Patience is a virtue !!

In the world of poker, especially playing freeze out tournaments, patience is a virtue!  Its something not a lot of poker players practice but the successful ones know it is an essential part of their game !

I want to give you a few examples where patience will give you the opportunity to be successful but will first start with my poker genesis so you know where I’m coming from.

Like many I played some poker in high school and college with ‘the boys’.

Nothing special, different games, we made a night of it and had some fun.  This was the mid to late 90’s and poker hadn’t exploded into the juggernaut it is today.  I  became interested when Chris Moneymaker won the world series and , like many, said “hmmm … maybe I can make some money playing poker.”

I started playing online and reading poker books and strategy.  Sit n go freeze out no limit holdem tournaments and mtt’s(multi table tournaments) quickly became my game of choice.  I started playing and had some early success.  I also started keeping some notes as to my profit, percentage of cashes etc …  Each year since 2005 I have increased my profit from playing poker.  No where near the kind of money to quit my day job(yet!!) but its moving in the right direction !

Patience and Discipline

I read and learned early on that 2 things, above all else, are required to succeed in the poker world, especially in the type of game I was playing.  They are patience and discipline.  You know, I hear a lot from friends and people in general that they tried being patient in a tournament and it just didn’t work.

As I am sure a lot of you have heard, you must judge your results over a period of time and not a tournament, a day or a week.  Poker is a game that has twists and turns, up’s and downs and cannot be judged over a short period of time.  My response to my friends and to you is that poker is like baseball.

If a baseball player hits or walks one third of the time he is at the plate, he is considered a very successful player.  He FAILS two thirds of the time he is at the plate and is a success !  In poker can you imagine winning one third of all the tournaments you play !!  Wow, that would make you thee most successful player around.  Its not easy to practice patience and discipline, but it MUST be done in order to have long term success.

Lets take a look at some examples where these traits are lacking and how it effects your game.  I’m sure you all have started many tournaments and low and behold you have 2(or more) people all in on the 1st hand.  This always amazes me !  Only once have I called an all in on the 1st hand and it was because I had aces.  In my opinion you should only be calling with aces or kings.  If I had queens I would look to see if I had notes on this person and then make a decision(usually fold). By the way, the one time I called, the other person had K 9 suited ?

So this is where it starts, the 1st hand of a tournament.  Unless I get premium hands in the early stages, I like to sit back and watch the action and see who’s playing what.  I like the action of playing a hand as much as anyone.  Its almost like a drug sometimes isn’t it!!  I will admit I don’t adhere to this practice 100%.  Once and awhile I will play a less than premium hand when the right conditions are present.  Everyone has their favorite junk hand to play, mine is 9 10(or 89) suited.  I am an advocate of playing a hand with junk in the early stages, if, certain conditions are met.  You must be on the button or in the cutoff position.  Everyone has also folded to you.  A bonus would be if you had notes on any of the players yet to act.  In the early stages, I might do this once.

Lets take a look at another example.  I believe that during a tournament you will fold the best hand sometimes.  I was in a 2 table 20 player tournament and we were down to 8 players.  I had 2100 in chips and my opponent in this hand had 750. I had A9 unsuited.  I was small blind and he big.  The table folded to us and I called.  The flop came, 9s 6s 2h.  Now, I had notes on this guy that said, “loose, will bet on draws”.  I bet out 100 and he thought for a moment and went all in and I folded.  He showed 8s4s.  I knew I had him but why take the risk when your getting close to the bubble.  He, incidently finished 7th and I finished 3rd.

You have to practice patience and discipline when playing a freeze out tournament.  In some tournaments you may only play a couple of hands in the early and middle stages and you may play quite a few more.  That’s poker!  It might not work all the time but I’m living proof it does work in the long run.