Alright, this is just an overall statement and it's something that has been bugging me as I watch/listen to different people critique various plays by various people.


There is only one absolute in Tournament poker: play aggressive.

Say it with me- play aggressive. That's it. That's how you win- and it's also how you lose. However, guaranteed that the person just sitting there waiting for premium cards is losing, everytime.

So, it means making questionable calls and getting lucky at times, it means raising with nothing alot and folding with nothing to a reraise and sometimes if the spot justifys it, you try and take that nothing and turn it into something. This happens more than any of us would like to admit, and we get lucky more than any of us would like to admit.

With the escalating blinds and the fact that many times you may not see that many hands between blinds chances must be taken to win- which makes tourney poker sometimes a complete donk fest, and the one that gets rivered less wins.

It's an exercise in getting lucky and manageing to not get unlucky all at once, which is why I love it more than any type of poker.

Thank you

alright, so you've read a poker book.

Lot's of em. This is more aimed at the unrelenting such and such is a donk threads that are pretty much poorly disguised jealousy from an army of nobodys.

I've also won alot of tournaments.

ASL?

To the OP,

Well said.

maybe, but have you won any POKER tournaments.

HAHAHAH, OWNED ZING WHAMMY!!!

I guess I shouldn't expect much more from camp-o-retard. :-)

retarded answers for retarded posts. "I've won a lot of tournaments."
ooooooooooooooohhhhh, must make you some kind of authority figure. Well, I've had a lot of winning cash game sessions. Guess that means I am a cash game expert.

Seriously, every competent person on this forum knows that playing aggressively is the key to tournaments. DUH...every single winning player plays aggressive in tournaments, that doesn't mean we can't criticize a complete donk play. We don't criticize bad bluffs or potentially bad calls. We criticize calling off most of your chips with A J offsuit when facing a large reraise all in, or for pondering calling a large all-in with KJ, or for calling a bet on the flop with Queen high and only runner runner draws, and then justifying that with the WAY overused cliche, "I was making a play." You can say "I was making a play" about any single call or raise whatsoever, that doesn't mean it is "good, aggressive poker."

Going all in every single hand for an entire tournament would be aggressive, wouldn't it???? Does that make is right???? No. If someone does that, we would criticize their "aggressive" play, wouldn't we???? Yes, and we would be right to do so. There is a difference between good, aggressive play and stupid, reckless, "aggressive" play. That is why we criticize. Hell, why are you so concerned about it anyways, you play your game and don't worry about it.


ZING!

Could you spare us this the annoyance of seeing this in the general forum and put it in "Tournament Play."

Well said. I was going to say the same thing. I think what is needed is controlled agression. You definitely want to be aggressive, but you want to do it at the times where you maximize the efficiency. For instance, being aggressive and bluffing one person off of a hand is smarter than being aggressive and trying to bluff 8 people behind you off of their hands.

--RuffRidr

You actually went and looked for this thread so you could post this nonsense?

Sad life man.

uhhhh, I posted in a thread, you responded, and I responded back....uh..yeah, sad on my part...

also, seems like more people agree with me on your own thread than agree with you...ZING!!! seriously, I don't get the point of your posts at all.
newb.

dear Loismustdie,

i couldnt help but read your post because it seemed related to the thread i responded to about tuan le.

i think your statement is well said.

however i think you shouldnt waste your time responding to members like kowboykoop.

constructive criticism is very productive. however to criticize for the sake of calling someone a donkey or fish or watever other malicious intent is just lacking any class.

imo this problem seems to have escalated with the explosion of online poker. the level of class or just courtesy at online poker rooms is plain disgusting. even in the old days when poker was seen as an unsavory pastime with participants ranging from road gamblers, crooks, theives, pimps, there was an unspoken law governing the conduct at a poker table. im sure u had to worry more about getting robbed after the game. now a days with the online poker explosion, you hardly can find a room where each hand isn't being berated by a player. the conduct and language used is troubling. b&m casinos have implemented rules as to one getting kicked out for disorderly conduct.

although every casino has its problems with irritable players, most of these players are life time loosers. any winning player knows that it is counter productive to inform an idividual of the leaks in his game.

having said that, most of these people on this forum that have a fetish for maliciously criticising other players' plays are for the most part life time loosers. they are fed up with their losses from people who are not playin in line according to them. after all if they were winning players they would only embrace the so called "donkey" plays that they berate so much. or at the very least they wouldnt be so annoyed by it. after all that is precisely what makes this game so lucrative to winning players.

Really? Did Dan Harrington tell you this? :roll:

WOW...and here I am thinking that weak tight play and waiting to get dealt aces was the way to go....

Go figure....


Play aggressive....good poker....who wudda thunk it!!!!!!



BTW...making fun of Donkeys is fun....but you will never catch me berating one.....they are the lifeblood.

But it's fun....and yes.....how can you not be jealous of Tiffany Williamson? LOL!!!

Of course....some of you automatically take her performance to mean that she MUST be better than all of us.

Being aggressive is a very small part of being sucessful tournament player. We run a few card rooms here in town and we have MTTs a couple times a month and STT tourneys throughout the week. I'll be the first to tell you that playing with aggressive players is an easy way to build your stack and they are generally the first to go out and the first to rebuy, and usually the second and third to rebuy as well. There is nothing better than playing with someone who just believes that agression is the only way to win. In no rebuy tournaments, they usually piss away a 200bb starting stack in the first couple of levels unless they get lucky and run into a donkey or someone they can run over.

Great insight, but saying agression is the only way to play is redonkulous in itself.

GREAT POST.

This is at least the best post of the week.

Word of the day - redonkulous

Being aggressive don't matter! You just gots to have a big package in the pants!!

Which explains how Tiffany Williamson made it so far?

By the way, has Gus recovered from his bus accident?

i dont really think playing aggressive has an advantage over conservative. look at harrington, one of the most succesful tourney players ever.

Regardless of your skill, you need luck to win a poker tournament on a given day.

If you want to simplify the key to winning tournaments, it is winning races.

bus accident?

how many posts does it take to become a veteran?

231

BTW...is that kelly clarkson in your avatar?

Obviously its number of posts, and not quality.

I think the real key to tournament play is not pure aggression, nor is it pure conservitism (is that a word?). The big key is changing your style for each unique situation, and observing what each player plays like so as to addapt your style for each individual. I've heard many pros say that a very key skill is the ability to change gears at the right times.