It seems like that, but part of it is those are the only hands they are blogging about. Even so, that's tournament poker this late in the game. Once you get past the first four levels, the blinds move so fast that you have a limited number of plays, especially with a short or moderate stack. You make one bet at a pot and suddenly you are pot committed anyway.
You basically have to pick your spots. The big stacks will wait for the weaklings to do that so they can call and build up (like Rob did with the AK and it backfired). Honestly, that's why the internet players do so well. When you play turbo sit and gos online, it's the same mentality.
Every decent money tournament I've cashed in, I've either built a monster stack early and picked on the weaklings, or been shortstacked and sat there and waited for a monster to double up. The middle is hard, because you make a sensible raise, and suddenly you are facing an all-in bet and those pocket 10s don't look so good anymore.
Right now, the blinds are 15-30,000 with a 5K ante. That's 95K per round if you fold out. Even with $1 million in chips, that's almost 10 percent of your stack. If you don't see a card for an hour, you could lose 30 percent of your stack. And with a minimum raise, you are looking at committing perhaps 20 percent of your chips, and any re-raise might force you all in anyway.
That's what makes this thing so hard. My poker mentor told me before the tournament that to make it to the final table, I'd have to win 30 coin flips. I thought he was exaggerating, but that's probably pretty close.
When I made the final table of the pokerstars million (my biggest score to date), I was all-in six times and won five races. I had the best hand pre-flop in all six, although one was a true race (pocket jacks vs. a-q and I held up). There's more luck involved in that than skill when you get that deep. But you still have to pick your spots and play the percentages.
And A-3 would not be the hand I would choose...
Â
You basically have to pick your spots. The big stacks will wait for the weaklings to do that so they can call and build up (like Rob did with the AK and it backfired). Honestly, that's why the internet players do so well. When you play turbo sit and gos online, it's the same mentality.
Every decent money tournament I've cashed in, I've either built a monster stack early and picked on the weaklings, or been shortstacked and sat there and waited for a monster to double up. The middle is hard, because you make a sensible raise, and suddenly you are facing an all-in bet and those pocket 10s don't look so good anymore.
Right now, the blinds are 15-30,000 with a 5K ante. That's 95K per round if you fold out. Even with $1 million in chips, that's almost 10 percent of your stack. If you don't see a card for an hour, you could lose 30 percent of your stack. And with a minimum raise, you are looking at committing perhaps 20 percent of your chips, and any re-raise might force you all in anyway.
That's what makes this thing so hard. My poker mentor told me before the tournament that to make it to the final table, I'd have to win 30 coin flips. I thought he was exaggerating, but that's probably pretty close.
When I made the final table of the pokerstars million (my biggest score to date), I was all-in six times and won five races. I had the best hand pre-flop in all six, although one was a true race (pocket jacks vs. a-q and I held up). There's more luck involved in that than skill when you get that deep. But you still have to pick your spots and play the percentages.
And A-3 would not be the hand I would choose...
Â
