Having just arrived in Vegas, I was curious to hear first-hand about the overall quality of play in this year’s series. Over the past couple of years, there was general agreement that tournament poker attracted the world’s lunatics and the mentally impaired. Every decent player and reporter had a story of some berzerko blasting off a healthy stack for no apparent reason. Newbies overvalued every marginally playable hand, going broke quickly and without any meaningful understanding of why they ended up on the rail. Of course, the occasional nut-job would make it deep in an event. A few actually won bracelets. And that’s about what you’d expect—a very aggressive/loose player can force a lot of folds and/or get lucky. Enough goes right and a near-mindless pot-pounder can nab a fancy piece of jewelry and a six-figure payday.
A few months ago, I started hearing that the type of play was starting to shift. Crazy-aggressive play was on the way out. On the way in were a breed of players who’d learned a thing or two about the game of no-limit hold ‘em. The sad thing for these guys is that that they’d learned just enough to have no chance for a big score.
These new guys have done some reading. I’d guess that most have schooled themselves in the ways of tight play by taking in Sklansky and Harrington. They know to be wary of A-Q, and to abandon all but the very best hands from early position. They’re not necessarily willing to go broke on top pair.
Often these players are completely indistinguishable form hunks of granite. When cards aren’t coming their way and flops miss their Ace-bigs, they are without any means of accumulating chips. They surrender hand after hand after hand; their stacks rarely climbing above average. They become largely if not entirely reliant on cold decks (KK vs QQ, e.g.,) to stay in the running.
While these players wait for their big pairs and TP/TKs, they become easy prey for the more active/experienced players around them. I’ve heard various pros describe strategies that have worked brilliantly this year. One described a play where he’ll defend his big blind with a call with almost any two cards then bet out one-third of the pot on about any flop. Apparently this scary-weak move forces more folds than one would have thought possible.
Others, like Gavin Smith or Erick Lindgren, will call in position with a ton of hands, subjecting their opponents to a variety of calls, bets and raises. They lose chips on some hands, but more often then not, they chop and fineness their way to substantial net gains.
I’ve seen a lot of the same in the side games. Many buy is short and most seem to have no gamble in them at all. An adventurous player can get a way with murder—stealing small pot after small pot—and occasionally winning a big one when a nailing a flop.
Every player I’ve spoken with has said how much easier it is to play against the new breed. A maniac is by his very nature unpredictable, and they inevitable cause some tough decisions. These new guys create almost no difficulties at all.
So I guess the question is this: How can these weak-tight players expand their abilities? I can offer advice that I once got from Mr. Lindgren.
“Play more pots,” he told me. Drop to a lower limit than you currently play (much lower, if it makes you comfortable), and play all kinds of hands in all kinds of positions. Find ways to make the hands work.
Find a way to win without Aces. It’s not only profitable, it’s also a hell of a lot more fun then sitting on your hands waiting for the deck to smack you in the head.
