An
Intertops Poker player that won an online tournament at the popular poker room will be returning to Austria’s most luxurious casino resort this weekend for the €1,000,000
CAPT Velden poker tournament. Intertops’ poker manager will accompany “Christoph” to the €500 event he’s playing on Saturday.
Talking about his approach to tournament play, the Intertops champion said his strategy depends on the buy-in.
“In the early levels I try to get a feeling for the table dynamics and players playing tendencies. I try to keep my chips together for the later stages, where the pots are bigger and making moves is more profitable than in the early stages.”
“If the buy-in is higher, that is exactly the strategy I would
follow. But if it’s lower, I would deviate from it and play more hands
even in the early levels – against better knowledge.”
Last year Christoph almost won the €500 buy-in event in Velden. Even so, he wasn’t entirely happy with his game play.
“There
wasn’t anything that I did particularly good that I liked. Maybe
coming to the final table I realized somebody else tried to be the table
bully so I decided to not mess with him - despite my chip lead - and I
sat back and merely watched players eliminating each other until we were
down to two.”
“But I shouldn’t have called a 3-bet shove
from a tight player close to the final table with AQ, even though that
was a pretty standard play for both him (shoving 12 BBs with AK) and me.
Of course you’re always smarter in hindsight and in a 3-day tournament
you will have to survive situations where you are behind.”
“Honestly,
my tournament hands weren’t spectacular, they were all pretty
straight-forward. But if I had one to brag about it’s this one: Down to 2
tables, out of a stack of 40 BBs, I opened from the middle position
with KsQh, only to be called by the chip leader at that point, who I
observed for some time now. The board comes Ah,9h,7c. Obviously, against
a loose-defending Big Blind, I conti-bet this board and get called. At
this stage I am not too worried because I saw the guy check-raising with
top-pair or better in these situations. The turn is quite fortunate, a
Kh gives me 2nd pair and the nut-flush draw. My opponent thinks for a
long time and checks, I do so too. The river blanks with something like
2d. My opponents bets a bit over pot size, which at this point is quite
meaningful, like half of 2/3 stack. I only have second pair and a flush
is possible. Given the action that lead up to the river, I am rather
certain that in this spot he is more likely to have a busted draw than a
hand that beats me, or at least it is equally likely. For the call to
be correct according to the pot-odds, I’d only need to be ahead 1/3 of
the time. So I called after a minute or two and he mucks his cards and I
was the new chip leader.”
“It wasn’t until the third
player was eliminated that I realized I might win. I usually try to stay
pessimistic because in tournaments it’s all over so quickly and you
might be disappointed if you toss with the idea of winning too soon.
I’ve played so many tournaments – if I’d won half as many as the number
of tournaments where I had a chip lead at some point, I’d be rich!”
“I
like Velden because the competition is superb. The whole event has so
much flair. All kinds of people come to play: pros as well as people on
holiday that just happen to realize there’s a poker tournament. So there
is a good mixture of people and playing skills and the challenge is to
realize who’s who and how to play against each one."
“One
thing I tell people that are new to tournaments: never play at buy-ins
where you feel uncomfortable. I think one thing you can say with
certainty is you’re not playing your best if you can’t afford the
buy-in.”
“Playing online has definitely has helped me a
lot. Even though there are big differences between online and offline
poker, there is no substitute for the experience of many thousands of
online hands, where you play at least 10-20x as many hands in the same
time.“
“I just enjoy playing Poker for fun. At the same
time, I am quite ambitious and always try to improve my game, through
discussions with friends, statistical analysis or reading. I would not
take playing poker to the next level even if I had the chance to do so,
simply because I feel I would lose the joy of playing. Also I feel that I
am playing at my best when I don’t play too much and I don’t disregard
my other hobbies.”
View this online poker news story on YouTube
By
Larry Colcy, The Gamblogger
