Interview on Cardplayer by Shaun Patrick Green,

Thoughts?

SPG: Basically, you have to tighten way up in many of the WSOP prelim events in the early stages, then?

TD: Not necessarily; you should still take flops with people, because they will play really badly and make huge mistakes post-flop, but you have to be conscious of your stack size and what it allows. Everything — and I mean f---ing everything — in tournaments is dependant on stack size; it is clearly the most important concept. And, for some reason, it is still one concept that many otherwise successful players are awful with.

SPG: In what way are successful players sometimes awful in stack-size situations?

TD: Like, you see guys calling off huge chunks of their stacks preflop with no plan post-flop and guys making atrocious preflop plays. Here’s a great example: when Phil Hellmuth raised and then folded with K-6 offsuit with a 6.5 big-blind stack with 10 players left in a WSOP event. I mean, we all know Phil crushes tournaments, but just think about what he could do if he cleaned up incredibly obvious leaks like that one. Phil is nowhere near the only one; there is just an endless supply of guys who don’t get how important the stack-size thing is.

SPG: So......

Sooo...yeah, he has 11 bracelets and huge endorsements, wanna fight about it?

I am nowhere near the player that Hellmuth is, but I can tell you that if you have 6.5 BBs, raise/fold is not generally a good option. You would have to know your opponent had KK+.

It's perfectly possible to learn something from a player who is not your equal. It is perfectly possible for a player of lesser ability to be correct about a leak in a better player's game.

Bond18 happens to be very good with stack sizes, as it's a strength of his. His comments are spot on, and I can tell you that, fully knowing that I'm not the player either of them are.

Bond18 on Stack Sizes <<this thing is a beauty that it's worth a read.

well said Bond. Hopefully they won't listen to you

14bbs with AJ good stack mgmt?

pokerstars Game #17808468240: Tournament #89516776, $150+$12 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (200/400) - 2008/05/30 - 23:27:06 (ET)
Table '89516776 68' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: MarkFSU1 (5789 in chips)
Seat 2: boogavich (21675 in chips)
Seat 3: -R-SoX-15 (13095 in chips)
Seat 4: KM-6 (12414 in chips)
Seat 5: ael1979 (8904 in chips)
Seat 6: Bond18 (5506 in chips)
Seat 7: davidgti (8906 in chips)
Seat 8: Crawfdad (5540 in chips)
Seat 9: magicdave2 (14132 in chips)
MarkFSU1: posts the ante 50
boogavich: posts the ante 50
-R-SoX-15: posts the ante 50
KM-6: posts the ante 50
ael1979: posts the ante 50
Bond18: posts the ante 50
davidgti: posts the ante 50
Crawfdad: posts the ante 50
magicdave2: posts the ante 50
boogavich: posts small blind 200
-R-SoX-15: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MarkFSU1 [As Ks]
KM-6: folds
ael1979: folds
Bond18: raises 700 to 1100
davidgti: folds
Crawfdad: folds
magicdave2: folds
MarkFSU1: raises 4639 to 5739 and is all-in
boogavich: folds
-R-SoX-15: folds
Bond18: calls 4356 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (283) returned to MarkFSU1
*** FLOP *** [Td 9d Kc]
ael1979 said, "hehe"
*** TURN *** [Td 9d Kc] [7s]
MarkFSU1 said, "nice call bond"
*** RIVER *** [Td 9d Kc 7s] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Bond18: shows [Jd Ad] (a pair of Aces)
MarkFSU1: shows [As Ks] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
MarkFSU1 collected 11962 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 11962 | Rake 0
Board [Td 9d Kc 7s Ac]
Seat 1: MarkFSU1 (button) showed [As Ks] and won (11962) with two pair, Aces and Kings
Seat 2: boogavich (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: -R-SoX-15 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: KM-6 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: ael1979 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Bond18 showed [Jd Ad] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 7: davidgti folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Crawfdad folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: magicdave2 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

 

Originally Posted by MarkFSU1

MarkFSU1 said, "nice call bond"

You are a classless douche imo.

how do u play ajs there? open fold raise/fold or shove?

 

Originally Posted by MarkFSU1

im classless but hes callin out, as far as bracelets go, the greatest player to have played this game...

How is he calling hellmuth out? This is an obv leak to anyone who has studied this game and it is a valid point. Until he asks hellmuth to HU4ROLLZ lets just assume this is an honest criticism of the way many live players play.

^^^

 

Originally Posted by MarkFSU1

All i am sayin is the after the reraise its clear he is way behind. Maybe Phil Helmuth just values his tourney life, and when somebody reraises his raise here he KNOWS he is behind and he will fold.

so what? The mathematics of the game dictate that calling is the only option at that point. You can't outplay people with 3xbb and even if you double up you are right back at 6xbb and have to double up yet again. Obviously hellmuth gets AA 2 hands later and it holds up so he continues to think that this was a great fold on his part when it is clear as day that it was the wrong decision unless we as a community want to embrace results oriented thinking.

 

Originally Posted by MarkFSU1

14bbs with AJ good stack mgmt?

with your stack, if you are only shoving hands that have AJ beat, you are shoving way too light...

and your comment is unnecessary and pretty classless considering he said nothing during the hand... seems out of character for you

i will admit i shouldnt have made the comment, sometimes i play kind of angry or with a "chip", its just how i play and i will admit sometimes i say things out of line and things i shouldnt, its nothing personal to the person, just me venting

bond > mark

 

Originally Posted by joshinho

Yeah Waco- its sad I can't post it the way I want without getting 'censored'. You probably ratted out the thread. In fact- come to think of it, I bet there's plenty of posts flaming you (there are a lot of them) that are deleted to protect you from people stating glaringly obvious flaws in you online persona! You are so important aren't you.

Hmmmm P5's conspiracy?

you are a little on the strange side, huh?

 

Originally Posted by Arobinson11

Im not really sure how Bond criticizing Helmuths play in an interview is more classy than Markfsu making a sarcastic remark in a CHAT BOX.

Maybe Bond should have left Hellmuth's name out of it and just used the hand as an example. Bond's interview was at least constructive, making a sarcastic remark in a chat box is not.