Competing Against Big Name Players in Live Poker Tournaments

Fox · March 25, 2010

Even the best of the best make mistakes. They are fallible and they are flawed and most importantly, they are beatable. If you are going to play a large buy-in tournament any time soon, read on and learn how to treat the Stars as equals. I knew they were human after playing cash games with so many of them online, but I was still a little intimidated by some of the big names in live tournaments. I no longer have that problem. Day 1A of the Shooting Star event on the World Poker Tour cured me of any fears I had about playing with big names.

After the nightmare of Day 1A, I can't imagine I'll be intimidated by anyone at the tables in the future. For most of the day, our table included:

Gavin Smith – Very aggressive pro seated two to my left. Not a good start.

Steve Brecher – To Gavin's immediate left. Last year's Shooting Star winner. Very nice guy.

Mike Matusow – The Mouth needs no introduction. Dude can play.

Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson – Game theory expert, WSOP Main Event winner, un-tilt-able poker machine.

We also had Gavin Griffin at the table for awhile, and there just aren't that many seats left for weak players with so many sharks at the table. A number of people stopped by the table to offer their condolences, and Mike Matusow even offered tournament director Matt Savage a $5,000 chip from the Venetian to break our table. He was joking… mostly. Day 1A was the toughest poker I have ever played, and the hardest I have ever worked during a day of poker.

The best way to deal with a spot where you are uncomfortable at a table is to play tight for a little while and sit back and watch. I've read advice from Mike Caro, Annie Duke, and Dan Harrington advocating caution when you first arrive at a new table, and that advice served me well. I spent the first hour or two playing very few hands and studying my opponents. I leaned back in my chair and watched them, looking for tells, trying to spot weakness, and getting a feel for who they were.

My patience paid off when I saw that they weren't dominating the table or destroying opponents at will. The big names were playing tight and solid poker like everyone else, and if they didn't catch any hands they weren't going to be able to do anything. They are at the mercy of the cards just like the rest of us.

The first thing I discovered was that the notoriously aggressive Gavin Smith wasn't going to be 3-betting every pre-flop raise. In fact, he didn't three-bet once during the first hour. And Steve Brecher only played one hand during the first hour. With these two on my left I was actually able to steal the blinds a few times, and three-bet an aggressive player to my right a few times, taking down the pots without seeing a flop. Just being able to rake a few pots without a contest took down the stress level a little bit.

It wasn't long before Matusow and Ferguson were moved to the table and seeing how unhappy they were about the table made it a little easier. Neither of them tried to take over the table, and seeing everyone slow down and feel out the table when they arrived was a good sign that they were taking the same approach I had used to start the day.

It's also a big help to do your homework and know that your game is solid. Learning at the tables is fine, and we all learn from experience, but you'll learn more from your first big live tournament experience if your basic strategy is already solid. Playing tournaments online is a big help in learning basic strategy, and playing some live tournaments is important to help you get comfortable with the live playing environment.

If you go in to a tournament with a solid understanding of what the correct plays are, it's easier to make them even under stress. If you read Kill Everyone and both volumes of Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time, you can develop a strong foundation and really know that you are making the right play instead of suspecting or hoping. You won't doubt yourself if you are certain what the correct play is. If you aren't sure about a play it's too easy to doubt yourself. This is doubly true when you are facing a re-raise from a player you have only seen on TV. Do your homework so that you know the right play in most spots and make the game as easy for yourself.

It's also important not to let yourself be drawn in to too much conversation. I love to talk, and many of the pros are the same way, but if I spend all day talking to them I won't be able to watch the table and learn about my opponents. The big name pros are already comfortable in this environment. Until you are comfortable it's best to spend more time paying attention and less time talking. If it's important for you to befriend these guys you might as well be a member of their fan club and save yourself ten grand because you aren't going to make the money if you spend the whole tournament trying to chat with the pros and handing them chips.

I won't name any names, but I saw significant mistakes from a number of big names over the course of the tournament that ensured I will never be intimidated by them again. I saw one pro call with a weak hand against a semi-short stack that was an obvious mathematical mistake. Another pro had a significant tell that I was able to exploit to re-steal from him when I really needed chips. Mistakes in strategy were common among the pros I played with over the course of nearly 20 hours of poker, and I even saw a lesser known pro tighten up on the bubble with obvious concern for the minimum payout when he should have been attacking a tight table.

Knowing that the pros make the same mistakes we all make on occasion is the best way to handle playing with them. If you are a strong player then you are chopping up the weak players chips with the pros instead of losing your chips to them. And there were weak players, even in a very tough field like the Shooting Star where we had 40 serious pros playing as bounties in a field of only 331.

By the end of the first day Smith, Griffin and Ferguson had been busted, Brecher was short stacked, and Matusow was mad at me. And somehow I was the table chip leader. It was a lot of work, but with a combination of good play and a few good hands, I made the money. With 28 players left, knowing that one of us was going to win $880k, the hardest thing I dealt with in the tournament was leaving with a miserable $17,600. Next time I'll be playing even better and I'll start the tournament with the knowledge that I can play with these guys. Any of them.

I'll see you at the final table,
Chris 'Fox' Wallace

P.S. Join me at the tables by downloading the Poker Pros Network.

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