organize another attempt in a few months?

The last 2 days I played some cash games instead of freeroll tournament.
And I must say it’s paying off.

Yesterday I played about 20 hands of the 50 I’ve gotten. In the first hand I made the highest pair on the table with my king and with a Queen as kicker I was pretty sure I won the pot. So on the river I made a 10 cent bet hoping to get called, but my opponents folded one by one. Winning me 4 cents.

A bit later after that small win I got rivered against a guy holding 3 8 with a set of 3’s against my 2 pair from the flop with 10 J, costing me around 20 cents.

I managed to cut my losses bit by bit and with a Full House on the flop (QQ9, holding Q9) I slow played till the river and then I made a value bet hoping someone would call the Ace on the river for the highest pair.  One player made the call, costing him an extra 8 cents.

After I left the cash game yesterday, I was 24 cents up.

Today I also played in a cash game. I did a $1 buy-in and waited to start playing till the big blind got on my spot, giving me time to observe my opponents.
I quickly managed to see 2 fish at the table. They only raised when having very good odds. And they both folded when having nothing. From the 8 opponents, I thought there’s one guy that knew how to play. The others played on luck.
Example, holding 89 suited with a flush draw on the flop and a pair of nines, I made a good bet. But I got called by a guy who holds 3K. On the turn a 4 of clubs came, not helping me. This time I doubled my initial bet, but again I got called. On the river he paired his king giving me no chance of winning. A very costly game.
With a few other hands like this, I started to see my $1 buy-in shrink to only 20 cents. Then I played 35 suited against one of the fish who made a raise pre-flop. I called. With a 489 flop, I made nothing. But knowing he’s going to fold if he didn’t paired anything, I made a small bet. I also can’t imagine he would make a raise pre-flop holding 89 or 910. My prediction came true, he folded, probably something like QK or AJ.
Almost back at half my buy-in.

The other fish I played similarly, me checking constantly and just calling his bets, earning me even more as I had trips and he 2 pair. On the river I re-raised him to call my all in. He did and I was back where I started.
So at the time I left the table I got back from an 80 cent loss to a 44 cents win. If I didn’t got rivered early in the game, I suppose I could ended up more, but I’m quite happy with the result of today’s play.

Tomorrow I’m taking a day off, got some other more important stuff to do, but Thursday or Friday I’m back at the table

Yesterday I played my first online poker game since I’m back from Italy. That’s almost 3 weeks without playing poker.
It was a $1000 freeroll tournament on PokerStars. About 3500 players signed up, with 360 places paid.

At first I had some bad luck with the flops, holding KK and an Ace flopped. The guy who called my raise made a small bet. The player in front of me re-raised, so I had to throw my pocket Kings away as one of them was holding an ace. The showdown proved me right, both had aces and one of them 2 pair actually.

Sometime later I got QJ suited with QJA on the flop. On my turn I made a bet, about the size of half the pot, hoping someone has an Ace, but no K 10 or 9 10. Two players called. On the turn (5s) I made a pot size bet and my opponents folded gave up their chance to win a nice pot.

I was now playing in the 700 first places with about 2000 players left. I still had to be careful not to lose everything as there were plenty of big stacks at my table.
I then started folding poor hands one by one, the hands I played I usually won, so I was playing very tight. I had to, because the blinds where killing my stack. With the paid places in sight and in early position I folded QQ just to make sure I reached the 360. Again a wise decision, 3 people in the pot, AK suited, 77 and J10. Flop JJ3. Turn a K and on the river a 7 which made the pocket 7 guy a Full House.

In the meanwhile I saw that the player in play with the least amount of chips was 0, so I made it to the 360 paid spots. In my first tournament in 3 weeks time, immediately winning some cash, nice!

Just after that I finished on the 340th place, winning me 70 cents.
I could end up much higher if my pocket Queens (got them 2 times in a row, imagine that), but this time I went all-in, for about 2 times the big blind in total. 3 players called, one holding J9 suited. He won with two pair.

Today I played a $100 freeroll and again ended up in the money. 2300 Players in the tournament, me ending on the 135th place, earning me 13 cents. Not that much, but something

My $100 goal is coming closer and closer now.