Learned To Run But Need To Remind Myself How To Walk

There is a bar near me, that every Sunday evening holds a game of no limit hold 'em. It's a small stakes shootout tournament, five pounds (about $7.25) which attracts a few good players that I know, but is filled mainly by people that don't know how to play. They know the hand rankings, and they know how to go all in, but that's it.

I see this game as a good bit of practice for basic 101 tournament poker. I struggled with this game for a while, as I couldn't make people fold their bottom pair on the flop, and I couldn't price them out on their draws. I think last year that although this is the easiest game I probably will ever play, I still lost money from the ten or so games that I played.

The thought came to me the other day exactly how to play this game. If people don't know how to play then there is no point trying fancy moves against them.

This Sunday I noticed that none of them would throw away an ace. I remember someone calling a raise pre-flop on a hand I wasn't involved with. The flop came down as three suited connectors so there was straight possibilities as well as a flush on, but the gentleman kept calling reasonably high bets. At the showdown he turned over his Ace 9 and thought he was in good shape (he paired his ace on the river) but the other player had a straight which he hit on the flop. I noticed people holding on with their aces or small pocket pairs all night.

Normally with a dangerous board I bet out at it. Or if I sense weakness I'll bet because a reasonably good player will fold to a bet if they miss the flop completely. They would look at the board and know what roughly the odds of hitting a good hand on the turn or the river are and play accordingly. A bad player doesn't though and that's the point I am making. I have to play bad players completely differently.

I need to tighten up my starting range against a bad player that will call all the way down to the river with a draw or small pair. I need to assume before I even call or raise the blinds, that we are going all the way no matter what cards come down. I need to play the board and the cards more with this type of player, and most importantly I need to stop trying to out play someone who can't be pushed off the pot.

I want to win this Sunday night tournaments regularly because, well, I should be winning them. I have a massive edge over these players. But I also have a very keen interest in getting back to learning basic poker, because I am told that at most events at the World Series, the tables are full of players like this.

I'll employ my basic 101 tournament poker strategy at this weekly game and report back to you.