As the time I spent with Joe Hachem discussing six-handed tournament strategy went on, two things were impressed upon me. First, everybody’s favorite Aussie is the real deal. The man can play some poker (don’t forget about his WPT win last December). Second, if I had to give a thesis to Joe's strategy, it would let the game come to you.
Here’s the second half of the highlights from our discussion (read Part 1).
5. Take time to figure your table out
Don’t go in saying, “I’m going to raise with this,” or, “I’m going to play this hand this way.” This is especially true in short-handed. You must feel your way through it. Get a feeling of what your table image is. Have they played with you before? Some tables I can sit down and raise every hand and they are expecting me to do it, and they still let me. If I sit down and think these guys are gonna be after me, then I just sit back and chill, picking my spots.
6. Sometimes your cards don’t really matter.
Everything depends on your table. I will make a decision on the spot about a situation. I will decide I’m raising Jeremiah’s big blind this hand. My cards are irrelevant, so why even look at them? I try to play each player individually. If I known you are not coming after me unless you have a hand, I’m stealing from you all day long.
7. Always be ready to pull the trigger
There’s a certain stage in the tournament where playing just small pot poker becomes hard because there’s so much out there. You are always ready to maneuver. In a shorthanded event, you are always ready to pull the trigger. If you are involved in a pot and you feel you have to go for it, go for it.
8. Push hard with AK
In short-handed events I will push a lot harder with AK than in full ring. The chances are even that much smaller of someone having a bigger hand. Again, in the 25-50 level there’s no reason to go broke with top pair; but as the tournament progresses, push hard with it.
9. Play your tightest game after the dinner break.
Play always tightens up when you are close to the bubble, of course. Just before dinner time, play tightens up. Just after dinner time, everyone blows themselves up. They go and have dinner and they think about what they are going to do and they come back and just…blow themselves up. The start of day two people just come in, they’ve thought about it all night, they haven’t slept, “I’m gonna do this, this, and that;” they come in and boom boom boom, you lose a big percentage of the field in the first level. I want to wait and wake up with a big hand so I can get some of the sugar.
That wraps up my conversation with Joe. In my next two posts, I'll let you know how I was able to apply (and completely ignore) Joe's advice through Event #21 at the 2006 WSOP.
On Thursday, I'll let you know how Joe's advice is working for me a year later by updating during the breaks of the $1,500 Six-Handed tournament.
