[Captn_All_In]

Thats the way to be decisive Wooderson......

hehe j/k I am the same way. Keep playin people who are playin cards.

[boondocker96]

Poker is indeed a game of high thrill levels, but also one of serious heart break.
It seems to me that busting out right before the money is in no way unavoidable. If you play the game with any kind of regularity, its bound to happen. Sure there are ways to minimize the number of times that it happens, but there is no sure fire way of preventing it.
I will say however that if your playing to win, instead of just place in the $$, you are much more likely to get cracked off. Thats been my experience anyway. I tend to play for the win late in tourneys, instead of being content to take home some dough, and have been busted out by some serious bad beats four weeks in a row at my weekly tourney. Will I change my approach? Probably not. Bragging right (for finishing 1st) seem to take priority I guess, but I am young, so maybe as I age, money will win out over ego.

[vrecksler]

Since I only play in home games I play to win, so if others tighten up I will play more loose in order to win. That has caused me to miss out on the money in the past, but with so little money up for grabs compared to a real tournament it is not that big a deal to me. However, if we are talking a real event with serious cash, I would tighten up if I was a medium stack and let the smaller stacks play desperate.

[zeig]

Originally Posted by Murf

Just looking for comments on this one. What is your opinion on playing when its 5-10 to the money, and you are middle stack? Tighten up and hang on, play normal, try and pick up blinds from players scared of finishing on the bubble?

If you are middle stack (average) - then there is no need to tightem up. This would be the time to attack the smaller stacks. If you play to "just make the money" - then that is what you will do many times. It is better to cash deep once - than hit the 1st tier of payouts 4 times.

[dad604]

Hey zeig, I see you found this site. Welcome.

I know we are going to get some wonderful input from you and you are going to learn a hell about quality chips here. I forgot to have you join with an invite thru me as that will me some chips but no big deal.

[w16227]

Originally Posted by dad604

Hey zeig, I see you found this site. Welcome.

I know we are going to get some wonderful input from you and you are going to learn a hell about quality chips here. I forgot to have you join with an invite thru me as that will me some chips but no big deal.

Hi Dad -

I listed you in my "referral" box - so you may still get some. If I knew that you needed an email referral - I wouyld have waited. Oh well.

I do not know if you steering me here will be a good thing - I saw the new group buy and will probably be in (for .50 a chip? man that is a great deal). My wife will just have to deal with the images . At least I have them paid for with my pacific earnings (man, I just love the 3/6 HE tables now).

I do not know if you read my vegas report on p-hub - but we had a lot of fun. I will probably re-post them here soon (after I complete the last day). It will be nice to actually have more than 5 people read them, lol.

[Brewster]

I tend to try and steal a few blinds if I can otherwise I try to avoid mistakes that could bounce me out of the tourny.

That said, I couldn't give my chips away fast enough this past weekend. Too timid when I had something good and too aggressive with nothing in my hand. I guess I have some things to work on for next week.

[yeltzen]

I'm glad to see 72% of the ChipTalk members in this poll think so highly of themselves! Pretty amusing considering what I saw in the final table last week.
I almost always tighten up a lot, but it depends on the table I'm at. The way I play, I'm rarely ever one of the big stacks in the tournament, so I'm not going to run around trying to steal blinds (especially if they're big) off of people with a ton of chips. I may try one steal every 10 hands if the table is playing pretty tight. If it's playing aggressively preflop, I won't bother. I'll see if I get a decent hand and try to catch someone stealing. Don't worry, though, I'm going to the new Dan Harrington poker school next month so he'll straighten me out.

[99%evil]

I like to play normal, unless the table is 5 players or less, if there's still a good number of folks on the table I play normal. No sense in getting aggressive with that many possibilities of actually going up against a real hand. I recently was in a FPP satellite on PS there was 300-400 people in and top 2 get seats to next qualifier (which was to get the actual seat at the main event) I came in fourth... I was 3rd in chips and in 3rd position, I get dealt pocket 5's and go all in to try and capture at least the blinds and possibly double up, unfortunately one of the blinds hit pocket aces...

[PhilTheThrill14]

I usually try to pick up the pace and be more aggressive - but I will also be very aware of the other players and what is going on at the table. If you see people playing tight then attack - if they are willing to gamble it up, then you have to stay somewhat tight and wait. But I really do try to remind myself that it's time to turn up the heat and put the pressure on. Someone's gonna get the shortstack's chips - might as well be me!